THE ZING FLING

A boy gets transported to an absurdist world, where the mishap-prone hero must solve the abduction of a prominent healer.

Suberla’s middle-grade fantasy introduces schoolboy Joey Rheelat, whose life seems defined by good intentions gone awry (as when he used oven cleaner on the kitchen floor and melted it). Joey’s father died tragically, and the kid has a problematic relationship with mom’s new husband, George. The stepdad is not cruel, but his overbearing manner and attempts at humorous bonding typically make Joey feel small. One of Joey’s eccentricities (that George disdains) is sleeping on a waterbed. Out of that waterbed erupts a leprechaun-ish magical fellow who announces himself as “Wheedles of Waiderfled, the Eighteenth King of the Zing Fling” and for whom Joey is somehow key to a successful reign. Wheedles teleports Joey to the realm of Waiderfled, full of strange creatures, fun-loving shape-shifters, crystal trees, and surreal landscapes. Omnipresent throughout the place are the ho-drees, floating and colorful geometrical shape thingies that surround any intelligent being young in body and/or spirit—they symbolize hopes and dreams, not to mention imagination and creativity. But Joey innocently utters the most taboo of all words—can’t(as in “I just can’t believe it”)—and scores of ho-drees drop down, inert, and the boy is expelled back to his old reality. Guardedly taken back into Waiderfled, Joey finds he must embark on a pilgrimage to see the most prominent “Ho-dree Doctor,” who can fix the crisis. But she has vanished—apparently abducted by the cronelike Haidderdred, who has no ho-drees of her own and covets those of others. In Suberla’s tight, straight-ahead, minimal-complications narrative, Joey’s heirloom Polaroid camera, which develops unusual powers in Waiderfled, figures significantly. Readers may find this whimsical and enjoyable material reminiscent of the works of Dr. Seuss, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth. Suberla hails from a background in self-help and life-advice material, and the lessons here in self-confidence and can-do spirit are obvious. Despite the villain’s orc-ish aspects, the conflict with Haidderdred resolves in a literal shower of sweetness and light. Some parents of young readers may be taken aback that Joey utters an expletive.

An engaging, positivity-preaching fantasy with Seussian and Lewis Carroll–esque aspects.