THE DUDES SAVE THE DUDES

Five friends create an elaborate plan to prevent private school from separating them in this debut middle-grade novel.

In the summer after fourth grade, the Dudes—Tyler Reynolds, twins Ryan and Connor Maguire, Nate Howe, and Deven Singh—have big plans to continue their mission of doing “stuff that’s great and memorable.” They’re an assorted bunch: Tyler, the story’s narrator, chronicles the Dude adventures; Ryan, the leader, comes up with cool plans; and Connor throws himself into physical challenges. They’re White while Nate, the brainiac, is African American and Deven, the jokester, is Indian American. All five are obsessed with the TV show Ninja Wars, which inspires “Operation Ninja Prowl”; while the neighborhood is preoccupied with a block party, they’ll dress in black and practice stealthy outdoor maneuvers. But they get mistaken for burglars and draw police attention, which would be all good fun—except for Nate’s parents' deciding such hijinks are “not the future we want for our son,” and private school is the answer. Over the summer, while the Dudes pursue ninja-adjacent activities, they’ll need all their ingenuity to hatch schemes for keeping Nate in public school. With one priceless, laugh-out-loud scenario after another, the mother-and-son team of Johnson and Reynolds delivers a fine tale in this Dudes Adventure series opener. For example, the friends build a homemade obstacle course with tests like the “Rain of Blows”—where the ninja-in-training must safely jump through spinning badminton rackets (which are duct-taped to poles on a rotating wheel). At the same time, the story is given depth by emotional challenges each friend must face, described with subtlety. Tyler, for example, has a new baby brother grabbing his mom’s attention while the Maguire twins’ parents have recently divorced. Readers will likely be eager to read the next adventure.

Hilarious comic mayhem rounded out by affection and insight.