THE UMBRELLA MAKER'S SON

A boy finds himself in peril when he investigates the constant rain plaguing his city.

The city of Roan endures rain daily: 47 types in all, from a gentle wib to a life-threatening blanderwheel. Eleven-year-old Oscar Buckle is an umbrella maker’s son, which should come in handy. But business isn’t exactly booming; people prefer the shoddy but inexpensive umbrellas manufactured by Brawn Industries over Bilius Buckle’s durable but pricey creations. When Bilius informs Oscar he must leave school and become his apprentice, he is dismayed; he wants to carve wooden figures, not craft umbrellas. Even worse, Saige Cleverer, his best friend, is moving to the rich—and mysteriously sunny—part of town for her dad’s new job with Brawn Industries. Is there something sinister behind the precipitation deluging Oscar’s neighborhood? The worldbuilding, much of which occurs in wry footnotes provided by an unnamed narrator, relies heavily on the quirky names and vocabulary. Saige, a wheelchair user, lives up to her surname, designing a jet pack and a wheelchair flotation device to circumvent barriers. Readers may quickly guess what’s up, and the ending is somewhat anticlimactic after the narrator’s dramatic foreshadowing. However, Oscar and Saige’s friendship is believably portrayed, and Oscar’s relationship with his single dad is touching, as are his complex feelings about his mother’s death. Oscar and his dad read White; Saige has brown skin, and secondary characters are racially diverse. Final art not seen.

A fast-paced, heartwarming read.