The Lost Legacy by Gwenda Bond - ADVISABLE

Bond, Gwenda and Christopher Rowe The Lost Legacy (The Supernormal Sleuthing Service), 405 pages.  Greenwillow (Harper), 2017.  $17.  Content: G (mild danger).

When Stephen’s grandmother, Chef Nana, dies, Stephen and his father uproot from Chicago and move to New York so that his chef father can take over his mother’s  hotel chef job.  Stephen is plunged into strange new worlds at the Hotel New Harmonia, which caters to an exclusive clientele – magical creatures from many dimensions – including Cindermass, the hotel’s permanent resident dragon.  While Stephen reacts poorly to the move, he would never sabotage his father’s job by stealing Chef Nana’s magic cookbook.  While the adults are mad at him, Stephen and his new friends take it upon themselves to pursue their own leads, putting themselves in harms way confronting not only an inimical fae clan, but also an important vampire.

So much fun!  While I didn’t fall in love with everything about the book (I still don’t understand why it is so difficult for Stephen to prove to the adults that he didn’t steal the book – they all could have just asked the talking elevator where Stephen was), but I do like Stephen and his friends.  The denouement comes very close to the end, with a bit of deux ex machine to resolve things.  Young fantasy readers will have fun with this.

EL, MS – ADVISABLE.  Cindy, Library Teacher