The Collectors by Jacqueline West - ADVISABLE

The Collectors by Jacqueline West, 384 pages.  Greenwillow, October 2018.  $17.

Content: G (some danger)

BUYING ADVISORY:  EL, MS - ADVISABLE

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

Van, 12, has been pretty content following his opera diva mother around the world for her profession. One day, however, he runs into an abrasive girl, accompanied by a squirrel of all things, stealing coins from a fountain.  The next day he sees the same girl and squirrel – this time they seem to be working with a spider to steal a wish from a birthday party.  How can Van even see that wish?  He makes the quick choice to follow them and find out exactly what’s what. He doesn’t realize, unfortunately, that he is entangling himself in life and death circumstances.  

There are two sides to this particular quandary and neither side wishes to give Van all of the information that he needs in order to make good choices – choices that will either save the world or doom it.

Welcome Van to the list of reasonable heroic young boy main characters.  He’s no Alfred Kropp, but he compares favorably to Wayne Batson’s Door Within series or Jacqueline West’s Books of Elsewhere series.

Cindy, Middle School Librarian