The Remarkable Inventions of Walter Mortinson by Quinn Sosna-Spear - OPTIONAL

The Remarkable Inventions of Walter Mortinson by Quinn Sosna-Spear, 324 pages.  Simon And Schuster, 2019. $18

Language: G (0 swears, 0 ‘f’) ; Mature Content: PG (dealing with death); Violence: G

BUYING ADVISORY: EL, MS - OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: LOW

While Moormouth may be a humdrum town, Walter’s mind is not -- his day is filled with fashioning fantastic inventions.  His own mother, along with the rest of the town, hate the inventions, however, and now his mother is insisting that Walter, 12, start his training as her apprentice in her mortuary. Walter has other ideas -- he convinces Cordelia, the girl he wishes were his best friend, to join him in a desperate race to reach Flaster Isle, the home of Horace Flasterborn, the inventor who has inspired Walter all his life.  Maybe there he can find answers about his father’s death and find a place that will appreciate Walter and his fantastical designs.

I wanted so badly to love this imaginary world with its possibility of fanciful places and wonder, but rot underneath everything and the evil charicature of Horace Flasterborn, along with a narrative that shifted willy-nilly between Walter’s present day and his mother’s past bringing an adult perspective to the story that brings melancholy and pain to what ends up also being a painful ending.  For a book with a cover that hints at whimsy and delight, I was mostly depressed throughout my reading.

Cindy, Middle School Librarian, MLS