The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone by Jaclyn Moriarty

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone by Jaclyn Moriarty Karen Coats Moriarty, Jaclyn The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone; illus. by Karl James Mountford. Levine/Scholastic, 2018 [384p] ISBN 978-1-338-25584-3 $17.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-8 Ten-year-old Bronte, who has been raised for years by her aunt Isabelle, takes the news that her parents have been killed by pirates largely in stride. However, their strange, magically enforceable will requires that Bronte travel the kingdom to give gifts to each of her ten other aunts. In good middle-grade fashion, each stop opens her eyes to a new aspect of her world and herself via adventures that call on her courage and resourcefulness, while her wry self-awareness downplays any overabundance of pluck. Among her many exploits, she rescues a baby from drowning, solves a crime that liberates one of her aunts from prison, causes an avalanche, befriends dragons, and, with the help of her cousins, stands up to her grandfather, an evil king bent on world domination. The plotting is as self-aware as Bronte's narration, with clever nods to the traditions and motifs of children's literature. Readers will find much to love here: more than one plucky orphan; lovable jumbles of quirky cousins; a prince and a princess in disguise; soccer-playing elves, friendly dragons, and lovestruck water sprites; sad adults in need of rescue; ordinary-seeming aunts with secret identities; and ambiguous prophecies that turn normal kids into heroes. Bronte's emotional growth keeps pace with her rollicking adventures, and sparse pen-and-ink spot art provides tonally apt detail of characters and settings that showcase Moriarty's significant talent for imagining and immersing readers in innovative worlds. KC Copyright © 2018 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois