With series fans in mind, the author takes Harry through a sort of last-day-of-school farewell tour. The news leaves his best friend, narrator “Dougo,” devastated…particularly as Harry doesn’t seem all that fussed about it. Having, as Kline notes in her warm valedictory acknowledgements, taken 30 years to get through second and third grade, Harry Spooger is overdue to move on-but not just into fourth grade, it turns out, as his family is moving to another town as soon as the school year ends. Readers will eventually sigh in relief with Archer and friends.Ī long-running series reaches its closing chapters. The debut author also provides delicate, full-color illustrations throughout. Archer, however, realistically shows both kindness and mean-spiritedness as he pursues his quest.

Though not as fast-paced as a Roald Dahl story, it is similar in terms of its magical realism and some absurdly naughty or nice characters.

Part 2 brings Adélaïde into the picture as an independent, peg-legged ex-ballerina, and Part 3 is called “The Journey Begins.” The story is full of humor: the farcical, larger-than-life, domineering women of home and school slapstick scenes involving Archer’s clumsiness and Oliver’s unfortunate habit of running with his eyes closed whimsical wordplay, as in Oliver’s plaintive request, “I’ve only had far-death experiences and I’d prefer to keep it that way.” It’s a bit long, considering the number of not-quite-eventful events, but it’s also amusing, heartwarming, and zany. Helmsley enlists his best friend, Oliver Glub, and Adélaïde, the new student from France, to help him track down his explorer grandparents in Antarctica-despite the fact that Archer’s mother confines him to two places: his museumlike home and his school.Īfter a preface promising that Archer is not one of those “perfect boys” who “live in perfect houses owned by perfect parents” and are “perfectly dull,” Part 1 sets up the story of Archer’s restricted life, its tedium mitigated by Archer’s conversations with taxidermic animals and by clandestine meetings with Oliver.

The Doldrums by Nicholas Gannon