MR. CHICKEE’S MESSY MISSION

The Flint Future Detectives return and, along with their newest member, Richelle Cyrus-Herndon, follow Russell’s dog through a wall mural into Ourside. There they meet Mr. Chickee again and set off on a mission to determine which one of them is the Old Soul who can help stave off an impending disaster to that parallel world. In the process, they meet Harry Plodder’s Mummy, who reveals the rest of the solution to the mystery of the quadrillion-dollar bill they found in Mr. Chickee’s Funny Money (2005), and Russell travels through the world of author Buster B. Bayliss, through a blizzard and a mosquito-filled north woods in an effort to kill the deadly Ursa Theodora-Saura. Chock full of references to farts and boogers, as well as familiar children’s book tropes, this disappointing sequel is clearly aimed at small boys. The last third is seven-year-old Russell’s solo adventure. Fantasy, adventure and satire combine, but there is no coherent story arc to carry the reader from beginning to end. Readers will need to have read the first of the series to understand the characters and to go on to future volumes to see how this story ends. (Fiction. 8-11)