FALCON QUINN AND THE BLACK MIRROR

Falcon Quinn, a poor 13-year-old with different-colored eyes, has no friends beyond adorable-and-tragic Megan and the six-foot-tall seventh grader Max. With a background like that, Falcon ought to know that he’s about to get pulled into the magical world where he’ll meet his destiny. When the teens board bus 13 on the first day of spring, it takes them not to Cold River Middle School but to the Academy for Monsters. They’re monsters, apparently, and now that they’re hitting puberty they have to gain control of their monster powers. In a castle in the Bermuda Triangle, Falcon and friends fight mean fellow students as well as teachers such as the Terrible Kraken and the creepy mothman. Falcon, of course, needs to discover the terrible secret of his birth. Despite too many corny jokes and a disjointed plot laden with continuity inconsistencies, the set dressing of this stock piece is packed with enough monstrous silliness—Frankenstein haiku, a loudmouth flying chupacabra, Destynee the giant slug—to keep readers giggling. (Fantasy. 10-12)