CRYPTID HUNTERS

When Uncle Wolfe takes them on a dinosaur hunt, orphaned twins Grace and Marty find themselves in a B-movie with email. When the twins’ explorer parents vanish in the Amazon (to be found in the next book?), mischief-maker Marty and genius scaredy-cat Grace go to live on Uncle Wolfe’s private island. Wolfe hunts cryptids: mythical creatures such as Yetis, Kraken, and Chupacabras. Though he doesn’t intend to bring the children on his dinosaur hunt in the Congo, they arrive anyway, after falling from his airplane into the darkest jungle, accompanied only by a teacup poodle, a chimpanzee named Bo, and a high-end Gizmo complete with videoconferencing. There the children must reunite with their uncle, find the mythic dinosaur Mokèlè-mbembè, and avoid the minions of evil Dr. Blackwood. Luckily there are friendly Pygmies to help. And what is the deep, dark secret that has given Grace nightmares all her life—and what does it have to do with Dr. Blackwood? Enjoyably rollicking adventures are appropriately cheesy; the stereotypes, though equally fitting, are a bit much. (Fiction. 10-13)