THE PLANET, THE PORTAL, AND A PIZZA

Mass and Baskin collaborate for a fast-paced science-fiction romp.

Piper lives in Rockdale with her clockmaker parents and one-of-a-kind robot dog named Roody. Raisa lives in Rockdale with her scientist parents and has a best friend named Lev. But even though both girls’ Rockdales have a pizza parlor named Toozy Patza, in other ways they’re very different. Superficially, Piper’s home will strike readers as a generically charming small town distinguished only by its plethora of rocks. In Raisa’s version, however, her mom works at the Academy for the Study of Kinetics, the kids slurp zylon freeze pops, and commercial transactions are facilitated by biometric authenticators. When Raisa and Lev use Raisa’s mom’s multiverse-travel device, which has never been tested on humans, they find themselves trapped in Piper’s Rockdale. Meanwhile, Piper realizes that her parents are confined by a weird force field surrounding their house, one that doesn’t affect Piper. The perspective switches between Piper and Raisa in one- or two-chapter hops, keeping readers engaged as they join the characters in puzzling out exactly how both universes might be set to rights. While both the premise and story structure bear similarities to Erin Entrada Kelly’s The First State of Being, lovers of the 2025 Newbery Award winner will find that this effort lacks that work’s thoughtfulness in both concept and character development. If they keep their reading on the surface, they will likely find it fun enough. Characters largely present white.

Doesn’t shake the multiverse.