Carnival in a Fix

December 15, 2016
An extraterrestrial girl wants to become a repairwoman at a moon-based amusement park. Emily, depicted as a light-skinned humanoid with a reptilian tail and pointy ears, has lived at Funfair Moon ever since she hatched. She loves everything about her home and idolizes the maintenance staff who keep things running. But when an inspector makes a surprise visit just as everything seems to be malfunctioning all at once, the future of the park is thrown into jeopardy. The root of the problem is recurring and obvious--few readers will be distracted from it by the endless parade of disasters. While the plot is simplistic, the world it takes place in is good fun; there are charming ghosts in a haunted-house attraction, rides built for giant-sized creatures, villainous space overlords, and all sorts of playful oddities. The artwork does a good job of showing how strange the space creatures are, and it captures the sense of movement as Emily and the repairmen (and they are both male) set off on a whirlwind chase through the park, trying to keep it running. The ending of Emily's story is as predictable as the culprit, but the latter's motivation is amusing. More cotton candy than substance, this book trades plot and character for a tour of an amusing setting and a series of mishaps. (Science fiction. 7-11)

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January 1, 2017
Grades 3-5 Reeve and McIntyre are back with another Not-So-Impossible Tale, their illustrated series of wacky stand-alone adventures. Here readers travel to Funfair Moon, a lunar amusement park, where a young girl named Emily resides above the Lost Property Office. Emily loves the park's riotous noise and energythe screams from Terror Mountain, the spinning Tilt-A-Whirl, the sugar-scented air. Most of all, she likes helping the repairmen keep the park in tip-top shape. While things are typically all fun and games here, a vindictive safety inspector pays Funfair Moon a surprise visit just as rides start going haywire. It's up to Emily to sort out what's causing the trouble or the park will be shut down! This light mystery features short chapters rich in action and laughs, whether from a rampaging cotton candy monster or stormtrooperlike space commandos experiencing the joy of bumper cars. The cartoonish two-toned illustrations, in orange and black, reveal an alien Coney Island filled with swooping roller coaster tracks and tentacled park-goers. Readers are in for a wild ride with this one.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2017
Humanoid Emily, who lives above the Lost Property Office of galactic amusement park Funfair Moon, dreams of becoming an expert repair girl. When a vindictive park inspector arrives, the rides all seem to break at once, jeopardizing Funfair's existence. This fourth standalone in the adventure series is carried by buoyant two-color illustrations, lighthearted mystery, breezy humor, and a delightful cast of extraterrestrial creatures.

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)