  | Full Text Reviews: Booklist - 07/01/2014 Two spunky siblings are on a quest to turn the Great Pacific Garbage Patch into an eighth continent in this light sci-fi series opener. Rick and Evie Lane are determined to get their inventor father out of trouble with an icy global policing agency, and that means heading someplace immune to the agency’s rules. Dad is in possession of one half of a formula that can change garbage into organic matter, and thus a mass of oceanic trash into a haven. But since he is under house arrest, the kids need to find their father’s missing former partner, who has the other half of the concoction. Of course what’s a quest without a villain, and Vesuvia, child CEO of a corporation determined to pave the world, is a doozy. In love with anything pink and plastic, she is the antithesis to the Lanes, who are so ecologically correct that their hovercraft is made from a repurposed tree trunk. It’s all rather slapdash but nonetheless good fun in the tradition of M. T. Anderson’s Pals in Peril series. - Copyright 2014 Booklist. School Library Journal - 08/01/2014 Gr 4–7—In this first volume of a projected series, grade school students Rick and Evie Lane are on a quest to transform the Pacific Garbage Patch into the world's eighth continent. Their father, George, once invented a formula that would turn this mass of floating plastic into fertile land, but now he only has half of the recipe. With the help of their robotic tutor, 2Tor, Rick and Evie set out to locate their father's old partner and the rest of the formula. Matters are complicated by a classmate, the pink-obsessed, plastic-loving 11-year-old "super-secret CEO" of an evil corporation. Details of the Lanes's over-the-top inventions and posh school (students sky-dive to class every day) give an excessively cartoonish feel to the book without helping to develop the plot or characters. "Science" in this science fiction is minimal, and utterly disregarded if it interferes with plot or cool gadgetry. At one point, the kids must name the four principles of aerodynamics, but no explanation is ever attempted as to how their giant sequoia hovercraft is able to stay aloft. The terraforming fluid works like magic to instantly transform plastics into mud populated with plant and animal life. The writing is frenetic, with a rapid succession of settings and dialogue that reads like a list of one-line jokes. Some reluctant readers may appreciate the zippy pace and original premise.—Rachel Anne Mencke, Al Raja School Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain - Copyright 2014 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Loading...
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