Loved this book, love this series. It was funny, action packed and just all around a great read. I got my son to read it and we can't wait to get the next one! ( )

RECEIVED FROM: Net Galley for Review

***NOTE MY REVIEWS OFTEN CONTAIN SPOILERS***

Mack MacAvoy is the leader of the Magnificent 12, a group of chosen twelve-year-olds with “enlightened puissance” who have been tasked with saving the world. The children aren’t protecting us from the dangers we know, but the dangers that we don’t remember. The Pale Queen, the mother of all monsters will escape her prison in a little over thirty days and Mack and his companions are our only hope of stopping her and her monster minions from taking over the world. In that time Mack must assemble the twelve, learn Vargran and figure out how to defeat her. So far he’s found one of the twelve and brought along his middle school bully as a bodyguard. Will he be able to find the rest before the Pale Queen escapes?

First I’ll mention this is the second book in a series and while it does summarize the previous book, it’s always best to start with the first book in a series like this one. Unfortunately, this is my first encounter with this author’s work so I didn’t do that. Second I’ll tell you off the bat this isn’t a book that’s written for adults. This is the book you buy for that eight or nine year old in your house that would rather have his teeth pulled than read a book. (I have two of those.) It’s an excellent blend of humor and adventure that no child will be able to resist reading.

I have never in my life read a sillier book than this one. The element of adventure and fantasy is there of course, but it pales in comparison to the humor portrayed all throughout the book. There are passages from a Golem who will explain to you that his name is pronounced GO-Lem not Gollem and he’s not after your precious, though he continuously repeats himself because of course with a brain made of mud he doesn’t have much in brain power. There’s a hundred-year-old assassin who tells his targets to wait for him while he takes a puff from his oxygen tank. A hero with 21 phobias, a bully that doesn’t know three times four but who will excitedly fight anyone and a goddess who smiles and waves at you before she attempts to kill you are all featured in the zany cast of characters portrayed in this book. And we haven’t even started on the narrator who never really introduces himself, but who fills the story with humorous commentary that will have you laughing from beginning to end.

Was the book geared toward me? No. Did I have a blast reading it? Of course, who can help but laugh when the hero stops to answer his iphone in the middle of a battle or any of the other crazy things that happen in this book? I personally intend to ensure there are two copies of this sitting under the Christmas tree for my boys this year because if any book exists that will get my sons to read, it’s this one. Grant’s talent for writing in this mix of humor and adventure I’d have to say is unparalleled.

The only negative thing I have to say is that like many children’s and young adult series, each book is only a section of the story and you don’t get the traditional beginning middle and ending. Overall though the Magnificent 12 is a book that should be on every child’s book shelf because if you want your kids to read I can pretty much guarantee this book will do the trick. ( )