Friday, October 18, 2013

Review: JANITORS by Tyler Whitesides

JANITORS
by Tyler Whitesides
300 pages
Published August 1st 2011 by Shadow Mountain
 
Placement in the Pile:  Middle of the Stack
 
Summary:
The magical, secretive society of JANITORS will sweep the country in the fall of 2011. Have you ever fallen asleep during math class? Are you easily distracted while listening to your English teacher? Do you find yourself completely uninterested in geography? Well, it may not be your fault. The janitors at Welcher Elementary know a secret, and it s draining all the smarts out of the kids. Twelveyear- old Spencer Zumbro, with the help of his classmate Daisy Gullible Gates, must fight with and against a secret, janitorial society that wields wizard-like powers. Who can Spencer and Daisy trust and how will they protect their school and possibly the world? Janitors is book 1 in a new children s fantasy series by debut novelist Tyler Whitesides. You ll never look at a mop the same way again.
 
Review:
So here's what's hard for me about this book.  It's clearly middle grade.  Which is fine and great, but middle grade isn't always my thing.  My issue with middle grade is usually the simplicity of the narrative.  It takes something really unique to get me interested in a MG.  However, when I heard about this series it's one I wanted to pick up.  
 
So when I was offered a review copy of book #3 and expressed that I hadn't read them at all yet, but was interested Shadow Mountain was kind enough to send me all 3!  Wow!  So here I am reading them for ya!  

The best part about JANITORS was it's pure unique-ness.  The theory of magic, and what is plaguing the schools and what a Janitor's job is (as compared to a custodian) was really intriguing. 

I think this is a book middle grade readers will love.  The characters are fun too and each wholly unique with their own set of quirks, which I loved as well.  I've only heard each book gets better, so as I read on I will let you know how I feel about that. But for now, I'd say if you like MG or have a child reading MG this is certainly a good one to pick up!

Plus, the cover art is really cool. 

2 comments:

Jacob said...

So, should I read it to the sillies? Or let them read it on their own?

Aubrey said...

I think your girls would be totally capable reading it on their own. It's on the longer side and I'm not sure how long of books they're used to. But nothing too scary that they'd need you for.