Jack Blank and the Imagine Nation

Gr 5—8—Jack Blank, a 12-year-old orphan living at St. Barnabas House for the Hopeless, Abandoned, Forgotten, and Lost, doesn't know who he is or where he comes from. Like so many other young, peculiarly talented, and mistreated young people (Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, etc.), he is about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. When an evil zombie robot shows up at the dismal, dreary institute he calls home, Jack uses his uncanny ability to control machines to dispatch the intruder. Thus alerted to his presence, an escort arrives shortly to ferry Jack to the Imagine Nation, a land filled with superheroes and supervillains, many of them familiar to him from comic books, where Jack will face his greatest challenge yet. Narrator Norbert Leo Butz imbues Matt Myklusch's text (Aladdin, 2010) with the proper suspense and animation. Fans of Harry Potter and Alex Rider will embrace Jack Blank.—Sara Saxton, Tuzzy Consortium Library, Barrow, AK