The Name of this Book is Secret
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2007
Fiction
ISBN: 0316113662
384 pages
Synopsis
Warning: this description has not been authorized by Pseudonymous Bosch. As much as he’d love to sing the praises of his book (he is very vain), he wouldn’t want you to hear about his brave 11-year old heroes, Cass and Max-Ernest. Or about how a mysterious box of vials, the Symphony of Smells, sends them on the trail of a magician who has vanished under strange (and stinky) circumstances. And he certainly wouldn’t want you to know about the hair-raising adventures that follow and the nefarious villains they face. You see, not only is the name of this book secret, the story inside is, too. For it concerns a secret. A Big Secret.
Critique
This was quite a fun read. Cass and Max-Ernest are great characters who seem believable (as believable as they can be in some completely ridiculous situations.) I appreciated the unique quality of the text and Ms. Bosch, whomever she may be in real life, has given young readers everywhere a new take on how to write and digest a novel. It’s great that she’s broken the 4th wall and consistently addresses the reader.
In diving deeper, some of the biggest issues that I found with the text is that there doesn’t seem to be any big secret revealed in the book, which was a bit of a let down. In reality, it’s another good adventure, save the world from evil sort of novel with a new set of quirky characters, but no big secret. I think perhaps if it hadn’t been set up to be such a big deal, readers wouldn’t be looking for a big reveal. Think more like Harry Potter than Da Vinci Code. To her credit, the two subplots involving Synesthesia and people using alchemy and ancient Egpytian ‘science’ to discover the secret to living forever were engaging.
I recommend this book to all readers 10-13.
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For the Classroom
This book would be a fun classroom companion for and English or writing class because of its unique nature as a story. It’s not often that the 4th wall is broken and the reader is directly addressed by the narrator.
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