Which Way to Anywhere

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 17 JULY 2023

Twelve-year-old twins K2 and Izzabird O'Hero know they come from a long line of magical explorers, and the mundane lineage of their new stepsiblings—12-year-old Theo and eight-year-old Mabel Smith—leads to friction between the sibling groups. Unknown to K2, who spends his time sketching maps of extraordinary alternate dimensions, he possesses the Atlas Gift, an ability that lets him create portals to other worlds through his mapmaking. One day, the family is visited by sinister professor Cyril Sidewinder, who's seeking the wielder of the Atlas Gift in order to create "a collection of maps of imaginary and real places" called An Alternative Atlas. His arrival kicks off a series of incidents culminating in an interstellar adventure involving relentless robot assassins, a snarky extradimensional bounty hunter, and the mysterious fate of K2 and Izzabird's long-missing father. The siblings' banter, and their sweetly budding friendships, anchor the madcap happenings. Told through an idiosyncratic omniscient narrator called the Story Maker, this boisterous series launch by Cowell (the Wizards of Once series)—accompanied by sketchy, highly stylized b&w art—proves chaotically fun. Cover art portrays the O'Heroes with pale skin and the Smiths with brown skin. Ages 8–12.