A Royal Conundrum (The Misfits)
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • When a notorious thief is out for priceless treasure (gems! cats! general decorum!)—who're you gonna call? An elite team of crime-fighting underdogs, that's who! The Misfits are on the case in this hilarious series from Newbery Honoree Lisa Yee and Caldecott Medalist Dan Santat!
“For any kid who’s felt like a misfit, this crackling adventure packs a wallop!” —Lincoln Peirce, creator of Big Nate and Max & the Midknights
Olive Cobin Zang has . . . issues. And they mostly aren’t her fault. (No, really!) Though she often slips under the radar, problems have a knack for finding her. So, imagine her doubts when she’s suddenly dropped off at the strangest boarding school ever: a former castle turned prison that's now a “reforming arts school”!
But nothing could’ve prepared Olive for RASCH (not “rash”). There, she’s lumped with a team of other kids who never quite fit in, and discovers that the academy isn’t what it seems—and neither is she. In fact, RASCH is a cover for an elite group of misfits who fight crime . . . and Olive has arrived just in time.
Turns out that RASCH is in danger of closing, unless Olive’s class can stop the heist of the century. And as Olive falls in love with this wacky school, she realizes it’s up to her new team to save the only home that’s ever welcomed them.
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Ever since her grandmother Mimi's death, East Asian American tween Olive Cobin Zhang—who "never fit in" at school and hardly sees her busy parents—has felt especially alone. Worse, her mother abruptly sends her to a former castle that had been turned into a prison before being converted into a "reforming arts school." But the prestigious boarding school is a cover; soon, Olive is recruited for an experimental group of covert child operatives to serve as the eyes and ears of the pseudo-government crime-fighting organization No One Can Know, or NOCK. She quickly befriends fellow operative and computer genius Philomena, as well as tough girl Iggy, bookworm James, and laid-back Theo; together, they deem themselves the Misfits. Yee (Maizy Chen's Last Chance) builds suspense in this spy-adjacent series opener by utilizing an immediate feeling third-person perspective to depict Olive's grief over Mimi and attempts to make friends while contending with secretive and dangerous circumstances. An in media res opening alongside expressive and animated b&w pencil illustrations by Santat (A First Time for Everything) add dynamism to the text and heighten the rapidly paced narrative. One of the Misfits wears a hijab and another is Black; other supporting characters are depicted with varying skin tones. Ages 8–12.
