Spineless
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
This exciting middle-grade adventure is Hoot for the Gilded Age—with scientific discoveries, secret plots, and surprisingly enormous fauna.
When his asthma lands him at a health resort in the wilds of Gilded Age South Florida, twelve-year-old Algie Emsworth is over the moon. The scientific treasure trove of unexplored swamps may launch his dream career as a naturalist. But even Algie is startled when he happens upon a brand-new species and her brood in the karst springs surrounding the resort. Algie quickly realizes he must keep his discovery a secret: a famous collector of exotic animals is also staying at the hotel, and the new species is threatened by his very presence. An apparent curse has also descended upon the hotel, bringing with it a deadly red tide. But when the pool starts filling with ink and guests start getting mysterious, sucker-shaped wounds, Algie must pluck up his courage to find the truth about the goings-on at the Grand Hotel—and save the new species from destruction.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A Jules Verne aesthetic and themes of contemporary environmentalism underpin this sensationalist sea-monster melodrama set in 1890s Florida. When 12-year-old Chicagoan Algie Emsworth, an asthmatic aspiring naturalist, arrives at the Hotel Paraíso, his mother expects him to spend the winter "bathing quietly in the mineral springs." The resort is anything but tranquil, though: sea-life carcasses line the beach, a toxic red tide exacerbates Algie's condition, and a curse stalks the hotel. When Algie rescues a bioluminescent octopus from the clutches of whiskered explorer Prof. Ransom Champion, the creature takes a shine to Algie. So do tween field biologists-in-training Frankie and Lulu Davenport, daughters of the millionaire resort owner, and the trio sets out to foil the fiendish Professor, who kills birds for the plume trade and seeks a "mystery beast." For all the mocking of celebrity ambition and the connections made between greed and environmental destruction, colonialism remains strangely unexamined herein. But slapstick-brimming chapters, literary references, and scenery-chewing Victorian characters populate the third-person telling as debut author San Miguel reinforces interspecies care, crafting an eco-friendly steampunk thriller. Frankie and Lulu are Cuban American; all other characters read as white or racially ambiguous. Ages 8–12.
