The Bravest Warrior in Nefaria
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Phineas and Ferb meets the Despicable Me series in this “fanciful, humorous, and original” (Kirkus Reviews) middle grade debut from acclaimed author Adi Alsaid about a wannabe hero who lives in a goofily evil kingdom where nefarious schemes abound.
Welcome to Nefaria, where nearly every day the kingdom faces another evil scheme.
Most are harmless, though, so the citizens of Nefaria simply learn to live with the latest hijinks and go on with their lives. This includes Bobert Bougainvillea, who is much more concerned with the fact that he seems to be invisible. From the teachers in his school to his classmates, almost no one notices Bobert, no matter how visible he tries to be. Then everything changes when Bobert follows his classmates to a cursed gumball machine.
Before he knows it, Bobert is sucked into one of Nefaria’s most villainous evil schemes, a plot that has been a long time in the making—too long, in the evil wizard Matt’s opinion. And retreating into invisibility this time won’t do, not when Bobert is the only one with the drive, knowledge, and—if his newfound courage doesn’t fail him—bravery to foil Matt’s plan.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the Kingdom of Nefaria, evil schemes perpetrated by villainous foes are commonplace. But since ploys such as the Great Cheese Fraud, the formation of the Anti-beanbag Society, and a plot to take over the kingdom using highly trained spider monkeys turned out mostly harmless, residents rarely concern themselves about them. Even 11-year-old Bobert Bougainvillea, who has olive skin, is only worried that he seems invisible to his classmates. To make friends, Bobert accepts a peer's dare to use a purportedly cursed gumball machine after dark. In doing so, he springs a trap laid long ago by a sinister wizard named Matt, whose plans to conquer the kingdom involve slowly gathering an army of children through his gumball ruse. Matt ensures that any memory of the child's existence is erased, so as to elude the kingdom's evil-scheme sniffer-outers, but Bobert's new friends somehow remember him just enough to go looking for him, thus drawing them all into a struggle to save him and the kingdom. This goofy middle grade debut from Alsaid (Actually Super) possesses a simmering humor drawn from the premise and setting's thoroughly absurd trappings, and its good-intentioned protagonists lend it an upbeat tone. Ages 8–12.
