Grey Griffins

Gr 4—7—Teenagers Max, Ernie, Natalia, and Harley, aka the "Grey Griffins," combine their differing talents to battle the forces of evil. They attend Iron Bridge Academy, a special school where battle strategy might just be more important than mathematics. The consequences of many of the events in The Brimstone Key (Little, Brown, 2010) play out in this volume, including the fact that the Grey Griffins are growing apart from one another. There are hard feelings after the death of a classmate, and Max is concerned that he might not be able to call upon his partners as he used to. Can they work together to learn more about the "Paradox Engine," a machine that has the power to open up a portal to the Shadowlands? There are very few fantasy-fiction tropes that don't make it into this book. Steampunk style abounds, with airships, aviator goggles, and clockwork robots, but then so do the Knights Templars. Many kids at the Academy walk around with shape-changing familiars that are frequently hard to control, and there also seems to be a war between the humans and the changelings who are slowly losing their humanity as their faerie blood becomes stronger. A zombie army also makes an appearance. Any one of these elements would probably make for a great book. Together, it feels as if they're fighting for readers' attention.—Kathleen Meulen Ellison, Sakai Intermediate School, Bainbridge Island, WA