Saved by the Smell

K-Gr 3–Ari’s life is pretty ordinary—school, video games, and hanging out with his pet turtle, Fred. The one exception? His mom is a mad scientist! When an explosion from her latest experiment shakes the house, Ari cautiously investigates, only to find her in the basement surrounded by smelly piles of laundry. Their washing machine is broken, and with no clean clothes left, her solution is anything but ordinary: travel back in time to when their clothes were clean, grab them, and return. Naturally, things go wrong, landing them in the Cretaceous period and face-to-face with a hungry dinosaur. Thankfully, Ari’s stink is so bad it sends the dinosaur running, allowing them to return to the present—where his mom finally agrees to borrow the neighbor’s washer. The story starts a bit slow, as much of the first few chapters are devoted to setting up Ari’s world and introducing secondary characters like the neighbor, whose relevance isn’t clear until the very end. Once the time-traveling antics begin, however, the pace picks up, delivering plenty of laughs, especially with the absurdity of a dinosaur fleeing from bad body odor. Simple, monochromatic illustrations scattered throughout the text add charm without distracting from the story.