Steel Trapp by Ridley Pearson

Steel Trapp: The Challenge by Ridley Pearson (Disney Editions) is a middle-grade thriller about a kid named Steel Trapp, who gets involved in solving a kidnapping and terrorist plot on the way to the national science fair. His foil is Kaileigh, a runaway who's on her way to the science fair too, and whose help Steel will need if he's going to figure out why this strange woman was trying to leave a briefcase on the train, and what it has to do with a missing person.

I liked this more than I thought I would, especially given how much I hated an adult thriller I read by the same author. This kid thriller doesn't have as much science or tension or spies as I'd like, but unlike adult thrillers, it doesn't have the casual misogynism, racism, etc. that so many do. It's tough to get middle grade kids in on the action, but this worked for me.

Peter and the Starcatchers (a 2005 read)

Back during the August book giveaway, I promised that I'd (eventually!) find my review of Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson (Disney Editions, which became Hyperion).

My review: It was okay. For the most part, technically well done. I told a friend that this could have been very much like the Muppet Show, especially with a side of Dave Barry: fun for kids, fun for adults. So, it could have been more "slapschtick-y." On the flip side, it could have been very vivid. Really, it ended up being neither. At the same time, I can respect that the story is not too complicated for its intended (I think) middle-grade audience.

The second half of the book picks up the pace, and here and there bits of the Barry sense of humor shine through; I detect his influence especially in the lighting-fast changes of which side is winning (and there are more than two). Toward the end, there are some moments--well, potential moments--when some of the basic decisions that produce the Peter who becomes Pan almost move you, but then...then, you realize everything you feel is inside your head, based on what you know of his future as the boy who never grows up. A nice book, and well-packaged, but not a classic. That said, this "prequel" is more accessible than the original, and leaves behind some of the more outdated aspects of Barrie's work.