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Summary
Summary
Eleven-year-old twins Oliver and Celia Navel live on the 4-1/2th floor of the Explorers Club with their father, Dr. Navel. Their mother, Dr. Navel, has been missing for years. So when an explorer shows up with a clue as to where his wife could be, Dr. Navel drags Oliver and Celia to Tibet to find her. Once there, the twins fall out of airplanes, encounter Yetis, travel through waterfalls, and end up in the Demon Fortress of the Warrior King where they-just possibly-might find their mother and save their father from the Poison Witches. Thing is, they would much rather be watching television. And if their trip doesn't work out as planned, the twins could end up as slaves to Sir Edmund Thitheltorpe III, an evil explorer with breath that smells like boiled carrots, who has it in for the whole Navel family.
Author Notes
C. Alexander London is an award-winning author of nonfiction for grown-ups, an accomplished skeet-shooter, a master SCUBA diver, and a fully licensed librarian. He has watched television in 23 countries, survived an erupting volcano, a hurricane, 4 civil wars, and a mysterious bite on his little toe in the jungles of Thailand. Currently, C. Alexander London lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In adult author London's first children's book, aptly classified as an accidental adventure, twins Celia and Oliver Navel (don't call them couch potatoes-in their words they're "audiovisual enthusiasts") are reluctantly sucked into a pursuit of the Lost Tablets of Alexandria to save their explorer parents. The bantering twins would rather be mindlessly watching their favorite TV shows, like Love at 30,000 Feet and The World's Greatest Animal Chases Three, but instead are dragged off on another tedious trek by their father. Soon they are being booted from an airplane midflight, going toe-to-toe with a yeti, and running from a disgruntled faux-lama. It takes a few chapters for the story to ramp up, but then the pages are packed with action, so much so that some readers may have trouble following everything. Still, the twins' struggles are absurdly comical-at one point, a clan of witches tries to poison their "Yak Butter Stew"-making for boisterous reading. Readers will love the clever, ridiculous means by which the twins triumph over their pursuers as their TV expertise helps them outwit many bumbling adults. Art not seen by PW. Ages 10-up. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
The book's promising premise--TV-addicted, junk-food-eating offspring of famous explorer parents are dragged into a Tibetan adventure--turns into a string of cliffhangers decorated with quips, comical names, one-liners, and absurdities, some genuinely witty and satirical and others unfortunately based on an "aren't foreigners funny?" worldview. The best jokes get lost in the noise; still, there's some appeal in the uneven offering. (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Twins Oliver and Celia Navel hate adventures. They would rather watch television, but their parents are world-famous explorers. Then their mother goes missing, and the twins accompany their father to Tibet in search of her. There, they encounter a yeti and witches and battle the evil and diminutive explorer, Sir Edmund Titheltorpe-Schmidt III. Fortunately, their vast television watching has given them enough useful ideas to help overcome the obstacles in their way, and readers learn that in a future series installment, the formerly safe and sedentary Navel twins will try to recover the lost library of Alexandria. The many sarcastic and ironic remarks grow somewhat tiresome as the long story wears on, but among the many recent novels that feature kids who fearlessly save the world, however, this one stands out for its funny take on the theme.--Morning, Todd Copyright 2010 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-7-Eleven-year-old twins Oliver and Celia Navel hate adventures or going anywhere, and would prefer to watch hours and hours of television. Unfortunately, their parents are world-renowned explorers and live on the 4 1/2 floor of the Explorers Club in New York City, so the children don't have much choice about going on great excursions. Their mother disappeared months ago while attempting to locate lost tablets from the library at Alexandria. To make matters worse, their father bets an Explorers Club board member that he can find his wife and make one of the greatest discoveries known to mankind: finding Shangri-la. At the club, the twins overhear a conversation about destroying their father, and they attempt to warn him. One thing leads to another, and the three Navels travel to Nepal in search of the children's missing mother. Somehow everything goes awry, and the action becomes nonstop. The three of them are ejected from a plane without a parachute, meet a Lama and a few monks, and the adventures keep coming. While there's quite a bit of repetition about the children's addiction to television, and some of the situations are over-the-top, London establishes a quick pace and provides plenty of wit and humor.-Patty Saidenberg, George Jackson Academy, New York City (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Eleven-year-old twins Celia and Oliver Navel have little in common with their famous explorer parents. Celia and Oliver find adventure and explorationboooorinnng. What really excites them is hours and hours of TV...Love at 30,000 Feet,Greatest Animal Chases,Agent Zero. There's no escape from explorers, though, since they live at New York's Explorers' Club with their dadtheir mother is missing. When a clue to her whereabouts arrives, Dr. Ogden Navel drags his children along for the quest, and getting tossed out of the airplane mid-flight is but the first step on the journey. Awaiting them are Yetis, talking yaks, poison witches and an evil council of megalomaniacal explorers bent on using the Lost Library of Alexandria to take over the world. London's debut,the first in a series (if the leading final pages are any indication), is a fine combination of dry wit and slapstick. An overabundance of references to fake TV shows palls as the reluctant adventurers use their tube-fueled smarts to make it back to civilization, but the quirky characters and Snicket-esque narrator should ensure a fan following. Art not seen.(Adventure. 9-14)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
