08/05/2024
The propulsive first entry in Downing and Waugh’s new middle-grade adventure series vividly evokes its Depression-era Pittsburgh setting in a plucky story of unlikely friendship and macabre conspiracy. Eleven-year-old street-dweller Lewis Carter becomes notorious for using an explosive compound—one he engineered quite by accident, when mixing his missing chemist father’s recycled ingredients together—to pilfer food. When he teams up with whimsical nonsense-spouter and fellow child urchin Pearl Alice Clavell to keep the so-called Flash out of the wrong hands, the two ultimately uncover an insidious, homegrown political subversion plot.
This is an endlessly delightful romp packed with rich characterization, transportive period details, and plenty of important life lessons for middle-grade readers. The authors nimbly weave explorations of homelessness, the death and betrayal of parents, and the dangers of radicalization into a fun and fast-paced detective plot—a winning formula that could support plenty of follow-ups. Playful writing pops the characters off the page and enlivens the book’s graver stretches, as when Pearl whispers to Lewis about a real Nazi rally held in New York City in 1934.
The heart of this promising start to the Flash Gang series is the bond between Lewis and Pearl. Downing and Waugh make the enemies-to-allies tropes their own by rooting their cast in the terra firma of an authentically rendered steel-belt metropolis at the pinnacle of production. The “hot, sludgy, ashy, and gritty” surroundings add depth and specificity to the characters’ desperate situations—parentless but perseverant, with an inner pride that, at the very least, they aren’t orphans (Lewis boasts that “whether they worked in groups or operated alone, all streeters preferred to pinch a meal, to sleep under the stars with frost chewing their fingertips, than to be lost to a grim institution”). Readers will root for a triumph over the forces of very real evil in this entertaining offering.
Takeaway: Plucky Depression-era street kids uncover vast conspiracy.
Comparable Titles: Lauren Wolk’s Beyond the Bright Sea, Sheila Turnage’s Three Times Lucky.
Production grades Cover: B+ Design and typography: A Illustrations: N/A Editing: A Marketing copy: A
"Packed with clever twists and ever-rising stakes, The Adventures of the Flash Gang is a bright flare of fun, a throwback gangster caper with irresistible kid sleuths and loads of page-turning action.” —Ben Guterson, author of the award-winning Winterhouse series and The Einsteins of Vista Point
“Delightfully Dickensian in spirit. Period events are woven seamlessly into this rollicking tale of friendship and fortitude. I challenge any reader not to fall in love with the histrionics and devil-may-care verve of Pearl Alice Clavell and her grease-smeared partner in crime, Lewis Carter.” —J.R. Potter, author of Thomas Creeper and the Gloomsbury Secret
“Clever, catchy dialogue and non-stop action catapult the reader from page to page till we land breathless, intrigued, and anxiously awaiting the Flash Gang’s next adventures.” —Kimberly Behre Kenna, author of Artemis Sparke and the Sound Seekers Brigade
“A loveable, ragtag cast you'll root for from page one.” —Kerry O’Malley Cerra, award winning author of Just a Drop of Water and Hear Me
★ 2023-06-22
In Waugh and Downing’s middle-grade historical novel set in 1935, a boy with a dangerous secret and an unexpected sidekick flees ruthless enemies.
In Depression-era Pittsburgh, 11-year-old Lewis Carter is among the unhoused, hungry masses on the streets. His chemistry professor father left one day in 1934for a mysterious meeting and didn’t come back, and Lewis was thrown out by their landlady to fend for himself. He’s survived by using his father’s secret “Recipe” of substances that create a harmless but blinding flash of light, distracting shop owners long enough for him to purloin food. The thefts are rumored to be the work of criminals dubbed the “Flash Gang” by local newspapers, but hardened criminals, aware of the existence of the Recipe, want to exploit its potential for lethal violence; the villains manage to track Lewis down; needing more information, they kidnap him and imprison him in a house. At this point, the tense plot takes a seemingly farcical turn: Pearl Alice Clavell, a girl wearing a sparkly pink tutu and ballet slippers, appears and rescues Lewis. It turns out that Pearl equates every danger with an episode of the popular weekly radio show “The Adventures of Lola Lavender,” whose hero she imitates. The authors, however, movingly balance Pearl’s eccentricities with the emerging truth of her plight. Later, the novel provides a startling revelation of who the kidnappers are and how they plan to use Lewis’ father’s Recipe. Lewis is relatably vulnerable throughout: He’s worried about his father’s fate and physically limited by asthma attacks that are made worse by “the thick smog of Pittsburgh,” which settles in his lungs “like soggy grit.” The pair also find allies in a sympathetic reporter and some tough but supportive street kids. The historical underpinnings of the plot—including widespread corruption, local mobsters, and the rise of Hitler sympathizers—are well researched, capturing a crisis-ridden time and place with immediacy. The novel ends with an intriguing teaser for the next book in the series.
A tale with plenty of humor and suspense, memorable characters, and a plot that’s vividly informed by a challenging time in U.S. history.
