Another Whole Nother Story
(Libby/OverDrive eBook, Kindle)

Gr 4-7-Picking up where A Whole Nother Story (2009) left off, this installment (2010, both Bloomsbury) in the Cheeseman family saga by Dr. Cuthbert Soup finds Ethan and his three children hurtling towards another adventure in their time machine, the Luminal Velocity Regulator (LVR). Their goal is to travel back in time to prevent the death of their beloved wife and mother. However, a glitch in the LVR has them crash-landing into the 17th century, where they have to outrun both witch-hunters and pirates in the midst of trying to figure out how to get back on track. Their journey ends as it began-eventfully-with a doppelganger duke from Denmark and a trip further back in time in the hopes that they can travel full circle back to where they began. This is a quirky, madcap tale, and Dick Hill does a hilarious job as narrator. He voices all characters deftly, moving seamlessly from an 8-year-old boy to a grizzled Scottish seaman to a Danish duke who can barely speak English. With such a variety of insane characters and Hill's ability to make them come alive, there are many laugh-out-loud moments. Although this title stands fairly well on its own, it is especially recommended for libraries where the first book is popular.-Amy Holland, Irondequoit Public Library, Rochester, NY (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

In this sequel to A Whole Nother Story, the pompous and ever-unhelpful Dr. Soup narrates the Cheeseman family's travails as they hurtle across space and time to prevent a centuries-old curse and save their mother. Meanwhile, their circus friends gleefully return to piracy and old foes resurface. The story gallops from one zany, ill-fated event to the next, thinly tethered to coherence. Copyright 2010 of The Horn Book, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slipping Dave Barrystyle ruminations between each chapter, the pseudonymous Dr. Soup, world-famous "Advisor to the Ill-Advised," strands the motley time-traveling cast assembled in A Whole Nother Story (2010)including brilliant scientist Ethan Cheeseman, his three children (repeatedly described as "smart, polite, attractive, and relatively odor-free"), a psychic dog, a sock puppet and a crew of cursed but friendly piratesin 1668 New England. Many misadventures and an Atlantic crossing later, after narrow escapes from witch hunters, a pirate of the unfriendly sort and other hazards, they proceed to Denmark to lay the aforementioned curse to rest (and run afoul of the local Duke's evil step-twin in the process), after which the Cheesemans climb aboard a fresh time machine obligingly provided by the previous episode's vengeful but woefully hapless villain Mr. 5 for the next stage in their quest to rescue their murdered mother. Fans of baroque misadventures, bumbling villains, heroic rescues, cliffhangers and especially sarcastic reparteenot to mention intrusive narratorswill be charmed anew. (Fantasy of the absurd. 11-13)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Gr 4–7—In this rip-roaring follow-up to A Whole Nother Story (Bloomsbury, 2010), Ethan Cheeseman, his three children, a sock puppet, and a dog named Pinky head back in time to 1668. Their goal? To break a centuries-old family curse by returning the White Gold Chalice to its owner, and to save the children's mother from a violent end. Unfortunately, landing in 1668 damages their egg-shaped time machine, and the family members must go in search of a blacksmith to find materials for its repair. Meeting a lively, but mostly underdeveloped cast of characters along the way, including Big, a Pocahontas look-alike, and the Mailman (so named because his many piercings resemble chain mail), the Cheesemans and company wreak havoc wherever they go. To complicate matters, Olivia's murderer, Mr. 5, is right on their tails. The story is narrated by the self-described "incomparable" Dr. Cuthbert Soup and punctuated by his mini-chapters, which usually have only loose connections to the story, but are hilarious on their own. It's over-the-top with a sometimes annoyingly frantic pace. However, the laugh-out-loud moments are many, and the puns are clever and sarcastic. This book should appeal to fans of Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events" (HarperCollins), Pseudonymous Bosch's The Name of This Book Is Secret (Little, Brown, 2007), and other stories that capitalize on the absurd.—Mandy Lawrence, Fowler Middle School, Frisco, TX