The Last Mirror on the Left
by Lamar Giles; illus. by Dapo Adeola
Intermediate, Middle School    Versify/Houghton    272 pp.    g
10/20    978-0-358-12941-7    $16.99
e-book ed.  978-0-358-13043-7    $9.99

After their supernatural successes in The Last Last-Day-of-Summer (rev. 3/19), Sheed and Otto must now live up to their status as the Legendary Alston Boys of Logan County. The cousins have recently discovered that their town’s Rorrim Mirror Emporium is actually a prison (part of the Multiverse Justice System); but mirrors are missing — and with them the prisoners they held. So off the boys go through the looking glasses into the Warped World, a place much like their home world, but not quite. They recruit allies — a veterinarian, a posse of giant spiders, and the local Church Ladies — who, armed with forceful voices, a yo-yo, an Afro pick, and a giant mirror, prove formidable. Continuing a plot point from volume one, Otto also seeks a cure for a mysterious illness threatening Sheed’s life. Lively prose, witty wordplay, and likable protagonists make this a fully engaging story. The text is spaciously laid out, with Otto’s log entries and Adeola’s illustrations (final art not seen) interspersed. An afterword hints at “adventures to come.”

From the November/December 2020 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.