2022-10-25
A girl’s backyard investigation reveals tiny, magical visitors in need of her help.
In this middle-grade fantasy, rooted in a seventh grader’s everyday life, 12-year-old Roxanne “Roxy” Maxwell is intrigued when coins lost in her backyard reappear on her doorstep. She and her electrical engineer father craft a trap to find out what sort of animal could have done such a thing. The culprits: a pair of 4-inch-tall, green, pointy-eared sprites. Roxy and her friend Dexie Chappell figure out how to communicate with the two strangers (again with Dad’s electrical engineer help), and learn that they are Niffits whose duty is to “find things and return them.” A traveling mishap has left the two far from their home in “Nihon koku—Japan,” and they are desperate to return before the female Niffit gives birth. Roxy, Dexie, neighbor Dean Walker, and Roxy’s parents come up with a solution: a specially designed toy plane to get the Niffits past the Transportation Security Administration screening and onto a jet to Japan. Unfortunately, the book’s fantasy elements will disappoint many readers. Little content, other than the Niffits’ names (Akira and Masako), establishes Japan as their country of origin. The trip to Japan is dismissed with a short visit to a generic park and a departure from the country on the same day. (The abrupt conclusion appears to suggest a sequel in the making.) Averill’s detailed descriptions of how the backyard traps, communication device, and aerodynamic paper plane are built, experimented with, and revised are more intriguing. Relationships, too, are a strength: Roxy and Dexie learn that pesky fifth grader Dean is actually smart and kind. Roxy’s parents are warm and loving; Dexie’s are too strict; and Dean’s are caring but overworked. (One unpleasant and unnecessary element: To swear Dean to secrecy about the Niffits, Dexie, whose father is a banker, threatens to have his parents’ finances examined.) The engaging story is interspersed with expressive, uncredited, full-page digital illustrations that have the look of colored pencil and watercolor. These depict Roxy, her father, and Dexie, who are White; Dean, who is a Black student; and the green-skinned Niffits clad in leaves and grass.
Despite some missteps, an enjoyable tale for budding engineers and fans of reality-based fantasies.
