The Last Mirror on the Left (A Legendary Alston Boys Adventure) Paperback – September 21, 2021

My daughter lived this book. It was entertaining for her. Representation matters in art. So it was great seeing a book book featuring black children!

My fifth grade students loved the first Legendary Alston Boys story so much that two requested the next book for independent reading!

Loved this series. ❤️ For black preteen boy they need to have stories told like this where they are just themselves.

Otto and Sheed are back on another zany adventure. Perfect book for fans of fantasy, adventure, humor, and mishaps!

My great nephew enjoyed reading. He's 13.

This starts a bit slowly, but gets up to speed soon enough. From there on it's a clever, fun ride.Our heroes, Otto and Sheed, are cousins who live with their grandma. This is their second adventure, so a lot of their backstory was told in the first Alston Boys adventure. The most important carry over is that at the end of Book One Otto learned that Sheed has, or might have, "health problems" that could be fatal in the near future. Otto's concern for Sheed is a running theme throughout the book, motivates a fair amount of the action, and plays a decisive role in the finale. This mostly works as it adds some weight to what could otherwise be just a ditzy adventure, but it does sometimes get in the way and distract from the action.In that regard, we basically have a prison in the form of a hall of mirrors. Some mirrors are prison cells. Some mirrors lead to an alternate bizarro world where everything familiar from our world is backward, mixed up, or "warped". This is where you have to be patient, at least at the outset. It takes a bit to explain the mirrors, the prison, the bad guys, and the warped world. Once that is in place, though, the action, jokes, bits and bobs, and twists become clear and easy enough to follow. Indeed, this is one of those alt-universe, time travelly books where everything becomes clearer the deeper in you go. Sometimes these books can be a challenge, and at least this one doesn't keep throwing you odder and odder curves.As always the Alston Boys are a hoot. They are smart, resourceful, loyal and steadfast, and all of the good things you want from your middle grade quest heroes. Likability is off the chart, and it doesn't hurt that the Boys are surrounded this time by a fine cast of supporting characters. This is a fun find.(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Our intrepid heroes, cousins Otto and Sheed, have been called by Officer Nedraw. She insists they come down immediately to the Rorrim Mirror Emporium to help her with a big problem. The evil Nevan has escaped from his mirror cell and has freed a lot of other inmates. Officer Nedraw takes the boys through a mirror into an alternate universe, Warped World, in some ways like their hometown of Fry, but in many ways very different. The boys are captured by a band of escaped prisoners of the giant spider variety with alliterative names like Spencer and Spenlope. These escaped jailbirds turn out to be more helpful than harmful, while the boys are with them. When one of the spiders breaks some legs, Dr. Medina is called, and Otto discovers there is a medicine in Warped World that seems to cure anything. Otto is worried about Sheed facing an serious illness sometime in the future, and Otto decides he needs to get that medicine. This goal causes the boys to become separated, and then things get really interesting. Will they be able to make it back to Fry? Can Otto get the medicine and, if he does, will it do the trick? There are a lot of questions to be answered and a lot of excitement to get to those answers.Lamar Giles must have a wicked sense of humor and a great imagination to come up with these wonderful books. The characters are well-rounded and have problems kids will relate to. The writing is casual and will welcome all young readers, even reluctant readers. The dialogue is snappy and fun, the story is very compelling, and there is room for more books, which will make middle-grade readers very happy. The cute illustrations support the story well and will bring those reluctant readers along for this fun ride.

This is a fun book. It is the second in a series so it helps to read the books in order but it still works as a stand alone book. The main characters are middle school aged cousins that have a sort of cousin rivalry that mirrors siblings so there is a bit of punching here and there but no real violence. There is a magic mirror from the Rorrim Mirror Company with a prison warden named Missus Nedraw. It's easy to remember a name that is warden spelled in reverse, like you would see in a mirror. There are plenty of twists and turns throughout the book along with plenty of humor. I ordered this for my grandlittles and once they have read it then I'll update this if they don't like it but I think they are going to love it.