Downing and Waugh deliver another rollicking entry in the Flash Gang series, deepening the already rich current of lore with several instantly memorable new characters and an entertaining, rip-roaring mystery. In this second episode, after Exploding Experiment, heroes Lewis, Pearl, and the newly assembled Flash Gang fully unravel the treasonous Nazi plot that now grips the Depression-era streets of Pittsburgh. Streeters, or child urchins, are disappearing, Pearl’s magnanimous father is back in town (and not what he seems), and, in order to take down the villainous industrialist John J. Pickering, the gang must expand—and navigate the growing pains that come with that.Treasonous Tycoon is a pleasure to read at sentence level, boasting moments where riding around with villains is like “sharing a back seat with a crocodile” and mobster Al Capone is the penultimate outlaw. The icing on the cake is the authors’ intricate plotting, with the friendship between Lewis and Pearl—sure to pull at young readers’ heartstrings—shining at the center of all the political machinations and alliterative pyrotechnics. Pearl is the “most loyal, very best friend [Lewis] could ever have,” and the introduction of new streeters like the silly Willow Willy and mysterious Greta Vogel offer a diverse array of models for courage and compassion.
The authors manage again to unspool complex ethical dilemmas that will fully engage readers’ critical thinking skills. From a steel workers’ revolt that highlights the need for fair labor conditions to the role of complacency in fostering fascism to disparities in wealth between young friends sowing inarticulable divisions, Treasonous Tycoon offers a rewarding intellectual puzzle perfect for middle grade audiences—but it’s also an escapist thrill ride, culminating in the series’ most action-packed sequence yet, a hair-raising fictionalization of the great Allegheny flood of 1936. Parents, teachers, and middle grade readers will be spellbound.
Takeaway: Thrilling sequel matches original’s swashbuckling adventure and intrigue.
Comparable Titles: Amy Trueblood’s Across a Broken Shore, Clare Vanderpool’s Moon Over Manifest.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
