A Royal Conundrum (The Misfits)

Lisa Yee and Dan Santat hit it out of the ballpark. Wonderful funny fast-paced story about a bunch of misfits, who turn out to have special talents.This story takes place at a boarding school RASCHIT'S A REFORMING ARTS SCHOOL. I never figured out what the CH stood for. I'm looking forward to finding out the answer in the next book. Oh, please let there be a next book. This is a story about a group of kids who have very special talents. They are chosen to become a spy unit for an elite undercover group. Stakes are high, because if they don't solve the mystery, RASCH, the school, they've come to love is history. I love Dan Santat drawings of the characters. This is a really fun book and I highly recommend it.

Olive feels invisible at her school. When she is called to the office one day, she is told she is withdrawing to go to a prestigious school in San Francisco. There, she is not quite invisible and finds a group of friends. Together, they learn how to help the police solve crimes and with a nasty jewel thief on the loose, they are ready to put their skills to work.OpinionThis is an awesome book for young adolescents. There are all kinds of clues and red herrings peppered throughout the book to keep the reader on their toes. This book made me laugh and anticipate what was going to happen. (I did not pin the culprit but love how it turned out.) I would recommend this to any child who loves adventure books.Many thanks to Net Galley and Random House Childrens for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Every student (and adult) can relate to this story. We need more stories like this one!

My child loved this book, said it was; super interesting, with plot twists (even at the very end), good for fans of Mr. Lemoncello’s library, The mysterious Benedict society, and books by Kelly Yang. Notes: My kid is new to Lisa Yee but said that she is a really good childrens books author. It had a few pictures by Dan Santat spread throughout the book. Recommended for children ages 8-12 but adults might find it interesting.

Bought it for our school library. The children love it.

Olive Cobin Zang is a young girl who (like so many) doesn't fit into her school. To top it off, her parents are barely there, almost always gone for work. That was okay because she had her grandmother to watch her but now her grandmother is gone and Olive has to deal with that grief on top of being an outsider.Unsurprisingly her parents have to leave so Olive is pulled out of school and sent to a boarding school off the California coast (drawing from Alcatraz's vibe). To her shock, Olive loves her new school. It allows the kids to play to their strengths and gives her some self esteem.As per the blurb the school RASCH is a cover for an elite group of misfits who fight crime and Olive and her little group are being trained ala spy training to stop crime. They love it. There are computer geniuses, inventors, natural athletes and more (Olive is trained in gymnastics) But when the 'Bling King' steals amazing diamonds and a cat pin from the school's main donor, Olive and her friends face the school closing unless they can stop the king.I think the target age group will have a lot of fun with this. Olive and her friends are fun and relatable. I would have liked a bit more development of the others though (as this is definitely Olive's story and it's her close pov). I would have liked more description too because without the cover it was hard to tell there was as much diversity as there was.Still, those are minor quibbles. This is cute and I'd like to see more. The arc I have has only initial sketches and line art. I bet it will be very cute when it's finalized.

I’m not even sure how I stumbled across this book. However, I found it in the same stratosphere as Greetings From Witness Protection. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for the next installment.

3.5 = Good +A fun kid-spy story that reminded me a lot of the NERDS series by Michael Buckley. Kids who love this genre will find a lot of familiar beats here. Other themes are found family and friendship. There's a great cat component, too. Dan Santat's illustrations add a lot to this story.I received a review copy of this book from Netgalley.