Casey and Lacey Nicefolk are itching for another adventure. Good thing their parents are off on a visit to Aunt Polly's, leaving the fraternal-twin ten-year-olds alone on the herb farm in sunny California. Casey builds a model of the vintage championship speedboat Hotsy Totsy , and they use the Mystery Box left by itinerant farmhand/wizard Sucoh Sucop to turn it into a full-sized boat so they can enter the Gold Cup Grand National Powerboat Race. Unfortunately, "The Boss" has escaped from jail and plans revenge against the Nicefolk kids. Fortunately, he and his bumbling sidekicks are no match for the magic of Hotsy Totsy . Cussler's sequel to his abysmal Adventures of Vin Fiz (2006) suffers from all the same problems: stilted prose, gender stereotypes, unrealistic dialogue, deus-ex-magicus solutions to every problem. Both read as if written by someone who closed the cover on their last children's book in 1940. A publishing event that demands an apology to the industry, all children and the trees that gave their lives. (Magical adventure. 7-10)

Gr 3-5 When their parents go out of town, 10-year-old fraternal twins Casey and Lacey Nicefolk decide to use their magical black box to turn a toy model boat into a functioning powerboat and enter the Gold Cup Grand National Race up the Sacramento River. What follows is a series of mini adventures for the siblings and their dog, including kidnapping by the bad guys from The Adventures of Vin Fiz (Philomel, 2006) and the actual race itself, which comprises nearly half the book. Written in a style reminiscent of an old-fashioned dime novel, the book has no character development and a lot of telling rather than showing. The writing is stilted, and the story lacks excitement or purpose. Jessica Marie, Renton Public Library, WA