Friendless Carl spots a cryptic flyer warning people about the damage to bridges, making him wonder whether someone else also believes that monsters are the culprit. His creatively frustrated father spends his time repairing bridges because there is no room to build new ones-and strangely, more repairs are needed than ever as bridges are being damaged in unusual ways. The text of this review has been edited to reflect updates to the final book.Carl Chesterfield can see 33 bridges from his Pittsburgh window.ĭescended from generations of bridge engineers, Carl is avidly interested in the structures. Carl’s parents are realistically flawed, and his mix of feelings around their constant fighting ring true as a candid third-person narrative follows the mostly presumed-white characters through Borba’s whimsical, sincere debut. Together, the four work to save Pittsburgh’s bridges and the food truck’s future. When confident principal’s son Teddy and vivacious Bee (cued as of Korean descent) team up with shy Carl, forming the Midnight Brigade, they meet Frank, a 25-foot-tall troll with a mysterious past involving bridge protection. While Carl’s ever-arguing parents navigate this decision’s financial fallout, Carl begins to notice that the increasing bridge damage looks to be the work of steel-hungry monsters. Seeking “a new noble profession,” Carl’s dad spontaneously mortgages the family’s home to buy a rusty food truck and a spot of land under a bridge.
Since “few places remain for new bridges to be built,” Carl’s engineer father is stuck repairing them-lately, at a bizarrely high rate. Carl Chesterfield loves his parents, his home of Pittsburgh, and the city’s 400 bridges-which the men on his father’s side have engineered for generations-but his shyness prevents him from speaking up much at home or at school.
0 kommentar(er)
