I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: THE ROOTS-“Lovely, Love My family” (2009).

The Roots are known for many many things–most recently being the house band for Jimmy Fallon.  They do intelligent hip hop, but they also play “neo-soul” and this fun sorta-ska-like sweet song from the first Yo Gabba Gabba Music is Awesome CD.

It’s 2 minutes of poppy happiness. It’s fun to see ?uestlove bopping along, and to see the whole band in front of these bright colors.

This song is utterly catchy, with smart fun lyrics that are easy to sing along to And unlike some of the Yo Gabba Gabba songs it’s not terribly repetitive.  It’s even got a tuba solo.

Check it out:

[READ: May 6, 2014] The Dead of Night

I was pretty excited to get into this third book of the series, but something about this book burnt me out a bit.  It may have been because it was increasingly dark.  Or maybe that Atticus was in trouble from the get go and had to do a lot of work by himself–that seemed somehow more difficult to read than Dan and Amy working together.  It also seemed to have a bit less humor than the other books–like this one was all down to business, or that the stakes were higher or something.

Indeed, the book opens with Atticus in the back of the truck being taken away by the evil Wyoming kids.  They know he is a Guardian, even if he doesn’t know quite what that means. They are taking him somewhere in secret–which involves an airplane.  How is he ever going to notify anyone of where he is?  But it turns out that Dan and Amy aren’t the only techie kids, and soon Atticus has a way of signaling his friends that he has been taken to Turkey.

Meanwhile Amy is feeling especially guilty for everything that has happened–she’s supposed to be the senior family member in charge.  And Jake isn’t helping with that.  At the same time Dan keeps getting texts from AJT–the man he believes to be his father.  And they are making his mood even darker.

Back in the prisoners’ cell, the six inmates are planning an escape–they have gotten closer to understanding the lay of  the land so they hatch a plan.  But one thing they do not know is that V-1’s latest demand is that Dan and Amy give him what he wants or he will kill one of the prisoners.  He makes Dan decide who will be killed.  So he chooses Alistair–what a hard decision to have to make.

We also learn that V-1 has a scar–this may be a clue as to his identity but I haven’t been paying close enough attention to know.  It certainly hints that V-1 might be AJT (who was supposedly burned in fire).

But back to the plot.  By the middle of the book Attiucs has created a plan of escape.  He is eventually reunited with his family and the Cahills.  And a new deal is made with V-1–they are to go to Uzbekistan and the Wyomings are to leave them alone.

Dan and Amy face even more bad news in this book–learning the fate of McIntyre and then getting captured by Interpol.  They are put in a prison but are sort of maybe rescued by another Vesper–is she just trying to kill them?  What is her plan?

And back home in Attleboro, Ian seems to be up to something as well.  He has gone off the radar in search of his mother.  This leads Sinead to question Evan too–family ties are starting to fray.

Later when Dan and Amy head towards Paris, they adopt brand new identities, but even in these disguises, V-1 sends them a text with their new names–how does he know everything?

The final section of the book has them focusing in on an item that they must find.  And I have to say that this is one of the first clues in the series that I thought was so painfully obvious that I couldn’t believe the kids didn’t get it earlier, especially since they kept saying the word–I think that may have annoyed be about this book too a little (since they usually figure stuff out long before I do)..

One thing I meant to mention about the other books but i forgot is that there are pictures in this series–pictures of the many of the characters, including the prisoners.  It’s really strange because of course none of the characters look the way they are supposed to, right?  And there’s something a little strange about the camera angle or something.  I wonder who the “actors” are and if they will ever be put into the eventual film?

As the book ends, V-1 tells them that are to head to Berlin.  What could be waiting for them there?  Especially if AJT is really their father?