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The Planet, the Portal, and a Pizza
Mystery and adventure collide in this humorous and heartfelt multiverse adventure from beloved, award-winning authors Wendy Mass and Nora Raleigh Baskin. Twelve-year-old Piper’s life has always been her parents are clockmakers whose inventions are anything but ordinary, and she’s the only kid she knows with a robotic talking dog. But her life takes a turn for the truly bizarre when she discovers her parents are in jeopardy and the key to saving them is a book full of strange equations. When Raisa and Lev travel through the portal to Piper’s world, Raisa can finally prove that her mother’s multiverse project worked. Now, she just needs the book containing her mother’s equations to get back to her world…if only she can find it! As Raisa and Piper adventure to the bounds of the multiverse, they’ll need to discover their place in the world if they ever want to find their way back home.
269 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 7, 2025
6 people are currently reading
3417 people want to read
About the author
Wendy Mass
82 books3,685 followersWendy Mass is the author of thirty novels for young people, including A Mango-Shaped Space, which was awarded the Schneider Family Book Award, Leap Day, the Twice Upon a Time fairy tale series, Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall, the Willow Falls, Space Taxi and Candymakers series. Wendy wrote the storyline for an episode of the television show Monk, entitled "Mr. Monk Goes to the Theatre," which aired during the show's second season. She tells people her hobbies are hiking and photography, but really they're collecting candy bar wrappers and searching for buried treasure with her metal detector. Wendy lives with her family in New Jersey.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
July 9, 2025
This was a very clever construct, but I found the writing oddly uneven and slow-going, particularly for a middle grade book. I am a big fan of multiverse stories and was expecting a quick, easy, entertaining tale that would suck me in and carry me along on a tide of interesting events and action.
Unfortunately, it didn't deliver what I was hoping it would...
The world-building was not quite as expansive or explanatory as I hoped, which again felt unusual for this age bracket. It was fine, but not as engaging as I expected. While admittedly I'm not its target audience, I have more patience for a slow build than most middle grade readers, so I'm not sure how this one would hold the attention of an actual kid...
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my obligation-free review copy.
Unfortunately, it didn't deliver what I was hoping it would...
The world-building was not quite as expansive or explanatory as I hoped, which again felt unusual for this age bracket. It was fine, but not as engaging as I expected. While admittedly I'm not its target audience, I have more patience for a slow build than most middle grade readers, so I'm not sure how this one would hold the attention of an actual kid...
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my obligation-free review copy.
May 8, 2025
Advanced reader copy. This book was good, but I found the end confusing/unsatisfying.
October 14, 2025
Multiverses, portals and friendship are what we experience in this fast-moving story about two friends, and their other universe doppelgängers.
Piper is used to the odd, unexpected and innovative. Her parents are clockmakers who have invented a number of things, including Rudy, the family’s robot talking dog.
We then meet Raisa. Her mother is worried, as her notebook full of complex mathematical equations is lost, and Raisa decides to find it, with her best friend Lev automatically accompanying her through the portal her engineer parents created. The pair find a lot of similarities with their world, but also some notable differences; e.g., what’s a bill at a restaurant?
Meanwhile, Piper has found a notebook full of bizarre calculations at her aunt’s bookstore, but can’t understand what any of it means or where it came from.
There are shocking revelations soon for Piper, and a stronger relationship with her parents subsequently.
This was a fun story, with an engaging protagonist in Piper. Rudy the robot talking dog was hilarious, and added some necessary levity, especially after Piper's parents disappeared.
At the same time, there were some funny moments while Raisa and Lev were wandering around Piper's world, but also highlighted the mysterious aspect of the situation, from the strange notebook to Piper's missing parents, to the portals, and how Raisa and Lev would connect with Piper's life.
There were a lot of complicated relationships revealed eventually, because of Raisa and Lev's verse travel. I'm not sure if the multiverses and the relationships would be totally clear to a nine-year-old, however.
I enjoyed both the prose and audio, which was narrated wonderfully by Madeleine Curry and Valerie Gutierrez, who brought a lot of energy and humour to the characters.
3.5 stars.
Thank you to Netgalley, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and to Hachette Audio for these ARCs in exchange for my review.
Piper is used to the odd, unexpected and innovative. Her parents are clockmakers who have invented a number of things, including Rudy, the family’s robot talking dog.
We then meet Raisa. Her mother is worried, as her notebook full of complex mathematical equations is lost, and Raisa decides to find it, with her best friend Lev automatically accompanying her through the portal her engineer parents created. The pair find a lot of similarities with their world, but also some notable differences; e.g., what’s a bill at a restaurant?
Meanwhile, Piper has found a notebook full of bizarre calculations at her aunt’s bookstore, but can’t understand what any of it means or where it came from.
There are shocking revelations soon for Piper, and a stronger relationship with her parents subsequently.
This was a fun story, with an engaging protagonist in Piper. Rudy the robot talking dog was hilarious, and added some necessary levity, especially after Piper's parents disappeared.
At the same time, there were some funny moments while Raisa and Lev were wandering around Piper's world, but also highlighted the mysterious aspect of the situation, from the strange notebook to Piper's missing parents, to the portals, and how Raisa and Lev would connect with Piper's life.
There were a lot of complicated relationships revealed eventually, because of Raisa and Lev's verse travel. I'm not sure if the multiverses and the relationships would be totally clear to a nine-year-old, however.
I enjoyed both the prose and audio, which was narrated wonderfully by Madeleine Curry and Valerie Gutierrez, who brought a lot of energy and humour to the characters.
3.5 stars.
Thank you to Netgalley, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and to Hachette Audio for these ARCs in exchange for my review.
October 27, 2025
Adventure and exploration through multiverses from alternating viewpoints. (They're going to meet.) They travel through different universes--some I recognize from history and various SF possibilities. My favorite character is Roody, the robot dog. He's lots of fun--including his upgrades. (Want to hazard a guess as to where his video feed is placed?) Trials and tribulations in their searches for missing parents.) I'm still not sure how all those relationships connect.
August 28, 2025
This is a pretty good upper elementary book that has time travel.
A 12 year old girl named Piper needs to save her parents (who remind me a bit of the main character in the Disney movie "The Absent Minded Professor," which was later remade to be the movie "Flubber"). They are similar because they have a mysterious lab in their basement where they are constantly making loud banging noises and explosions and are working on a mysterious project that no one knows about, and they unfortunately miss out on being there for their daughter's big events at school. But that's where the similarities end, because the reason they can't attend is that they are trapped by some invisible bubble shield that won't let them leave the house, and Piper and her robotic dog must figure out how the book of mysterious equations that she found will help her save her parents. That mysterious book happens to belong to Raisa and Lev, two kids about the same age who traveled through time through a portal that Raisa's mother's research had found. She was trying to prove that her mother's research of a multiuniverse portal was correct.
While the story was very entertaining, there were a couple of chapters where it got very confusing and didn't make a lot of sense. Personally, I don't think chapters 41-46 were really needed, mainly because they took a bizarre turn and didn't add much to the story for me.
But overall, I would recommend this book for upper elementary kids who like math or are interested in STEM.
Thank you, Little, Brown and Company, for the arc! These opinions are my own.
A 12 year old girl named Piper needs to save her parents (who remind me a bit of the main character in the Disney movie "The Absent Minded Professor," which was later remade to be the movie "Flubber"). They are similar because they have a mysterious lab in their basement where they are constantly making loud banging noises and explosions and are working on a mysterious project that no one knows about, and they unfortunately miss out on being there for their daughter's big events at school. But that's where the similarities end, because the reason they can't attend is that they are trapped by some invisible bubble shield that won't let them leave the house, and Piper and her robotic dog must figure out how the book of mysterious equations that she found will help her save her parents. That mysterious book happens to belong to Raisa and Lev, two kids about the same age who traveled through time through a portal that Raisa's mother's research had found. She was trying to prove that her mother's research of a multiuniverse portal was correct.
While the story was very entertaining, there were a couple of chapters where it got very confusing and didn't make a lot of sense. Personally, I don't think chapters 41-46 were really needed, mainly because they took a bizarre turn and didn't add much to the story for me.
But overall, I would recommend this book for upper elementary kids who like math or are interested in STEM.
Thank you, Little, Brown and Company, for the arc! These opinions are my own.
June 2, 2025
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Piper lives in Rockdale with her parents, who make clocks and often have explosive experiments with them. She has a robotic dog, Roody, who is often left in charge of keeping her safe. She has a friend, Sofia, who is in her class at school. Raisa lives in the future, and her mother is working on a device to travel through the multiverse. It doesn't look at will work, so she and her friend Lev take her mother's scientific notebooks and try to use the device. It works, and they end up in an alternate version of Rockdale where someone else is living in Raisa's house, but there are some constants, like the kids favorite pizza restaurant, Toozy Patza. Piper notices that her parents are getting odder and odder, and they eventually go missing. In both timelines, the children consult the brown leather bound book, but not everyone can see the writing in it. Raisa and Lev lose the book, so can't get back to their own time, but luckily run into Raisa's mother, who is not her mother, but who helps take care of the children. The multiverse is a complicated place, and the kids have to figure out a lot of different things in order to keep their universes intact.
This had a bit of a Willow Falls vibe to it, so I can definitely see Mass' influence in the title, but fantasy is not something that Baskin normally writes. There seems to be a resurgence in middle grade science fiction that deals with alternate realities; Stead's The Experiment, Haddix's The Moonleapers, and Schaefer's A Long Way From Home all have a similar feel. They are rather realistic, and have some themes of friendship and identity, but also include fantasy elements that have a scientific flavor. Holm's upcoming Outside looks to have some of these elements, but I haven't read it yet.
Piper lives in Rockdale with her parents, who make clocks and often have explosive experiments with them. She has a robotic dog, Roody, who is often left in charge of keeping her safe. She has a friend, Sofia, who is in her class at school. Raisa lives in the future, and her mother is working on a device to travel through the multiverse. It doesn't look at will work, so she and her friend Lev take her mother's scientific notebooks and try to use the device. It works, and they end up in an alternate version of Rockdale where someone else is living in Raisa's house, but there are some constants, like the kids favorite pizza restaurant, Toozy Patza. Piper notices that her parents are getting odder and odder, and they eventually go missing. In both timelines, the children consult the brown leather bound book, but not everyone can see the writing in it. Raisa and Lev lose the book, so can't get back to their own time, but luckily run into Raisa's mother, who is not her mother, but who helps take care of the children. The multiverse is a complicated place, and the kids have to figure out a lot of different things in order to keep their universes intact.
This had a bit of a Willow Falls vibe to it, so I can definitely see Mass' influence in the title, but fantasy is not something that Baskin normally writes. There seems to be a resurgence in middle grade science fiction that deals with alternate realities; Stead's The Experiment, Haddix's The Moonleapers, and Schaefer's A Long Way From Home all have a similar feel. They are rather realistic, and have some themes of friendship and identity, but also include fantasy elements that have a scientific flavor. Holm's upcoming Outside looks to have some of these elements, but I haven't read it yet.
July 16, 2025
This is my review for the paperback ARC version of The Planet, The Portal, and a Pizza by Wendy Mass and Nora Raleigh Baskin.
Summary:
“Twelve year old Piper’s life has always been unusual: her parents are clock-makers whose inventions are anything but ordinary, and she’s the only kid she knows with a robotic talking dog. But her life takes a turn for the truly bizarre when she discovers her parents are in jeopardy and the key to saving them is a book full of strange equations.”
Praise:
The twist near the end caught me off guard! Truly a genius piece of storytelling right there. That enticed me to finish the book much faster than I would have. This was definitely my favorite part. Also the descriptions of food!
Criticism:
The pacing. The beginning felt slow to me. It took 100+ pages for the characters to finish one full day, and then everything seemed to happen all at once during the last few chapters. Some of the overtly science fiction elements were a bit confusing to me too. It sometimes felt like too much was being explained, and then other times like not enough. It also seemed like the character Sophia was not well developed. She was barely in the book, but was set up to be Piper’s best friend by the end.
Random note:
I’m not entirely sure what the setting of this book is. I assumed it took place somewhere in the US since the authors are both American, but the protagonist is 12 and in fifth grade, and the metric system is used exclusively, so I’m not certain.
Final thoughts:
This is a cute and funny science fiction story that will appeal to kids who like stories about alternate universes and mysterious scientific discoveries. It reads as younger middle grade, so it would probably be most enjoyed by kids ages 8–10. The chapters are very short and easy to digest.
3.5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Summary:
“Twelve year old Piper’s life has always been unusual: her parents are clock-makers whose inventions are anything but ordinary, and she’s the only kid she knows with a robotic talking dog. But her life takes a turn for the truly bizarre when she discovers her parents are in jeopardy and the key to saving them is a book full of strange equations.”
Praise:
The twist near the end caught me off guard! Truly a genius piece of storytelling right there. That enticed me to finish the book much faster than I would have. This was definitely my favorite part. Also the descriptions of food!
Criticism:
The pacing. The beginning felt slow to me. It took 100+ pages for the characters to finish one full day, and then everything seemed to happen all at once during the last few chapters. Some of the overtly science fiction elements were a bit confusing to me too. It sometimes felt like too much was being explained, and then other times like not enough. It also seemed like the character Sophia was not well developed. She was barely in the book, but was set up to be Piper’s best friend by the end.
Random note:
I’m not entirely sure what the setting of this book is. I assumed it took place somewhere in the US since the authors are both American, but the protagonist is 12 and in fifth grade, and the metric system is used exclusively, so I’m not certain.
Final thoughts:
This is a cute and funny science fiction story that will appeal to kids who like stories about alternate universes and mysterious scientific discoveries. It reads as younger middle grade, so it would probably be most enjoyed by kids ages 8–10. The chapters are very short and easy to digest.
3.5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
October 8, 2025
I love Wendy Mass and always choose her book The Candymakers as one of top ten books to read so I knew I would love this book too as soon as I saw the cover and title. The whole concept was interesting and I loved the plot twist that comes closer to the end. I kind of saw it coming but I think it was more because I have read so many of Wendy's books that I knew something had to be a revelation at some point. I agree with some other reviews I've read about the pacing. There are times where it drags and parts that feel rushed. I also agree that the ending needed a bit more explanation. It felt like the whole book was setting this ending up but then we didn't get the real details or explanation that would tie it all up nicely in the end. I kept wishing it was just a bit longer of a book so they could have spent more time world building and explaining the multiverse travel in more detail. I love these kinds of stories and I think the target demographic for this book of 8-10 would really love it too and make them look for more sci-fi books to read as well.
I enjoyed the characters all sort of equally but maybe lean more towards Piper as a favourite. I also really loved her talking robotic dog, Roody, who brought the laughs and silly humour that kids will love.
Another wonderful book by Wendy Mass and my first by Nora Raleigh Baskin. I hope to read more from both in the future as this was a fun, sci-fi book for kids of all ages.
I received an advanced digital copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
I enjoyed the characters all sort of equally but maybe lean more towards Piper as a favourite. I also really loved her talking robotic dog, Roody, who brought the laughs and silly humour that kids will love.
Another wonderful book by Wendy Mass and my first by Nora Raleigh Baskin. I hope to read more from both in the future as this was a fun, sci-fi book for kids of all ages.
I received an advanced digital copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
October 9, 2025
This book was pretty cute and whimsical but in a few ways it felt a bit confusing and as though things weren't explained very well. It has a bit of multiverse madness, techie kids, and a girl with a robotic dog partner.
Piper is a twelve year old whose parents seem more invested in building clocks and other techie gizmos. She knows they love her but they are often distracted by their own inventions to ask what might be going on in her life. On her way to school one day, she stops by a pizza place and is delayed which seems to stress her out, but she does notice a notebook at the used book store next door which seems to be a bit odd. Once she reaches school, she wishes she had grabbed it, but her robot dog did grab it. She opens it to find the book is filled with odd symbols and mathematical equations and when she runs her finger long them, magical things seem to happen.
On the other side of the story, there are Raisa and Lev who seem to use a notebook to transport them to another multiverse. They lose the notebook which brought them to this new place, and they find they don't have a way to return to their world. Things spin around in a chaotic fashion until ultimately we get to a pretty good reveal and we understand what happened.
I don't think the book did a very good job of explaining how things played out but I do feel the premise of the book was enjoyable and fun.
Piper is a twelve year old whose parents seem more invested in building clocks and other techie gizmos. She knows they love her but they are often distracted by their own inventions to ask what might be going on in her life. On her way to school one day, she stops by a pizza place and is delayed which seems to stress her out, but she does notice a notebook at the used book store next door which seems to be a bit odd. Once she reaches school, she wishes she had grabbed it, but her robot dog did grab it. She opens it to find the book is filled with odd symbols and mathematical equations and when she runs her finger long them, magical things seem to happen.
On the other side of the story, there are Raisa and Lev who seem to use a notebook to transport them to another multiverse. They lose the notebook which brought them to this new place, and they find they don't have a way to return to their world. Things spin around in a chaotic fashion until ultimately we get to a pretty good reveal and we understand what happened.
I don't think the book did a very good job of explaining how things played out but I do feel the premise of the book was enjoyable and fun.
October 30, 2025
Another fantastic collaboration from Wendy Mass (and my first read by Nora Raleigh Baskin)! I love finding middle grade books that fall outside of the genres I typically read (realistic fiction, verse, fantasy), so stumbling upon this sci-fi/multiverse story made for a fun new addition to my classroom library.
What I liked:
- The alternating POVs: I think this added mystery and suspense to the story, and I enjoyed both narrative voices.
- The supporting characters: Lev and Roody are hands down the best part of this book. I loved them even more than Piper and Raisa. (Can't go wrong with a pizza-loving robotic talking dog, right?)
- The science: I didn't necessarily understand what was going on with the colliding multiverses, but I did appreciate the authors' commitment to explaining it to the readers. I know some sci-fi-loving students who will appreciate this aspect of the story.
What didn't quite work for me:
- I found the ending to be a bit confusing and unexpected. While I enjoy a good twist, I felt like I didn't entirely understand what happened.
Thank you to NetGalley, Little, Brown Young Readers, and Hachette Audio for my advanced copy.
What I liked:
- The alternating POVs: I think this added mystery and suspense to the story, and I enjoyed both narrative voices.
- The supporting characters: Lev and Roody are hands down the best part of this book. I loved them even more than Piper and Raisa. (Can't go wrong with a pizza-loving robotic talking dog, right?)
- The science: I didn't necessarily understand what was going on with the colliding multiverses, but I did appreciate the authors' commitment to explaining it to the readers. I know some sci-fi-loving students who will appreciate this aspect of the story.
What didn't quite work for me:
- I found the ending to be a bit confusing and unexpected. While I enjoy a good twist, I felt like I didn't entirely understand what happened.
Thank you to NetGalley, Little, Brown Young Readers, and Hachette Audio for my advanced copy.
August 27, 2025
The thing about a good time travel story is that you have to fit the pieces together. We might think we are doing so, as we read, but when we finally see everything for what it is, we see how we were tricked, and yet it worked.
In this story, there are two twelve year old, who want to prove that they can travel through time and space, before the research is cut off. Only problem is, once they do travel, they lose their device, which is a good with formulas. Without the book, they can’t get back to their own time and space.
And at the other end of the story, we see someone who has the book, and is trying to figure it out.
And we know the three have to meet. But when and where?
Great story. Nice and tangled, hints and clues dropped, as we try to figure out how this will all come together in the end. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey, and was quite happy to see where it went.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. This book is coming out on the 7th of October 2025.
In this story, there are two twelve year old, who want to prove that they can travel through time and space, before the research is cut off. Only problem is, once they do travel, they lose their device, which is a good with formulas. Without the book, they can’t get back to their own time and space.
And at the other end of the story, we see someone who has the book, and is trying to figure it out.
And we know the three have to meet. But when and where?
Great story. Nice and tangled, hints and clues dropped, as we try to figure out how this will all come together in the end. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey, and was quite happy to see where it went.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. This book is coming out on the 7th of October 2025.
September 16, 2025
3.5 rounded up. I enjoyed this book but didn't love it. The alternate universe was interesting, but we hardly spent any time there. I liked the characters, but I also felt like we didn't get enough depth to really get to know them. The story was mostly engaging, but the pacing of the book felt off. Not much happened to advance the plot until about 75% of the way through (much of the book was focused on finding/understanding a notebook), and then suddenly a lot happened so fast that things felt rushed and not as well developed as it could've been. For example, I'm not sure what the point was of . But I think a middle-grades reader would enjoy this book, though may need some help understanding the ending.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC.
October 15, 2025
I think some kids will like this story of inter-dimensional travel, but it wasn't a big hit for me. I wasn't super invested in the characters or their world. The multiple dimensions seemed spotty and not super fleshed out. The robot dog, especially, separated me from the story (but I can see a lot of young kids liking his character). Once the robot dog is said to shrug its shoulders. Do dogs, even robot dogs, shrug their shoulders? What would that even look like? Another time, a lady advises Piper to help the dog with his stiff knees. I have never once thought of dogs' knees. I guess they have them, but I wouldn't call their leg joints knees. Anyway, the story isn't bad, and it might really draw in a kid who loves science, but I found myself hurrying through the reading, hoping I'd really like it once I was more invested. Even though the story didn't wow me, I love the cover design!!
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October 29, 2025Love that my job allows (requires, lol) me to take little vacations in children's and middle grade literature! I adored Wendy Mass's "A Mango Shaped Space" when I was kid, and was delighted by this newest work. "The Planet, the Portal and a Pizza" stars Piper, a 5th grade math whiz with a talking dog, eccentric clock-making parents, and not a whole lot of friends. Across the space-time continuum, Raisa and Lev are 6th grade science whizzes on a mission to prove the multiverse theory is real. Worlds (or universes) collide, and a mad-cap, mind-bending adventure ensues! "Planet" is for fans of "A Wrinkle in Time," with many flourishes of modernity for younger generations, and a twist this grown-up didn't even see coming!
July 9, 2025
This little novel has everything for the reluctant reader and also for the deep-thinking reader: sci-fi/fantasy, time travel through the multiverse, adventure, different perspectives, a mystery to solve—and a talking robotic dog who wants to be programmed to eat. My mind kept wanting to make a chart as I read the stories of Raisa and Lev and of Piper to solve how they would connect.
When Raisa and Lev use her mother’s device to help save her scientific project, they end up in an alternate version of their town where there some things are the same, like their favorite pizza restaurant, but many aspects are different. Luckily they meet Pauline who takes them in when they can’t return. In Piper’s time and town her parents supposedly make clocks (and her robot dog) but won’t let her go anywhere and are acting more and more oddly. The key to both their plights may be a notebook of equations which was lost.
This would be a fun book to read in a Book Club or even in as whole-class small-group readings (literary circles) where readers could collaboratively discuss and predict and maybe make character charts to discover the connections between the characters.
When Raisa and Lev use her mother’s device to help save her scientific project, they end up in an alternate version of their town where there some things are the same, like their favorite pizza restaurant, but many aspects are different. Luckily they meet Pauline who takes them in when they can’t return. In Piper’s time and town her parents supposedly make clocks (and her robot dog) but won’t let her go anywhere and are acting more and more oddly. The key to both their plights may be a notebook of equations which was lost.
This would be a fun book to read in a Book Club or even in as whole-class small-group readings (literary circles) where readers could collaboratively discuss and predict and maybe make character charts to discover the connections between the characters.
October 20, 2025
Thank you to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and Hachette Audio for the ALC!
Loved the vibes, but was a little too sci-fi vs. fantasy for me. I absolutely love the idea of the multiverse and multiple versions of ourselves being out there doing whatever they want. Also love a good portal/time travel component, but this veered too hard into complex scientific vocabulary and experimenting and my brain needs to turn off. Cute if you have middle-grade kids who are into this though - storyline is fun and ends in a great way!
Loved the vibes, but was a little too sci-fi vs. fantasy for me. I absolutely love the idea of the multiverse and multiple versions of ourselves being out there doing whatever they want. Also love a good portal/time travel component, but this veered too hard into complex scientific vocabulary and experimenting and my brain needs to turn off. Cute if you have middle-grade kids who are into this though - storyline is fun and ends in a great way!
September 24, 2025
4 stars
Traveling through alternate realities and a robot dog you can watch videos out of his butt; what more could middle grade readers want? While this was fun, I think the ending left me wanting a bit more. I’m not sure so much explanations of the “science” behind everything was really necessary either. I think any science fiction middle grade reader would enjoy this.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced copy to form opinions from.
Traveling through alternate realities and a robot dog you can watch videos out of his butt; what more could middle grade readers want? While this was fun, I think the ending left me wanting a bit more. I’m not sure so much explanations of the “science” behind everything was really necessary either. I think any science fiction middle grade reader would enjoy this.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced copy to form opinions from.
September 24, 2025
First, thanks to Goodreads, the authors, and publisher for my free print copy:-) I've been very into multiverse stories since Everything Everywhere All At Once and Dr Strange so this was right up my alley. Exciting and quick read, I think it will be perfect for my 13 year old daughter so I'll probably pass it on to her:-)
September 8, 2025
I thought this was fun but uneven. Most of the book involves Raisa trying to find a missing book and Piper trying to understand the mysterious book she found, so there's some plot but not a ton. Then suddenly something big and confusing happens, and then everything is explained and resolved.
October 27, 2025
Cute and fun audiobook to enjoy with older grade school aged kids. Featuring girls who excel in STEM this is a science and math celebration and adventure. The narration was well done and engaging.
This is a review of the audiobook.
This is a review of the audiobook.
April 23, 2025
Wendy Mass has done it again!!! I cannot WAIT to read this with my fifth graders next year, holy cow
alc-netgalley
October 15, 2025(Audio courtesy of Hachette Audio and NetGalley.)
October 15, 2025
I enjoyed this story and got great A Wrinkle in Time vibes from the multiverse plot setup, but I found the pacing a bit slow, especially for my 9-year-old.
October 27, 2025
Reminded me a little of The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer Holm. The idea of an alternate universe and time travel is always interesting.
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