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*Seven Wonders, Book 1: The Colossus Rises* by Peter Lerangis, illustrated by Torstein Norstrand and Mike Reagan - middle grades book review
Seven Wonders, Book 1: The Colossus Rises
by Peter Lerangis, illustrated by Torstein Norstrand and Mike Reagan
Ages 8+ 368 pages HarperCollins February 2013 Hardcover    

Lerangis is the author of more than (believe it or not) 160 books. He adds another wonderful title to that astonishing number with The Colossus Rises, the first installment of what will be a sweeping seven-book collection called Seven Wonders. Book one deails the life of 13-year-old Jack McKinley, who is brought to a secret hospital as a prisoner of a mysterious organization.

It's an engaging concept, and from paragraph one on page one, Lerangis begins weaving his literary magic.
On the morning I was scheduled to die, a large barefoot man with a bushy red beard waddled past my house. The thirty-degree temperature didn't seem to bother him, but he must have had a lousy breakfast, because he let out a burp as loud as a tuba.

Belching barefoot giants who look like Vikings are not normal in Belleville, Indiana. But I didn't really get a chance to see the guy closely.

At that moment, I, Jack McKinley, was under attack in my own bedroom. By a flying reptile.
The heroes are teenagers who meet and must deal with mythological things and wondrous adventures. It is a formula used in Percy Jackson and the Kane Chronicles--and many other books--but Lerangis makes it his own. Certainly with the upcoming half-dozen books, the series will probably turn the formula of teens against the world upside-down.
 
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