Take a good look at the picture on the cover.
Sword. Chunky kid. Untied shoelace. What do you think?
Yes, the hero in The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp is a kid. Yes, he has King Arthur’s Excalibur. Yes, the villains are after him.
No. He is not a nerd, nor wimpy, nor skinny nor does he wear glasses. What he is, is an orphan with a very large head, a big husky body, not super clever, not college-bound, and he plays football only because he has to. The entire book is full of surprises like this. We have scenes that you just know how they will proceed – but then they don’t. You have a character who seems miscast as a hero – until he becomes one. You have ambiguous characters – until they reveal themselves. I thoroughly enjoyed The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp. I loved the character Alfred Kropp, loved the plot, the fast pace, the on-going mystery of the ambiguous super secret organization OIPEP.
This is a very fast read; I finished in one evening, then ran downstairs to get the sequel on my Nook. The book combines a fun read with some serious introspection on the part of a fifteen year old self-described screw up kid. Alfred knows he will goof and make the wrong decision but he keeps on going, determined to set right what he caused to go wrong. Yes, there is some coming-of-age in this book; after all you can’t avoid that when dealing with a teen protagonist. But the coming of age is well done and just sort of happens along the way.
The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp is classified as YA fiction since Alfred is fifteen. No doubt boys will especially enjoy this but girls and adults will too.
I highly recommend this.
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