In this updated Robin Hood story from Edgar Award–winning author Peter Abrahams (the Echo Falls series), a real-estate tycoon takes the place of evil royalty, and a scrappy seventh-grader fills the outlaw's shoes.
Robbie Forester may not be the smartest girl in her class--or the most athletic--but she's got a sharp eye, a good heart and can tell when something is up. And if businessman Sheldon Gunn and his New Brooklyn Redevelopment Project aren't up to something, she's a monkey's uncle. They're shutting down the local food kitchen, driving her favorite Thai place out of business and plotting against who knows how many others in Robbie's neighborhood. With a charm bracelet that seems determined to get her and her three new friends into (and then back out of) trouble, Robbie and her impromptu team take matters into their own hands.
Robbie is an endearing heroine with well-meaning and fairly on-the-ball parents. Abrahams draws her sidekicks in broader strokes, with more neglected home lives. Haitian immigrant Tut-Tut gets the most attention of the supporting characters and is also the source of the book's grimmest moments: he lives in the projects, lost his parents in the journey to the U.S. and is stuck with an abusive alcoholic uncle. But dysfunctional families take a backseat to the action, and there are more light moments than dark. The kids' different talents will remind readers that heroes aren't all cut from the same cloth, and the bracelet's powers keep the plot moving along with a few surprising twists and turns. --Jenn Northington, events manager at WORD bookstore