Leo McGuffin,
scientist and inventor, is the Chief Technical Officer at the Institute of
Fantastical Inventions.
His job is to take people’s fantasies and turn them
into reality – like a genie who operates on the principles of science rather
than using magic.
We see Leo
using his rather convoluted logic when applying his scientific knowledge into
the sort of inventions everybody wishes they could have – an extra leg that
glows in the dark? No worries. The ability to float around like a bubble? Sure,
why not.
McGuffin’s
methods reminded me a little of the experimental chemist, George from Dahl’s George’s Marvellous Medicine.
With the
assistance of Boy Genius, Edward, they discover a plan to steal the institute’s
inventions, and need to ramp their problem solving skills up to the max to
capture the crooks and retrieve all of their blueprints. The climax is quite
hilarious.
I quite like
that the book was scattered with scientific facts – this would draw in its
target audience - and that McGuffin debunked psychics and various
pseudo-sciences throughout. However, the silly and funny inventions created by
McGuffin did not detract from the lack of a story problem until past the
mid-point.
Sure, McGuffin and co had a great deal of challenges and accidents to
keep them busy throughout the book, and his inventions were eventually used in
some way to solve the problem – but these may not be enough to keep all but the
most ardent fans of crazy scientific inventions invested in the story to keep
reading past the first few chapters.
Nevertheless,
it was all good silly fun.
The best news for McGuffin fans is that book two is now out and we'll be featuring it right here on KBR so keep your eyes peeled for that one. (But don't actually peel your eyes. That would hurt like crazy!)
Title: The Institute of Fantastical
Inventions
Author: Dave Leys
Illustrator: Shane Ogilvie
Publisher: Harbour Publishing House, $14.99
Publication
Date: September 2018
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781922134936
For
ages: 8 –
12
Type: Junior Fiction
