The Start of a Great New Series: Once Upon a Tim

 

Fun, frolicking, wacky, goofy and wonderful, Once Upon a Tim delivers the first book in a promising series by master middle grade writer Stuart Gibbs who is able to deftly capture the humor and voice of his target audience. 

Tim is a poor peasant boy who explains the hierarchy of medieval life to the reader:  if you're born a prince, you have it made. If you're born a peasant, you can NEVER move up. You and all your offspring and their offspring will live in a hut with dirt floors and no windows, you'll eat gruel every day and you'll wear your only outfit every day because you don't own a change of clothes, but Tim dreams of more. 

When Princess Grace is taken from a neighboring kingdom, Prince Ruprecht announces he will take volunteers to become knights and help him save the princess from the evil Stinx, a malordorous (IQ booster, winking at you, Stuart Gibbs) monster who is particularly smelly and awful. 

With best friend Belinda by his side (she's a girl, but she, being a girl has it even worse than Tim does) in disguise as a boy, Tim with his fr-dog Rover, the Prince, Belinda and the Ferkle, the village idiot (every village has one), they set off the save the princess and kill the Stinx. First, they encounter bloodthirsty killer butterflies and defeat them with Rover's help.

Using jokes and IQ boosters (clearly identified and explained) only a storyteller like Stuart Gibbs could pull off this witty fairy tale without losing the pace of the story. Middle grade humor abounds with many a bathroom joke and Tim's narration is not only funny, but spot-on for readers. 

The only misstep is the IQ booster for cantankerous. Gibbs uses this sentence to show the word's meaning, "The cantankerous librarian kept shushing me every time I laughed about the hilarious  book I was reading." Librarians may have shushed kids when Gibbs was a boy, but this MODERN librarian takes offense at spreading the stereotype that librarians are mean and expect perfect quiet in the library. Modern libraries are actually quite loud and full of energy. Mr. Gibbs, you should visit a middle school library soon. 

Highly, highly recommended and sure to be a New York Times bestseller (like all Stuart Gibbs books), Once Upon a Time is winner! This book is likely to be hugely awarded come award season. One of the best books of 2022, and you heard it here first. 

Ages 8-12.