Author: Chris Grabenstein
Publisher: Random House Children's
Year: 2016
Genre: JUV Fic
Age: JUV 10+
Audio Publisher: Listening Library
Audio Reader: Bryan Kennedy
Audio Length: 5 hours
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This is book #1 in the Welcome to Wonderland series. I picked it up because I'm working my way through Chris Grabenstein's books. I had the audio version & the book. The reader is different from the Lemoncello series but he was still pretty good. I listened to the book on the way back from my brother's wedding this last weekend. It was the perfect length for the drive. However I was disappointed to find out that my library only has this first book & none of the others! I'm gonna have to work on fixing that.
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Our story takes place in Florida at the Wonderland Motel through the eyes of 12 year old Phineas Taylor Wilkie (P.T. for short). His grandfather owns the motel that was originally called Walt Wilkie's Wonderland back in 1970. Unfortunately another famous Walt opened a wonderland of his own in Florida & stole the thunder from the Wilkie's. But because of that this isn't your average motel. This motel has amazing attractions like Dino the Dinosaur, The Wonderland Express, Freddy the Frog, Smiling Sam, & Pirate Pete's Putt Putt course. But all that family fun isn't enough to keep the place open. P.T. , his grandpa, & his mom have to come up with $100,000 by the end of the month to keep the motel from being bulldozed by collectors. How will they ever come up with that much in time?
P.T. makes friends with a girl who is living in the motel with her dad who is a traveling sports news anchor. Together P.T. & Gloria Ortega come up with an idea to keep the motel open. They start offering "shows" with Freddy the Frog, snacks, & souvenirs. From there they offer a pirate treasure hunt on the putt putt course. Their growing fame lands them on TV with Gloria's dad. The next day 2 mysterious guys show up & claim to be brothers. But they are really jewel thieves who just got out of prion & they are looking for their long lost loot that could be at the Wonderland! The jewels could be the key to saving the motel but only if Gloria & P.T. can find them first.
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Likes: This book was so fun! The characters, the setting, & the story all come together to create a hilarious page turning adventure.
It was short, much like the Lemoncello books, around 300 pages & 5ish hours on audio.
The book version had pictures which were pretty entertaining.
I'm interested to see where the story goes from here in the next few books. There is 2 books out right now, maybe more coming???
Dislikes:-
Rating:
