Mission Multiverse, a great first entry into a mglit series for 9 and up

“This better not end in a cliffhanger”, I told my wife as I was finishing Mission Multiverse. It’s not that I don’t like cliffhanger endings, it’s just that sometimes when they end that way I feel cheated. Mission Multiverse is a great book. It sounds like I’m setting it up for some form of a backhanded compliment, but I’m not. It’s a very satisfying middle-grade book that exceeded my expectations. The reason that the words are coming out wonky is that it initially didn’t seem like it would be an entertaining book.

Part of my initial negative opinion in Mission Multiverse was the word in its title, ‘multiverse’. Everything is part of some multiverse. It’s as overused as ‘porthole’ was to mglit a couple of years ago.  I assumed that the book would’ve set up the multiverse in some lame way that didn’t pay off. I was wrong on that in this book and it actually spends too much time when it’s not in the multiverse.

Secondly, a couple of paragraphs in Mission Multiverse allude to guilt-tripping and wokeness. Thankfully, both of those instances were fleeting and didn’t factor into the plot. I know, a couple of paragraphs in a book is not a big issue. But sometimes, putting those plot details do nothing but virtue signal to readers elements or characteristics that are stereotypical at best. In the first book in this series, most readers will simply breeze over those instances and jump in with the action.

Essentially, our Earth is on the cusp of ending. The leaders from the multiverse have been watching us and have sent emissaries to warn us about the impending eco-doom. However, they were unsuccessful and said leaders in another dimension have chosen to destroy Earth in 30 days.

Set against this backdrop are five middle-school, band students who just might be able to save it. They’re all smart kids, but each has their own personality, and one of them shouldn’t even be on this trip. You see, their class is taking a field trip to a NASA office where one of their parent’s works. The kids start questions that could never really happen until the building is shaken to its core and everybody there is ordered to shelter in place.

Mission Multiverse sounds pretty standard, doesn’t it? It’s at the third chapter mark where the typical thoughts get out of the way and the story is allowed to get its multiverse freak on. Almost all of the backstories that were established pay off and it’s a rollicking, mglit time that those nine-year-old readers and up will dig. There is one plot thread involving the twins that seem strained and out of place, but maybe there’s more to that story.

The book does not end on a cliffhanger, sort of. The kids succeed in their mission, but because we’re dealing with a multiverse, another story is promptly set up. As I was reading Mission Multiverse my mind was playing the book out as a mash-up between The Last Starfighter and Goonies. The group of kids in the book have obvious chemistry, which legitimizes the latter comparison; while the action and otherworldly aspects, albeit at a more numerous personnel count, explain the former.

Mission Multiverse is a fast story that upper-elementary through lower high school will like reading. Personally, I would’ve liked the book to have a bit more humor, but those tweens and teens who read the book will really enjoy it and eagerly look for the next adventure.

Mission Multiverse is by Rebecca Caprabara and available on Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams Kids.

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