Review Detail

Nothing But Trouble

Middle Grade Fiction 147

Nothing but trouble... and some fun.

September 14, 2016

Overall rating

3.0

Plot

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Characters

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Writing Style

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Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

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Maggie lives with her mother and grandfather in his house in Odawahaka. Maggie's father, who studied at MIT, died before she was born, and her mother is so busy that Maggie is left to her own devices, taking apart vacuum cleaners and selling her grandfather's collection of vintage auto parts online. When Lena moves to town, the two immediately connect, and Maggie starts sharing her father's philosophy of "hacking" with Lena, and getting her help in setting up elaborate pranks at their school, which is going to be closed at the end of the year. When the "mouse" pranks take off, the girls enter the mouse as a candidate for class president. Will the girls be able to pull off the ultimate prank of having an imaginary character win?

Good Points

Packed with interesting characters, such as Mrs. Dornbusch, who is in her last year of teaching and doesn't care about anything, an the perfect Kayla who was once friends with Maggie but is now her nemesis, Nothing But Trouble manages to put a new spin on the idea of class elections, and set the story in a dying community that is open to a little bit of excitement.

Maggie's pranks follow the very strict rules that her father left in a notebook-- nothing can be damaged, the site has to be left in a better state than it was found, and no one can be hurt. It seems a bit unlikely that she would be able to do all of the things she does in real life, but I appreciated the fact that she had a significant source of income-- selling her grandfather's car parts-- to use to bankroll the projects.

Teachers will appreciate the math and science connections scattered throughout the book and explained with notes at the end. Readers who enjoyed books with girls interested in math and science, such as The Short Seller, Calpurnia Tate, or A Girl Named Ratchet will enjoy Maggie's experiments, and readers who liked this author's The Lemonade War will be glad to see a story with new characters and a new setting.