Cal and the Amazing Anti-Gravity Machine

Only child Cal Barraclough has moved house with his parents, to live next door to eccentric inventor Mr Frout. (Didn’t his parents notice that Mr Frout lived in a kind of scrap yard with a constant stream of crazy noises emanating from his weird machines before they purchased their new home?) Shortly after the move, Mr and Mrs Barraclough adopt an unwanted American dog, Frankie, whose strange groans Cal can interpret as doggie talk. Cal, who is a bit of a loner, and Frankie become inseparable and they soon become involved in the peculiar goings-on next door in Mr Frout’s yard, where experiments with gravity get out of hand and threaten to disrupt nature as we know it.

Fast paced, with suitably manic illustrations, this is a tale which will amuse the young reader. Young Cal and the reclusive Mr Frout strike up a relationship as a result of their mutual interest in all things scientific, with magnetism being the force which nearly causes havoc in the natural world. An enjoyable read. (Also by this author and illustrator team: Violet and the Mean and Rotten Pirates.) AK