Cameron McIntosh (text) and Dave Atze (illustrator), Map Trap (Max Booth Future Sleuth #6), Big Sky Publishing, June 2021, 130 pp., RRP $12.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781922265906
Bluggsville. The year is 2424. Max Booth and his trusty beagle-bot Oscar are the sharpest pair of sleuths around. Their specialty? Their specialty? Historical artefacts!
In book 6 of the Max Booth, Future Sleuth series, Max and Oscar discover a 400-year-old navigation device hiding inside a strange, outdated kitchen gadget called a ‘toaster’. They are delighted to discover it still works! When they set out to recreate its last owner’s journey, they find themselves far from home and on the tail of a gang of tech art burglars!
Flying cars, futuristic technology and a pair of lovable protagonists make this a fun chapter book for early readers.
Max’s world is both futuristic and familiar. Author Cameron Mcintosh skilfully explores our 21st century technology from the point of view of future generations, giving readers a new appreciation of the technology available to us. Plus, they might just get some ideas about what’s to come! Max Booth is a series with so much potential to inform and entertain.
At the same time, illustrator Dave Atze builds Max’s world with engaging black and white illustrations that capture the non-stop, laugh-out-loud plot in a visual showreel of action and comedy.
If young readers can’t get enough of this light sci-fi, action-adventure series, they’ll be glad to know that there are five other titles in the series. Though the previous titles have connecting themes and characters, each book is easily consumable as a stand-alone novel.
Readers from age seven should be easily able to read this refreshingly engaging boon with its straightforward language and easy-to-follow illustrations. Max Booth, Future Sleuth is a winning book for newly independent readers.
Reviewed by Geni Kuckhahn
