Floors

by Patrick Carman Narrated by Jesse Bernstein

Overview

The Whippet Hotel is a strange place full of strange and mysterious people. Each floor has its own quirks and secrets. Leo should know most of them - he is the maintenance man's son, after all. But a whole lot more mystery gets thrown his way when a series of cryptic boxes are left for him . . . boxes that lead him to hidden floors, strange puzzles, and unexpected alliances. Leo had better be quick on his feet, because the fate of the building he loves is at stake . . . and so is Leo's own future!

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Carman (the Skeleton Creek series) delivers a madcap mystery reminiscent of Roald Dahl and Ellen Raskin, complete with bizarre inventions, a mystery involving a missing billionaire and his fortune, and even a crazy elevator or two. At New York City's Whippet Hotel, guests stay in rooms like the Pinball Machine—featuring giant flippers, bumpers, and pinballs—and the Central Park Room, an exact reproduction of the famed park. When Leo Fillmore, the 10-year-old son of the hotel's maintenance man and himself an assistant maintenance crew member, discovers a mysterious purple box while walking the hotel's ducks, he embarks on a mystery that has him sneaking into hidden rooms, evading a pesky six-year-old and other guests, and riding a train through a tunnel of fire. With the help of his friend Remi and a tiny, talkative robot named Blop, Leo discovers more boxes and more mysteries while trying to avoid running afoul of the hotel's shrewish manager, Ms. Sparks. Sparks, a one-note nemesis, is one of the book's rare sour notes, but Carman delivers so much fun that readers aren't likely to notice. Ages 9–12. (Sept.)

School Library Journal

Gr 4–6—Designed and built by Merganzer D. Whippet, duck-obsessed billionaire inventor, and filled with secret rooms and wacky inventions (some dangerous), the Whippet Hotel in New York is a place unlike any other. Only the most elite and eccentric dare stay there. It is the only home that Leo, the 10-year-old son of the maintenance man, has ever known. Lately, something is amiss. Merganzer has disappeared without a trace, and the hotel is falling apart. Is someone trying to sabotage it, or is there some other reason that everything seems to be breaking down at once? Following a series of mysterious clues left in boxes he comes upon, leading him to even more mysterious hidden rooms, Leo uncovers the truth, and he learns he is much more important to the hotel's future than he could have imagined. This story will tug at the imagination of any readers with a healthy appetite for adventure. Even reluctant readers will delight in Leo's escapades.—Alissa J. LeMerise, Oxford Public Library, MI

Kirkus Reviews

Here is the Whippet Hotel, a very strange place: Each of its floors has its own eccentric personality, especially the hidden ones.

Carman has not only created a beguiling building but populated it with a sympathetic company of oddfellows, plus a few nefarious creatures (except the ducks, because, as readers are told, " 'Always bring a duck.' Words to live by." Readers will come to feel totally invested in the hotel, just as they will come to love Leo, the maintenance man's 10-year-old son, in whose hands the fate of the rickety old joint rests when four strange boxes arrive. Cryptic utterances—"A flying goat will be of use"—are fun because there's always at least a sideways understanding of what it might mean, and there are clues that the reader can follow like breadcrumbs to the last, cheering pages. But it is the atmosphere that takes over, whether it is as heart-gladdening as when "the coffeepot filled the basement with the rich smell of morning," or as curious as one of those ducks, whose "breath smelled like daffodils." ("You've been eating the flowers on the grounds again, haven't you?" Leo asked.)

The author is a fine storyteller; he rides the mystery right up to the edge invests his characters with quirks that aren't merely cute but essential to the person's identity. (Magical adventure. 9-12)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170856992
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	09/01/2011
Series:	Floors Series , #1
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

Videos