The Reluctant Assassin

A delightfully quick sci-fi adventure for middle grades (and the 12 year old in the rest of us) - WARP 1 follows young and talented mis-adventurers, Chevie and Riley through time. It's a fun read that will have you cheering for them even as you might guess what will likely happen next. Neither of these protagonists start with a particularly promising background story - both are orphans, mostly alone, doing something they don't want to do. However, they manage to overcome their experience and egos to outwit a psychotic murderer at least once in this story (not saying more for fear of spoilers). I'm pretty sure they also manage a few days with just an hour or two of sleep, which is pretty impressive without the whole psychotic murderer time traveling sort of adventure thing going on.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the series, where I'm hoping to see Chevie develop a little more nuance and Riley gain some childhood joy.

I'd recommend this one to kiddos probably starting in the 5th grade, but not those who might be squeamish about violence. There is a surprising amount of blood and guts and such for a middle grade reader - especially at the very beginning.