Krazyland

After a child disappears during a birthday party, 13-year-old narrator Nathan Clark learns that his uncle’s arcade and play space is actually home to another dimension in Romasco-Moore’s (I Am the Ghost in Your House) middle grade debut, a speculative exploration of science and self. A “chubby” kid who wishes “everyone would leave me alone about it,” Nathan would rather be playing video game Voidjumper solo than withstanding his cousin’s bullying at Krazyland Kids Indoor Playplace. But when a child disappears from Krazyland, and Nathan is faced with a ball pit entrance to a real-life void, he and legacy employee Mercy Riverbottom collaborate to bring back the missing kid, solve the mystery behind the portal’s origin, and work out how to close it up for good. Told in Nathan’s amusingly formal first-person voice, short, suspenseful chapters keep the pace moving as skills learned from playing Voidjumper make Nathan uniquely suited to handling the existential chaos. Ages 8–12. Agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Sept.)