Friday 25 August 2023

Mixed Up - Gordon Korman

Mixed Up
Gordon Korman
ISBN 9781338826722
eISBN 9781338826739
ASIN B0B847FDMZ


Another amazing read from the masterful pen of Gordon Korman! I love reading Gordon Korman books, either by myself or with one or more of my children. This story just published in 2023 by Scholastic Canada, it is the 102 book published by Korman. And of the 32 I have read there has yet to be a dud. My introduction to Korman’s works, that I have a record of was the 39 Clues back in 2009. Since then I have read 32 of his books. With each one I read I am entertained and often challenged. My son often reads these books to me or with me. I picked up this to read the week it released. I have been bouncing back and forth between his oldest and most recent books, for the stand alone, and randomly with the series. I have been reading at the pace of about a book a week, so in a year and a half I should be caught up, depending on his current output.

The description of this volume is:

“Reef and Theo don't know what's happening to them. They'll be going about their days and then suddenly they'll have these strange flashes of memory -- but the memories don't belong to them. And at the same time, their own memories are starting to... vanish.

For Reef, this is a big problem, because memories are all he has left of his mom.

For Theo, it's strange because the new memories give him a freedom he doesn't have with his domineering dad.”

When I started first reading this story I had a hard time figuring out where it was going. I had not read the description or anything about it. But once I got going and it became clean I was blown away by how Korman handled the plot. The story is written in alternating chapters from the points of view of Reef Moody and Theo Metzinger. Both of them are experience a strange phenomenon. The boys have lived very different lives, but soon start having memories that they know are not their own. The two boys are trading memories and both are hunting to find out why. They need to know what caused this, and if their might be a way to undo it. 

But life can get very complicated when you start forgetting things, especially, right at the beginning of an exam, or heading home late at night in a storm. The boys reach a point where desperation overrides common sense. Or even all sense at all. But if you are losing all your memories what else do you really have to lose?

The pace in this story is great. The characters are masterfully written. The story grabs a hold of you and just does not let go. This is another excellent read by Korman from Scholastic. A great read for middle grades and tweens. My son is 15 and loved it and I am in my fifties and thought it was excellent, and my mother-in-law in her 80's thought it was great. A great read for the whole family, or for the classroom. 

Books by Gordon Korman:
MacDonald Hall Series:
The Wizzle War (1982)
         (formerly The War With Mr. Wizzle)
The Zucchini Warriors (1988)
Light’s Camera, Disaster (1991)
          (aka Macdonald Hall Goes Hollywood)
The Jokes on Us (1995)
          (formerly Something Fishy at Macdonald Hall)

Bugs Potter Series:

Jeremy Bloom Series:
The D−Poems of Jeremy Bloom (1992)
The Last-Place Sports Poems of Jeremy Bloom (1996)

Monday Night Football Series:
The Quarterback Exchange (1997)
Running Back Conversion (1997)
Super Bowl Switch (1997)
Heavy Artillery (1997)
Ultimate Scoring Machine (1998)
NFL Rules! Bloopers, Pranks, Upsets, and Touchdowns (1998)

Masterminds Series:
Masterminds (2015)

Slapshots Series:
The Stars From Mars (1999)
All-Mars All-Stars/The Dream Team (1999)
The Face-off Phony (2000)
Cup Crazy (2000)
Ouch I got slapped (2023)
4-in-1 Slapshots: The Complete Collection (2008)

Nose Pickers Series:
Nose Pickers from Outer Space! (1999)
Planet of the Nose Pickers (2000)
Your Mummy Is a Nose Picker (2000)
Invasion of the Nose Pickers (2001)
4-in-1 The Ultimate Nose-Picker Collection (2006)

Island Series:
Shipwreck (2001)
Survival (2001)
Escape (2001)
3-in-1 Island Trilogy Collection (2006)

Son of the Mob Series:
Son of the Mob 2: Hollywood Hustle (2004)

Everest Series:
The Contest (2002)
The Climb (2002)
The Summit (2002)
Everest Trilogy Box Set (2002)

Dive Series:
The Discovery (2003)
The Deep (2003)
The Danger (2003)

On the Run Series:
Now You See Them, Now You Don't (2005)
The Stowaway Solution (2005)
Public Enemies (2005)
Hunting the Hunter (2006)

Kidnapped Series:
The Search (2006)
The Rescue (2006)

Swindle Series:
Swindle (2008)
Zoobreak (2009)
Framed (2010)
Showoff (2012)
Hideout (2013)
Jackpot (2014)
Unleashed (2015)
Jingle (2016)

Titanic Series:
Unsinkable (2011)
Collision Course (2011)
S.O.S (2011)

The 39 Clues Series:
Vespers Rising (2011)
The Medusa Plot (2011)
Flashpoint (2014)

Hypnotists Series:
The Hypnotists (2013)
Memory Maze (2014)
The Dragonfly Effect (2015)

Ungifted Series:
Ungifted (2012)
Supergifted (2018)

Slacker Series:
Slacker (2016)
Level 13 (2019)
...

Non Series Books:
Son of Interflux (1986)
Radio 5th Grade (1989)
Losing Joe's Place (1990)
The Twinkie Squad (1992)
The Toilet Paper Tigers (1993)
Why Did the Underwear Cross the Road (1994)
The Chicken Doesn't Skate (1996)
No More Dead Dogs (2000)
Maxx Comedy: The Funniest Kid in America (2003)
Jake, Reinvented (2003)
Born To Rock (2006)
Schooled (2007)
Pop (2009)
Restart (2017)
Notorious (2019)
War Stories (2020)
Game On (contains The Chicken Doesn’t Skate and The Toilet Paper Tigers (2021)
Unplugged (2021)
Linked (2021)
The Fort (2022)



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