Mucho Madness

(Spy Kids Adventure #3)
by
Elizabeth Lenhard

Miramax Books, December 2003, 136 pp.
ISBN: 0-7868-1717-8

Genre: Early Chapter
Subgenre: Movie Tie-In / Spy
Reviewed: 3/16/2004

Reviewed by: Conan Tigard

Book Cover

Excerpt

Madrid, Spain

"I've never heard anyone play like that!" Carmen breathed. "He's amazing."

"Uh, Carmen?" Juni said.

"Shhhh," Carmen said, holding up her hand. "He's almost at the end of the song."

"Listen . . . I think I know why he's so great," Juni said nervously.

"Hmmmmm," Carmen replied absently.

"Count the fingers," Juni whispered.

"What?" Carmen asked, glancing at her brother in irritation."

"Count . . . his . . . fingers." Juni hissed through gritted teeth.

As the musician continued to strum and pluck, Carmen squinted at his left hand.

"Four, five," she muttered, "six, seven?"

She gasped and glanced at Juni.

"He's got two extra fingers on each hand," she whispered.

Synopsis

Carmen and Juni's parents, Ingrid and Gregorio Cortez, decide that is time to visit Gregorio's mother in Madrid, Spain. When they arrive, they have to keep the secret of being spies hidden from Gregorio's Nana. As the family travels through the city, they notice some particularly interesting buildings. They were designed by Madrid's most famous architect: E. Goísta, a highly secretive person who has never been been seen in public.

Devlin, the head of the OSS, contacts the Cortez family and informs them that the E. Goísta buildings are highly suspicious and wants them investigated. Juni infiltrates one of the building and poses as E. Goísta's newest head cook. While in disguise, he leans that E. Goísta is planning on putting everybody in Madrid asleep at the stroke of midnight on the holiday Cinco de Dos because he feels that no one appreciates the artists throughout the city. Since all of his building are porous, he plans on gassing the entire city.

But when Juni tries to contact his family, he is unable to get through to any of them . . . and the deadline is fast approaching.

Mucho Madness by Elizabeth Lenhard is the third book in the Spy Kids Adventures series. This series of books is based upon the Spy Kids movies starring Carmen and Juni Cortez and their parents Gregorio and Ingrid. These Early Chapter books are intended for young readers in the third through fifth grades who are almost ready to graduate to Young Adult books.

Review

Mucho Madness is an enjoyable tale that revolves, for the most part, around Juni Cortez. Using his cooking skills, he is able to pose as a master chef for the notorious architect E. Goísta. I liked seeing this further development of Juni because most of the time he plays second fiddle to his older sister and it was great to see his acting on his own.

In Mucho Madness, Juni infiltrates the Goísta stronghold and has to use all of his skills to avoid suspicion while gathering information about the buildings and the evil plans of a mad artist. As for the evil villain, E. Goísta, like most artists, only want to be appreciated for his work. He has been pushed over the edge by what he considerers non-admiration of his work, and the work of other artists in the city. Too me, the bad guy was fairly funny as he threw temper tantrums when things didn't go his way.

Mucho Madness is another fun addition to an ever-growing collection of Spy Kids Adventures novels for young readers. So, if you loved the movies, pick up one of the Spy Kids Adventures books and enjoy the further adventures of Carmen and Juni Cortez saving the world once again.

I rated this book an 8 out of 10.