We picked this one up on a "fill-the-library-bag before the library closes" for COVID-19 whim, and wow, we're glad we did!
The tale begins with a prologue about a spy who enters a lonely cafe to decode a secret message using a book of Arthurian tales. He's memorized the book, and once he decodes the message and gets his new mission, he leaves the cafe. But he hears voices and is convinced he's being tailed. When he jumps into the river to escape, he drowns, taking the book -- and his mission -- with him.
Four children pick up the story. Madge McGrory, whose mother has died and separated her from her younger siblings, runs to Central Park to get away from her Aunt Jean, who doesn't even want to acknowledge her existence, beyond feeding her. She leaves a book and half her sandwich behind on a park bench, and it's quickly picked up and eaten by Joe, a runaway from a boarding school he calls the Mush Hole.
You learn later Joe is Mohawk and he and his little sister have been forced to leave their families and everything else behind to attend a horrible Indian School, where they're beaten and forced to learn English. Joe socked the principal in the jaw, when he saw him beating his sister, and ran away. He's hungry and yearning for a single friend in the world.
Joe follows Madge to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, intending to return her book (he eats the sandwich), when he encounters a Japanese man and his daughter, arguing. The girl is clearly distressed. She passes by Madge and Joe, without a second glance.
Joe hides, and when he comes out, he meets Madge and Walt, a red-headed boy who's joined Madge. Joe returns Madge's book, and they read the last page of an Arthurian legend under a glass case.
As they're talking, a strange man smashes the case and takes the page, disappearing with it. They chase him through the Museum and run into Dr. Bean, mysterious consultant to the "War Department," who's drying a medieval manuscript -- and sets it on fire.
Joe, meanwhile, is still chasing Mr. January, the bad guy, and manages to seize the page from the elusive spy's grasp, but it disintegrates in his hands, shedding gold flecks of paint.
Dr. Bean and his "assistant," Miss Lake (wink! wink!), explain the Arthurian text is the key to the unbreakable code, because there are only four copies of the book. It disguises a Nazi plot, Project Excalibur, which the kids figure is surely something dire and disastrous for America, if only they could figure out what it was.
And then on the radio, they hear the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941, and they have their answer.
Up from the basement comes Kiku, whose father was arguing with her earlier, saying he's lost consciousness upon hearing the news. He's an expert on the Japanese soldiers on display in the Museum, and Kiku was visiting him and had re-arranged the figures, fully-armored, on the eve of Pearl Harbor. Think of how Americans would interpret that, after the horrific attack?
And you have assembled four kids, ready to do battle with the Nazis by intercepting and decoding their secret messages, using an almost-mythological text about Arthur, Guinevere, Morgaine and Lancelot.
I've never read such a wonderfully complex middle grade plot and diverse cast of characters, assembled and portrayed so very well and consistently, in a very real historical setting, yet a total fantasy! This is one I think I'm going to buy, as a "mentor text" for my writing.
Both my daughter and I loved it! Enjoy the twists and turns, this one's great!
