Which way to anywhere

Twelve-year-old twins K2 and Izzabird O'Hero know they come from a long line of magical explorers, and the mundane lineage of their new stepsiblings--12-year-old Theo and eight-year-old Mabel Smith--leads to friction between the sibling groups. Unknown to K2, who spends his time sketching maps of extraordinary alternate dimensions, he possesses the Atlas Gift, an ability that lets him create portals to other worlds through his mapmaking. One day, the family is visited by sinister professor Cyril Sidewinder, who's seeking the wielder of the Atlas Gift in order to create "a collection of maps of imaginary and real places" called An Alternative Atlas. His arrival kicks off a series of incidents culminating in an interstellar adventure involving relentless robot assassins, a snarky extradimensional bounty hunter, and the mysterious fate of K2 and Izzabird's long-missing father. The siblings' banter, and their sweetly budding friendships, anchor the madcap happenings. Told through an idiosyncratic omniscient narrator called the Story Maker, this boisterous series launch by Cowell (the Wizards of Once series)--accompanied by sketchy, highly stylized b&w art--proves chaotically fun. Cover art portrays the O'Heroes with pale skin and the Smiths with brown skin. Ages 8--12. (Sept.)

Stepsiblings run into world-hopping, magical trouble in this series opener from How To Train Your Dragon author Cowell. After an in medias res opening teasing dangers about an alien world, the narration flashes back to where it began for two sets of siblings in a blended family. K2 and Izzabird O'Hero only agree with Theo and Mabel Smith, their stepsiblings, on two things--their love for shared half sibling, baby Annipeck and their wish to unblend their blended family. Theo's convinced the O'Heros are witches; Izzabird wishes her relatives would hurry up and teach her their secret Magic. But secrecy is thrown out the window by the arrival of an Otherworlder in the family washing machine--bounty hunter Horizabel Delft. There's also a robot assassin and a dastardly pirate. They're searching for a child with the gift of making Alternative Atlases that show passages between worlds. The child in question? The least stereotypically heroic O'Hero, cautious bully-magnet K2, who has dyslexia and amblyopia. To protect their family, the kids end up venturing to a human-hating world where they must make amends for the O'Heros' mixed legacies and learn what it means to be a family. Cowell throws all sorts of fantastical obstacles in the kids' ways, using action to add tension to the humorous narration that is enhanced by her frequent illustrations. The Smiths are depicted with dark skin and curly hair, and the O'Hero children are pale and freckled. Wild worldbuilding and the colorful cast will delight. (Fantasy. 8-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.