The Tin Snail

Giving a lesser-known historical event—the development of the Citroën C2V, the brilliantly simple French "people's car"—a fictional, kid-friendly spin by putting 13-year-old Angelo Fabrizzi at its center, McAllister has constructed a fast-moving plot packed not just with action and humor but with family drama, spy skullduggery, tween romance, and, in a mild form, the threat of the Nazis. Car-crazy kids will of course be drawn to the tale and to car-crazy Angelo, but many more readers will enjoy its spirit of off-the-cuff ingenuity and try-try-again optimism, which make for a surprisingly rare treat on the Middle Reader shelves. (Ages 8 to 12)