I had the chance to read The 66th Rebirth of Frankie Caridi # 1 recently, and I had a really good time. The middle grade book is written by Johnny Marciano

I really liked the mysteries surrounding The Pythagorean Institute and its headmaster Dr. Rudolpho Natas. When Frankie and her brother Lucie are sent to the school, Frankie slowly comes to see herself as less “normal” than she always thought.

Oh, did I forget to mention that Lucie has horns? He’s also very strong (superhuman-like). There are other not-really-human characters including fauns, vampires, and spirits. They are “deems”. Of course, our eponymous hero soon discovers that she’s not so “normal” after all.

One of the things that I enjoyed was the periodic “step-banks” to remind readers that this was all taking place in the real world.

With all that said, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the ending to this book. In fact, the ending doesn’t really feel like an ending at all. It just felt like we got to the big climax of the book without a resolution. Of course, I do know that there will be additional books in this series; however, that was kind of a bummer.

I did enjoy the book enough that I would love to read the second book when it becomes available. I think kids will really like this.

Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Workshop for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

You can pick up the book here.