Yesterday Again

November 15, 2012
Can't solve your problem in the present? Try time travel, superhero-style! Fresh from his disastrous collaboration with the insane villain Mad Mask (2012), 12-year-old Kyle Camden, aka Azure Avenger (in his mind) and aka Blue Freak (in the minds of everyone else in Bouring, N.Y.), concocts a new scheme to expose vacuous, probable-alien Mighty Mike as less than the good guy he pretends to be. Kyle uses his superintelligence (obtained from an encounter with space plasma) to create a time machine so he can videotape Mike emerging from the plasma, thus proving to the world he's not human. Things go wrong in the present (zombies!) and the past (Kyle ends up in 1987 instead of a couple months ago). His chronovessel fried, Kyle tries to make the best of the situation, but who knew there was no Internet in 1987?! He finds that some allies can't be trusted and some enemies are more than they appear...and learns a few things about his dad and his grandfather, all on the way to saving the world...AGAIN! Lyga's third fun and furious Archvillain tale is somewhat slower and brainier than the others, but it solves many mysteries and opens up a few more. Characters grow, the technobabble is funny, and the time travel is nicely thought through. It stands alone well enough, but it will be best enjoyed by established series fans. (Fantasy. 9-12)

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February 15, 2013
Grades 5-8 Rounding off his Archvillain trilogy, Lyga sends frustrated preteen antihero Kyle (self-styled Azure Avenger, but more commonly dubbed Blue Freak) back in time to find definitive evidence that rival superhero Mighty Mike is really an alien invader. Landing in 1987 (an occasion for hilarity: What on earth is an Internet'? ), he discovers a new nemesis, plus keys to his own past and future, before returning to save his hometown once againthis time from a (wait for it) zombie plague. Though the plot is a messy tangle, Kyle's relationships with his best friend and with Mighty Mike are at last straightened out.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2013
Sick of his heroic acts being misinterpreted as villainy, Kyle (Archvillain; The Mad Mask) decides to travel back in time to right the past. But as he departs, a zombie-type plague infects his hometown and a malfunction strands Kyle in 1987; he must figure out how to return to save the present day. Morally complex, Kyle's quest for redemption is engaging.

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)