THE CHAOS KING
by Laura Ruby
HarperCollins
ISBN-10: 0060752580
ISBN-13: 9780060752583
Ages 10-up
336 pages

What exactly has Georgetta Rose Aster Bloomington been doing with her life? Perhaps it has not been as boring as the red-haired, lavender-eyed, snooty Roma Radisson seems to think. Though Georgie isn’t one to brag, she has had a pretty interesting time of it. In her own words she:

 …rescued her cat from an army of giant rat men, unwillingly stolen for a matron with a plastic surgery obsession, endured a makeover by a magical Personal Assistant named Jules, defeated a cabal of Punks, escaped a narcissistic gangster (twice) who just happened to be a former child model, evaded a zipper-faced pterodactyl, and befriended a genius Professor with grass for hair… “I’ve done a lot of things!”

Kidnapped and raised in an orphanage (but that’s another story), Georgie’s life has not been boring, nor has it been very lucky. Now that she and her memory are back, Georgie is trying hard to adjust to life as the world’s richest girl. Her hovering parents are being seriously overprotective; they won’t even allow her to use her invisibility skills. Oh yes, there’s that little matter about Georgie being able to make herself and anything she touches invisible. Since the kidnapping thing, however, she’s trying to be good because she’s happy to be home and just glad to have her parents again. Orphanages are definitely no fun.

Life at Prince School is actually harder than she thought, especially with the second richest girl in the world, Roma Radisson, who “had an overabundance of self-esteem. Roma had esteem poisoning.” So Georgie wants to be invisible more than ever. It seems like one of those impossible situations where the more she tries the worse things get. Even her friendship with her old pal “Bug” appears in jeopardy since Roma has her eyes on him.

But wherever Georgie (and hopefully her cat Noodle) goes, adventure follows, and soon she is embroiled in a dangerous plot involving Punks, statues that come to life, vampires knocking on her window, giant sloths, a long-armed octopus, people who fly (and Georgie can’t since she’s a “leadfoot”), a dangerous, scheming artist known as Mandelbrot, a mysterious, discontent poetess, a bird named “Pinkwater’s Momentary Lapse of Concentration, C.D, Number Fourteen” and a growing romance with none other than her old friend “Bug,” son of Sweetcheeks Grabowski (now in prison). There also seems to be some difficulty with a crow or crows, plus that strange Mr. Fuss who just might have masterminded some chaotic plot. And, oh yes, there’s the wonderful mad professor, the magic pen, the book of spells (like how to animate things) and a whole slew of surprising, spunky-spiky happenings. Silver-haired, long-legged Georgie is embroiled in an adventure that lesser girls (like Roma) couldn’t begin to handle.

Using lines like “His heart was probably a gray pebble. A lump of coal. A balled-up napkin with a blob of catsup on it,” Laura Ruby creates colorful images in the tradition of Francesca Lia Block. She has written an all-out wild fantasy/adventure full of fun and wonderful characters. Georgie is a heroine who manages to surprise both her audience and herself. Readers will be clamoring for more stories about Georgie, Bug, Noodle, the distracted professor, the amazing talking hand and the whole cast of zany characters. What a wild ride!

    --- Reviewed by Sally M. Tibbetts (stibbetts@maine207west.k12.il.us)

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