The Adventures of Charlie Conti: Small Sacrifices by Ben Langdon and Eliza Langdon

 
Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy, Science Fiction
Publisher: Kalamity Press
Publication Date: June 1, 2016
Pages: 180
Format: ePub
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This isn't a story about a normal girl.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to be a normal girl, but considering my dad is a professional, unionised minion and has worked for such villainous luminaries as the Crash and Burn Twins, Doctor Death (the Third and Fourth versions), Yellow Peril and Captain Calamari, chances of living out my life with any kind of normality are pretty slim. I'm surprised our family has survived this long.

My name's Charlie Conti and I'm fourteen years old. I'm a bit of a nerd, I guess, because my role models are Marie Curie and Maryam Mirzakhani instead of Miley Cyrus or any of the Kardashians. I guess I have a bit of a mad scientist streak in me, although I have no interest in taking over the world or anything.

I just want to live the regular kind of life.

And that brings me to this story.

You see, my dad has dragged me and my little brother, Luca, away from Melbourne where I've spent most of my life so far. Out of the Light and into the Darkness of regional Victoria to a coastal town called Henty Bay.

Yeah, I'd never heard of it either.
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I can see the benefits though. After all the problems with the Port Melbourne Intifada, where Captain Calamari totally lost it and my dad ended up at the bottom of Port Phillip Bay, we had to leave the city. There were some harsh words thrown around and maybe a few vendettas were forged in the fires of the moment.

So we had to move. Dad, or The Undertaker as he's known in the business, was damaged goods. The most he could hope for if he stayed in Melbourne would have been prolonged unemployment. The more likely outcome would have been a long stay in prison or a knife in the back.

I'm not being melodramatic. These kinds of things do happen.

The family's new plan is to move to Henty Bay so Luca and I can grow up and live normal lives. Maybe even go to university and get an office job with superannuation and a chance to grow old without having to worry about dodging laser beams and undead Vikings. My brother and I have our own little dreams. Luca wants a puppy, or a bearded dragon lizard thing; and I just want to stay longer than six months in the one school.

I told you I was a nerd.

I received this eBook from the authors in exchange for an honest review. 

Holy ray guns, stun guns and shrinking fathers Batman! 
I absolutely love books with spunky, not normal girls! They're usually the best heroine's. 
Charlie, however, would love to be normal and spend more than 6 months in a school and her brother would like to get a pet, which is hard to have when you need to move all the time. 
One thing I would say is that Charlie is very responsible and smart, she handles problems that even grown-ups would chew their nails anxiously at, but at the same time she is relatable. Being a kid of the mid-80's and 90's, I grew up on the movie "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" and this was totally up my alley. 

About a month ago, my best friend and her son asked me if I had any cool, not-normal, kind of introverted kids books that I had read. I knew then that this was the book to recommend to my nephew. His mom bought it and she said he read it every day until he was done. On FaceTime, I received two thumbs up with him saying he loved the book! 

Star Rating

I would definitely recommend this book for all ages. Not just middle-grade. It's interesting enough to draw in adults (especially young at heart adults ;) ). 

Ben Langdon was born in Geelong, Victoria, and is a graduate of Deakin University. He is the author of e Miranda Contract and e Halo E ect, editor of is Mutant Life, and a high school teacher in Portland, Victoria (which may, or may not, be the alter ego for Henty Bay).
Connect with Ben: Twitter | GoodReads

Eliza Langdon was also born in Geelong and is the daughter of Ben. After complaining that she didn’t like reading books, the father and daughter team decided to write their own, featuring a spunky girl called Charlie Conti. Eliza attends Portland Secondary College and loves reading comics, cooking up storms in the kitchen, and binge-watching TV series on DVD.​