The Monster in the Mudball

Review
By <i>Kirkus Reviews</i>

The first in the planned Artifact Inspector series offers readers an African folk tale set in contemporary London with a Chinese-English protagonist suffering from dyspraxia. . . . [Monster in the Mudball] has diversity in spades. . . . Eleven-year-old Jin can hardly believe his eyes when a mysterious ball of mud rolls into a stream and hatches a fearsome monster. Things go from bad to worse when the creature drags Jin’s baby brother into her sewage-pipe lair. Fortunately, Jin is not alone in his quest to save his brother. When Mizz Z, chief inspector for the Risk Assessment Agency for Ancient Artifacts, shows up and discovers that Zilombo is free, she joins forces with Jin to save the baby and return the monster to the safety of her dried-up mudball.