I was compelled to read this one immediately after the first in the series (The Puck Drops Here), so I knew I was in for another high-energy, triple-dose-imaginative, wacky ride. Where else does one find a novel/comic-book hybrid in which a diverse, six-kid team has to save the world by playing hockey?

This one involves facing off on highly unstable ice against what look like giant attack lizards but are actually just supersized geckos. There's a robot puck that can morph into what looks like a dog, and is conflicted between working for an evil scientist and being admired by kids who remember him as a nice guy.

There's a cackling bad-guy with a fondness for fish-brain smoothies, who uses a special watch to control enormous hockey-playing robots. The kids are horrified to find themselves playing on melting ice that plunges them into muddy sinkholes, and dealing with a mind-controlled former teammate who ties them up with hockey tape mid-game.

But given that the team captain's super power is re-freezing the rink, and there's a glitch in the evil robots' microchips, plus a puck who betrays his master and a prime minister who can score a goal, it's all good. Until the next book in the series, anyway.
-P.W.