The funniest moment for me, though, was this scene where Chris is sent to a fancy department store to buy some new clothes and the salesman is all snooty telling him to get his grubby hands out of his department, until a manager comes and tells him who Chris is. There are also some more standard middle grade jokes, like food fights and that sort of thing. However, just like the other five students, the readers can't help but be glad that Rex is there, because he's so funny, both accidentally and on purpose, even if many of his jokes are rather mean-spirited. Most of the funny moments center around Rex, definitely the least likable of the six kids in this class at Myers Holt Academy. There's a lot of humor in The Ability too. Similarly, the children and their teachers are flawed and imperfect. The bad guys aren't just evil they have backgrounds that explain how they became the way they are. I really liked how dark this was, and that there are shades of gray to the characters. There's some death and injury, and some ethical lines that get crossed. The Ability is not a kid's book and I would recommend it for the upper end of the middle grade age group. Harry Potter begins as a fairly light story for children, but then becomes progressively darker as the children age. What's most similar is actually the tone, more than the story itself. Now, there are certainly a few shades of Harry Potter obviously, like the cake, but The Ability does not read like a retelling. After his test, the proctor presents him with a surprise birthday cake. But, thankfully, salvation comes in the form of a test to study at an elite, strange prep school, Myers Holt Academy, which Chris passes with flying colors. He struggles in school, marked as a troublemaker and is finally expelled for a weird incident where he somehow beats up a bully without touching him.
Like so many scrappy heroes, everything falls to Chris. The main hero of The Ability is young Christopher Lane, just turning twelve years old and at wit's end for how to take care of himself and his mother, ruined by the death of his father. The Ability is a darker-than-usual middle grade novel with humor and action aplenty. Still, for all that I'm not likely to find something as amazing as Harry Potter is, my middle grade choices have yet to fail me.
Perhaps it's because I grew up reading Harry Potter, and am still on the hunt for that elusive book that will mean as much to me, though I know that will likely not happen, because I'm an adult now and less able to appreciate the magic. I am a total sucker for middle grade novels about special schools and kids with powers.
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