Olly Appleton thought he had learned all of his grandfatherâs secrets, the ones his grandfather died protecting. Those secrets involved hand-drawn maps, special keys, hidden tunnels, and the Sporesâfriendly and fantastical mushroom creatures living under his home on Oak Hill.
With his friend Ember by his side, Olly learns of another secret. Other Spore communities are being built around the country in towns that share the name Littleton. The latest community is Sapphire Creek, an abandoned gold mine his grandfather purchased outside Littleton, Colorado. When Ollyâs parents plan a surprise trip to visit the property, he and Em decide to share all of the secrets with their families at a special feast in the Sporesâ Grand Cavern on Christmas Eve.
And when Sapphire Creek comes under attack, Olly and Ember once again team up with their Spore friendsâand some unlikely friendsâto defend the community without exposing their secrets to the outside world.
Olly Appleton thought he had learned all of his grandfatherâs secrets, the ones his grandfather died protecting. Those secrets involved hand-drawn maps, special keys, hidden tunnels, and the Sporesâfriendly and fantastical mushroom creatures living under his home on Oak Hill.
With his friend Ember by his side, Olly learns of another secret. Other Spore communities are being built around the country in towns that share the name Littleton. The latest community is Sapphire Creek, an abandoned gold mine his grandfather purchased outside Littleton, Colorado. When Ollyâs parents plan a surprise trip to visit the property, he and Em decide to share all of the secrets with their families at a special feast in the Sporesâ Grand Cavern on Christmas Eve.
And when Sapphire Creek comes under attack, Olly and Ember once again team up with their Spore friendsâand some unlikely friendsâto defend the community without exposing their secrets to the outside world.
Sapphire Creek Mine, Littleton, Colorado
The barrel slipped from their grip, crashing to the ground and splitting the metal seal meant to hold the black liquid now seeping out. The two men reeled backward, and the dangerous substance poured from the barrel and into the dirt. Both men hesitated to get anywhere near the black ooze.
Frankie, the shorter of the two men, noticed the liquid had splashed across the barrel and onto the boot of his partnerâs stark-white hazmat suit. The darkness of the substance was amplified when contrasted against the bright-white hazmat suit and the fluorescent-yellow barrel. It reminded him of a combination of used motor oil and syrup.
âYou idiots!â snapped a third man who jumped from the truckâs cab when he heard the barrel fall. He was the only one not wearing a protective suit, as he hadnât expected to get anywhere near the barrels or their dangerous contents.
âSorry, Rocco. These gloves just donât have much grip to them,â Frankie said, cringing in anticipation that Rocco might hit him again. Thatâs what Rocco did the last time he and Tiny dropped a barrel, and he still has the bruise to remind him.
Rocco walked up to the two men, and instead of smacking Frankie, he angrily kicked some loose dirt onto the black substance that pooled, trying to cover it up as best he could.
âJust get that last barrel into the mine,â Rocco said, gesturing to the old mine entrance thirty feet away. âWe have to get back soon if weâre going to make it into town to meet Jimmy and settle up.â
Frankie and Tiny flipped the barrel so the broken seal was on top, halting the leak. They started rolling the heavy barrel toward the mine entrance, careful not to touch the black ooze now dripping down its side.
âHow does Jimmy account for these missing barrels, Rocco?â asked Tiny, the tallest of the three men.
Rocco and Frankie thought it was funny when they started calling him Tiny because he was the furthest thing from small. Tiny was almost seven feet tall and a musclehead who was able to dead-lift 450 pounds easily.
Thatâs why Frankie knew Rocco would never hit Tiny. Itâs also why he was sure he would receive any punishment instead.
âItâs a nice little side hustle for us. The Air Force pays companies like mine a thousand dollars for each barrel that I take to the hazardous waste storage facility. I just need to show the Air Force a receipt to prove how many barrels we dropped off. As luck would have it, my cousin, Jimmy, got the job as receiving manager at the waste facility.
âSo hereâs the racketâI only deliver seven of the ten barrels to the waste facility, which Jimmy marks in his company ledger. But he makes a fake receipt showing that I delivered and paid for ALL TEN barrels to be stored there. I show that receipt to the Air Force and get reimbursed for all ten. We pocket the money for the difference. I store those extra three barrels in my warehouse until we have a full load to bring up here. You each get a fair share of the money after I pay all of my expenses.â
âThis is the easiest three hundred dollars Iâve ever made, I have to admit,â said Frankie. He had decided that the money was worth getting hit upside the head by Rocco on occasion.
âWell, as long as you two keep your mouths shut, we can keep this up forever,â Rocco said gruffly. âThereâs plenty more barrels coming from that waste pit and enough space in these old mines to store hundreds of them. Weâll fill this shaft with one more load and then use a stick of dynamite to cover the entrance and move on to another shaft. No one will ever return to these mines since theyâve been dry of gold for a hundred years. And the way I look at it, these mines are just as safe as the storage facility, so whatâs the harm? A manâs got to earn a living, right?â
âWhatâs in these barrels, anyway?â Frankie was almost afraid to ask.
âI donât know what that black crap is, exactly. I just know a company used to test missiles at the plant during the Cold War, and I can only assume whatever fuels, oils, and other chemicals they were testing got dumped into that sludge pit weâve been clearing out,â Rocco replied. âThe Air Force took it over in the â50s and now uses the land to test Titan IV launch vehicles. Oddly enough, the Skyline Hunting and Fishing Club now manages some of the land, and the Jefferson County police and local Boy Scouts use some for training. I donât think they have any idea this black sludge is seeping into the ground right next to them.â
Frankie and Tiny shook their heads as they moved the barrel closer to the mine entrance. They seemed ashamed that their government had the nerve to spoil the earth like that. Ironically, they expressed this disgust while rolling the barrel of toxic liquid into the mine entrance, which would almost certainly leach into the soil and groundwater.
Once upon a time, some dastardly villains bent on duping the Air Force out of zillions of dollars while improperly disposing of toxic waste poses a grave threat to a secret community of magical creatures. The greedy villains almost get away with poisoning soil and groundwater and wreaking havoc with the environment. But they donât count on The Four Mush-keteers in Glen Somodiâs delightful and enchanting middle grade fantasy, Olly & the Spores of Sapphire Creek.
Picking up where Somoniâs first book, Olly & the Spores of Oak Hill, left off, Olly & the Spores of Sapphire Creek takes readers on a high-octane adventure with its delightful blend of fantasy, friendship, family, environmental science, and magic.
Readers soon learn that ninth graders Olly Appleton and his best friend, Ember âEmâ Fein, are protectors of âa secret community of magical, mushroom-like creaturesâ called âSpores.â The Spore leader is Cremini. The Sapphire Creek Spore community lives in an abandoned gold mine in Colorado purchased by Olly Appletonâs grandpa, Poppy. Ollyâs parents still think Grandpa Poppy was âa crazy, old fool with hallucination about magical creatures.â This âhallucinationâ got Poppy dismissed from his faculty position at Harvard. Poppy died protecting the Spores. Now Olly wants his parents to know the truth about the Spores â and Poppy. Likewise, Em also wants to let her mom in on the secret of the Spores. After all, her mom helped save hundreds of years of history and an entire community in Oak Hill.
So, whenâs the best time for the great revelation? When Ollyâs parents plan a surprise trip to visit the property, he and Em decide to share all of the secrets with their families at a special feast in the Sporesâ Grand Cavern on Christmas Eve. (Tip: Donât read this book when youâre hungry. The descriptions of food and feasting will have you drooling in no time! Donât ask how I know that.)
But the celebration may have to take a back seat to more pressing concerns when the Spore community comes under attack. Meanwhile, it's "all for one, and one for all" as The Four Mush-keteers â Olly, Em, and Creminiâs two children, Truffle and Magpie - spring into action. Can the intrepid quartet â and some unlikely friendsâprotect the community without exposing their secrets to the outside world?
Thereâs also rocket fuel. High-tech gizmos. Toxic chemicals. Goblinâs Gold. And some pretty cool Air Force hardware. âDo I smell food?â Peanut butter! The Nipmuc, Hobbamock, and Nikommo and the âMoon of Sharing and Giving.â A mountain lion named Fang. Plus groan-worthy puns galore thatâll tickle even the Grinchâs funny bone. (Tip #2: âLittletonâ has more than one meaning in this book. Just sayinâ.)
This book is just Too. Much. Fun! Highly readable and eminently engaging, itâs beautifully written story with pitch-perfect pacing. The authorâs command of characterization, plot development, and dialogue are impressive. Ditto his prodigious world-building skills.
Combined with top-notch illustrations and a rich and robust story thatâs equal parts wit, wisdom, and whimsy, Olly and the Spores of Sapphire Creek is sure to be a hit with its target audience of middle grade readers. Ditto anyone who enjoys a fast-paced, action-packed story told with a twinkle. Indeed, fans of Percy Jackson, The Borrowers, or Alice in Wonderland will enjoy this delicious middle grade fantasy.
Kindly note that a familiarity with the first book is helpful but not mandatory. Sapphire Creek can easily be read as a stand-alone. A brief recap of prior events from Book 1 about how Em and Olly outstarted school bullies and saved the town of Oak Hill from a rapacious land developer is included in the Prologue. This gets new readers up to speed quickly.
Finally, the amount of energy evident in this book makes the story practically jump off the page. Scenes and characters snap, crackle, and pop with pizzaz. Itâs a little The Lion and the Mouse. A little Alexandre Dumas, E.B. White, or J.M. Barrie. And all heart.
I loved it! You will, too!
My Rating: 4.5