The long-awaited Strange Round Bird brings Eden Unger Bowditch’s Young Inventors Guild trilogy to a satisfying conclusion—no mean feat with so many threads and mysteries to be resolved. The children—young inventors all—are brought together with their parents at last in what seems like a peaceful retreat. But the evil Komar Romak waits behind the scenes and innocents might get hurt. While parents hide in secret laboratories, doing who knows what, the children resolve to take immediate action and set out through the streets of Cairo, finding clues, analyzing mysteries, and utilizing those curious inventions they've so carefully designed.

History, science and imagination come together in this series and in the lives of these children. The magic behind their mystery is firmly anchored in logic, set in our own well-researched historical world, and bound by the rules of delightfully imaginative science. Cross steampunk with the Famous Five and Harry Potter, perhaps, and this might be the result—an enticing read, filled with child-centered action and adventure, intelligent history and science, and delightful flights of imagination (also of elephants and other tiny wonders, but you’ll have to read it to find out why).

Cool photographs and diagrams help bring readers deeper in the realities of the tale. And an excellent final section with Tales from the Archivist ties everything together, answering just enough questions with just the right tone of serious research—perfectly constructed to make children believe they have value, and they really can learn and understand.

The Strange Round Bird is an intriguing fantasy novel for intelligent young readers. It simultaneously entertains and encourages, invites questions, entices with well-wrought clues, and offers a view of the world that expands with every page turned. It’s highly recommended.

Disclosure: I was given a pre-release copy and I’ve loved the whole series. ( )