F is for Floors

Floors by Patrick Carman

There's no other place on Earth quite like the Whippet Hotel. Each and every floor has its own wacky design -- and its own wacky secrets. The guests are either mad or mysterious. And ducks are everywhere.

Leo Fillmore should know everything there is to know about the Whippet Hotel -- he is the janitor's son, after all. But a whole lot more mystery gets thrown his way when four cryptic boxes are left for him...boxes that lead him to hidden floors, strange puzzles, and an unexpected friend or two.

Join Leo as he takes the ride of his life, without ever having to step outside. As the hotel starts falling apart and the mystery thickens, there's only one thing Leo can know for sure: The future of the Whippet Hotel depends on him.

It's hard to think of how to describe this book. It was delightfully zany. The Whippet Hotel has room such as the Robot Room, the Pinball Room, and the Cake Room. Leo's adventure started on the hundredth day after Mr. Merganzer W. Whippet had gone missing. During the regular task of duck herding Leo found a purple box in the duck elevator addressed to him. Upon opening it, he found that he was given a mission to find 3 more boxes in just two days with the help of a duck and a friend in order to save the hotel and all it stands for. A pretty big mission to lay on a ten year old, but Leo had been friends with Merganzer and would do anything for the hotel he loved.

If you combine Wonka's factory with Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium with the mystery of The Westing Game (by Ellen Raskin), you might come close to the fun that is Floors. It's wacky and zany and trying to solve the puzzle left behind by the inventive and mysterious Mr. Whippet will take you all over and through the hotel to figure out what is going on.