What Worked For Me

Characters

I enjoyed the characters in this one. I loved how spunky Roya was, and how much she cared about her community. Amin was a great friend, and I loved his interest in history. Stefanie and Katya were great; I loved seeing them in this book. Katya’s family was a fun addition to the book. The parents in this book were wonderful and I loved their passion.

Writing

I enjoyed the writing style in The Queen of Ocean Parkway. The writing style was perfect for Middle-Grade Readers. There were lighthearted scenes that showed the kids having fun and enjoying their time. At other times during this book, they were tackling heavier topics such as cancer. I loved how these topics were handled with care.

Genre

I’m new to the mystery genre but this was a fun one. I loved how Roya and Amin were figuring out the clues along the way. I loved how they were using their knowledge to solve the case, and try and fix the curse of the Petrovs.

What Could Have Been Better

Podcast

I wanted more with Roya and her podcast. I loved the parts we did have, and the code names she used. I know this wasn’t really about the podcast, but I wish we could have seen more from it.

I enjoyed this delightful middle grade mystery with a touch of magical realism. The friendship that develops between Roya and Amin is charming, as are the colorful and interesting side characters that populate the story. The plot is fun and unexpected, and I was curious to see how it played out. Emotional topics were handled with thoughtfulness and care appropriate for a middle grade audience. Overall, this is a fun and adventurous tale with added heart that should appeal to middle grade readers and adults alike.

I was initially unsure about this book, but at some point I realized I was both fully invested and completely enthralled [and missing NYC more than ever - CONEY ISLAND FTW!!] and then I became very unsure how to write a reiew, because, in my opinion, this is best read like I read it - cold with little information so you get the full effect of the story, which [again, just my opinion] is the best way to read a story like this [I knew it was set in Brooklyn, that Coney Island was involved, and it was about 2 kids; it was SO MUCH MORE for what its worth] and was pretty clueless going in [again, this really is the VERY best way to read this] and it was just glorious!!

I am already looking forward to Book 2 [I was so excited to find out there was going to be another book]; Roya and Amin are very likeable and are much like many middle-graders that I have known personally, and I really love their parents as they strive to keep them safe, all while encouraging them to live their best lives; add in the tenants of The QUEEN and it just makes for some excellent characters in a really great story.

Just go and read this already...you won't be sorry!!

Thank you to NetGalley, Sarvenaz Tash, and Random House Childrens/Knopf Books for Young Readers for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fun middle-grade mystery. The characters were fun, and I adored the secondary characters. Roya is funny and intelligent, and I love her. The plot was interesting, and the pacing was excellent. I’m excited for the sequel, should there be one! The city of Brooklyn was its own character, making me feel like this book was full of charm.

The Queen of Ocean Parkway is the best EVER Middle Grade mystery that I have ever read. Sarvenaz has created a story with so many elements which I am not going to discuss giving the reader an amazing experience throughout the whole story.

Roya and Amin were brilliant characters who worked well together even though the had not really known each other for that long yet there seemed to be a strong understanding and acceptance of each other.

But for me the biggest characters of them all and played a huge part was the Queen and Coney Island I actually felt that I was there.

For all the above reasons The Queen of Ocean Parkway 5 stars and hope that we will see another book as this would truly make a fab series

A magical mystery for middle-grade readers!

The Queen of Ocean Parkway is a new, fantastical mystery story for middle-grade readers from the creative mind of author Sarvenaz Tash. Young Roya Alborzi and her precocious new friend and neighbor, Amin Lahiri, travel through time to try and break a curse that makes the women of the Petrov family disappear, never to be seen again.

The main character, Roya Alborzi, is the only daughter of their Brooklyn apartment building’s super, and while only 11 years old, she is carrying an emotional load that adults would have trouble managing. Though her parents are divorced, her father is desperately ill with cancer, and she does all she can to assist her mother in her job to free her up to care for him. Then, one of her favorite tenants, Katya Petrov, suddenly disappears without a trace. She joins forces with Amin, the son of the new family in the building, to find her and break the chain of disappearances that have plagued the Petrov family for the past four generations.

The Brooklyn setting is well-developed, feeling familiar and comfortable. Roya’s descriptions and tales of the other neighbors for her fledgling podcast are entertaining and made me laugh about some of her observations.

The plot thickens as soon as the characters are introduced, and some surprising twists make the story even more suspenseful and intriguing. As time travel is involved, the author must re-describe the Coney Island setting each time Roya and Amin land in the past. The gorgeous cover, rich with jewel tones, attracts the eye and had my imagination working before I even read the first page. I liked how the author populated the apartment building with an array of different configurations of families and enjoyed meeting each one as the mystery of the disappearing Petrovs unfolded.

I recommend THE QUEEN OF OCEAN PARKWAY to upper elementary and middle-grade readers or for reading aloud in the classroom, in afterschool programs, or at home.

In THE QUEEN OF OCEAN PARKWAY, podcaster Roya turns sleuth when one of her favorite tenants in her apartment building goes missing amid a mysterious connection to a fortune telling machine at Coney Island. With the help of a new friend, Roya sets out to unravel a generations-old mystery and save the missing tenant. The time travel element incorporated into the mystery adds an unexpected twist. Roya and the other characters are multi-dimensional and engaging. The building and amusement park serve as characters in the text, driving the story forward and adding color. Illustrations are an added bonus for middle grade readers who are sometimes hesitant to pick up a longer book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sharing an eARC of the book with me.

This was a fantastic mystery novel that included a time-traveling twist. I am so glad that the adults were included, and they weren't the useless, clueless, empty characters that some middle grades and YA have so the kids can be the heroes. This book focuses on diversity and community. Sometimes, adults make mistakes as well but in this novel, they believe in their kids. Loved the twist and the quirks of each character. Not only deals with solving the mystery of a missing person but also dealing with the cancer of close family.
An uplifting, optimistic novel when time traveling wasn't useless in the present.

The Queen of Ocean Parkway is a fun read about two kiddos who team up to solve the mystery of what happened to Katya Petrov! Roya and Amin are great characters, and I especially love all the secondary folks -- their parents; Katya's wife, Stephanie; and the other residents living in their historic apartment building. The occasional illustrations add a pop of whimsy throughout the book.

I'm excited to see that this will be a series!

The Queen of Ocean Parkway is a riveting story oh two kids who use a time-traveling fortune-telling machine at Coney Island to try to set things right. Can they prevent another descendant of the Petrov family from disappearing?

E ARC provided by Netgalley

Roya lives in a one hundred year old apartment building, where her mother, Aty, is the superintendent, so she knows all of the residents. Since she wants to be an investigative journalist when she grows up, she is working on a podcast about the people who live in the building, and might be listening a little more closely to conversations than she should. Her parents are divorced, and her Baba, a high school science teacher, is undergoing chemotherapy for colon cancer and is very ill. When she meets neighbors Katya and Stephanie in the laundry room, they ask her if she would like to go with them to a new restaurant, Taste of Banglah, that has opened up, but she overhears them arguing as she leaves. Stephanie questions whether Katya will still be there the following week, or will she disappear, like the other women in the Petrov family. When Katya does goes missing and the police are brought in, Roya is worried. She meets Amin, a new neighbor, who parents happen to run Taste of Banglah. He is able to remember everything he hears, so he recounts the conversation with the police for Roya. The two talk to Stephanie and get more information about the supposed Petrov family curse, which has to do with a fortune telling machine, Grandmas (sic) Predictions on Coney Island. Katya has a fortune from the machine that her great-great-grandmother Polina got, that instructs a daughter to be sent every 25 years to get a fortune. Stephanie thinks that is where Katya disappeared, and has something to do with the promise of money. The three also arrange to travel there, and when they do, Amin and Roya manage to travel back to the day when Katya disappeared, and catch a brief glimpse of her. After doing some research at the library, and talking to her Baba about time travel. The three return several times, and finally realize they can only time travel on Mondays, and when they go back the next time, it's 1999. They try to bring Katya back, and can't, and go back to 1974 and are still unsuccessful. After Amin inadvertantly changes the presence by accidentally intercepting a note from his mother to his father, Roya realizes that she might be able to save her father, and finds a graffiti artist to put up some signs. These are misspelled, but lead to her mother, an artist, creating a graphic novel series and becoming a successful author! They figure that what they really need to do is to go back to the first time that time travel occurred, in 1949, and dissuade Polina from ever going in the first place. Will they be able to undo the Petrov curse, and in doing so, change other things in their lives?
Strengths: I love that the author wanted to write a mystery novel that reminded her of Harriet the Spy or The Westing Game, set in her own neighborhood. Roya's family is Iranian, and there are some cultural references, like divining fortunes from Turkish coffee or the Divan of Hafez, as well as descriptions of some of the mother artwork. The Petrov family history is also interesting, although having that many women go missing would certainly be very traumatic! The time travel is VERY well done, with the Grandmother being mentioned in historical sources as the protector of the Wonder Wheel. This, in turn, is described in scientific terms as a cylinder that might help time travel occur... and that's when I started not understanding the time travel without thinking pretty hard about it, which is an indication that it's done really well! There were other things that I liked, such as Amin's aversion to a lot of foods, for which he was going to food therapy. The only other books I can think of that include that sort of food issues are Gerber's Taking Up Space and Davis' Food Fight. This has very good historic details about the different time periods to which Roya and her companions travel, and I love the description of the noises in the different times, and the observation that without cell phones, people interact completely differently. To add the final bit of spicy brown mustard to this Nathan's Famous Hot Dog of a treat, there are delightful illustrations throughout the book. Definitely purchasing this one, and enjoyed it very much.
Weaknesses: While I liked the idea that there were some things that were immutable and didn't disappear even though they probably should have, it was a little confusing. It was also a little sad that the time travel couldn't have been used to earn a little bit of money, but I guess it was a good message about what is really important in life. Both of these things made the book happier, and I am all for that!
What I really think: Tash should definitely think about writing more middle grade books. I had forgotten that I'd read her Geek's Guide to Unrequited Love and Three Day Summer, which I enjoyed, but which were definitely written for a Young Adult audience. I would enjoy seeing Roya and Amin again, perhaps engaged in a different supernatural mystery at Coney Island!

This was a really fun and quick read. I was hooked from the beginning. Roya is such an excellent character. She likes the building she lives in "The Queen" and all the residents that live there.
She makes a new friend in Amin and together they set out to solve this mystery.
I liked the family dynamics also. Not just with Roya's family, but with the other families involved in the book, like The Petrovs.
I think a lot of middle graders will love this one because of the mystery but also the real feelings and friendships that they can relate to.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC.