Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for this DRC.

I loved this book so much. It took me back to my childhood wish to have a portal adventure. I hold it very near and dear.

#TheMysteriousDisappearanceofAidanSastoldtohisbrother #NetGalley

This book was so sweet. It deals with the aftermath of a Narnia situation. I loved everything about it, the only thing I can criticize is that I just want more.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

My coworkers are obsessed with this one. Short, fast-paced, will keep you on your toes. Defending Jacob meets Narnia. LGBT.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Children's for the eARC.

Lucas' brother has been missing for a week. With no trace. Police, neighbors, friends, and family have been searching everywhere for him. So when he turns up in the attic, claiming to have been in another world, who is going to believe him? No one. His friends taunt him. His parents sent him to a psychologist. But Lucas knows his brother and doesn't think he's telling a lie. Who is to believe?

This was a fun, quick read. Not sure it really qualifies as fantasy, since we don't really explore the "fantasy world." But nonetheless, this is a great story for middle school and is even appropriate for 4th and 5th graders.

(SPOILER) Really fun, edge of your seat page turner, some kids will be disappointed by ambiguous ending - but that would also make for a rich read aloud

This was a compelling listen. I really couldn't figure out how it was going to end. It was the ending that knocked it down a star for me. I wanted a better explanation, or a different ending altogether.

This is a Middle Grade book. I loved this book. The characters was so great, and I really loved the two brothers (Aidan and Lucas) characters. This book really shows the love brothers has for each other. It also shows how mean kids can be to other kids. I feel this book as a lot of important lessons for middle grade kids to learn into. This book was so well-written, and I think middle grade kids and adults will love this book. I was kindly provided an e-copy of this book by the publisher (Knopf Books for Young Readers) or author (David Levithan) via NetGalley, so I can give honest review about how I feel about this book. I want to send a big Thank you to them for that.

Might be more appreciated by an older kid or one who is well read. I’m a big fan because this is so outside the formula of middle grade. And I loved that I felt unsure if I could trust the narrator or not.

I really enjoyed the relationship between the two brothers in the book and the development of the mystery. I wish some of the other characters has been developed a bit more. I felt there also needed to be more description of the dresser so we could imagine how Aidan was able to transport to the other world; Overall it was an entertaining read and I have purchased it for our school library.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Believable characters and relationships along with an engaging plot made this a great read.

What happens to a family when a child goes missing? What happens to a family when a child that was missing returns? What happens to a family when a child was missing because they are in a fantasy world? These are the questions that get answered in The Mysterious Disappearance of Aidan S. (as told to his brother). It's a POV that you don't normally think about and an exploration of how this goes down in a modern connected world. The reader simultaneously wants to know what happened to Aidan when he was in the fantasy world but also can understand the disbelief of many people around him who 'know' that this cannot possibly have happened & need to know what 'really happened' to Aidan. It's a shorter book but it's so easy to read & keeps you wanting to know more about what happened & what is going to happen next!

There is a fascinating allure of mystery that propels one through this innocuous narrative which combines a grounded topic (missing child) with a touch of fantasy. Strong lead characters (Lucas and Aidan) bring to the surface some thought-provoking questions about the nature of truth and experiences that can't be readily communicated to others. The metaphor of Aveinieu might be somewhat abstract for middle grade readers but still a strong theme nonetheless.

This was an enjoyable read and I'm glad I had a chance to check it out. It seemed a bit slow, though, and I don't know that there would be enough action to hold the attention of my readers. I enjoyed reading the relationship between the boys, although a lot of their conversations seemed quite advanced (just not how your typical kids that age speak to each other). If you're looking for a read about family and brothers told in first person POV, this could be a good choice.

I really loved the beginning of this book and the mystery was engaging and page turning. The ending fell a little flat. It seemed like it was too much pushed into the last part of the book and it became confusing. I worry that the kids who start reading this are left with an ending that seems forced and will miss the wonderful parts of this book.

This is going to be one of those books that is hard to categorize. Is it realistic, magical realism, or just plain fantasy. I wasn't even sure when I was almost done and for that reason I would probably go with magical realism.

Aiden disappeared for 6 days. There was no trace. His family and friends searched everywhere. Then he reappeared in the attic with a strange story. He said he had gone through the dresser into a land called Aveinieu but was sent back because the people there thought he might carry a disease. But his story was unbelievable right and no one believed him. So what does he do? Continue to tell the story or make something up that people might believe?

This was pretty interesting and certainly gave some food for thought...

What a fantastic, engaging twist on the doorway-to-another-world trope. The way Levithan chose to approach this - prioritizing the family dynamics/real world consequences over any prolonged description of the fantasy world - honestly made this into even more of a page turner than it would have been if this were a straight up fantasy story. All the family discussions here are so fraught, so raw with emotion that it's almost impossible to turn away from them. Likewise, the way things escalate when Aidan's story gets leaked make this book even more difficult to put down. There's basically no filler at all here: each sentence is lean and precise, and paced to perfection.

The only real negative here is that the fantasy world, in the few instances it does get described, isn't particularly intriguing. There needed to be a touch more detail here, a final varnish of glamor. But honestly, other than that this is an excellent read. (Especially if you, like me, need a quick, engaging story to meet your Reading Challenge goals.)

Thoughtful middle-grade mystery explores truth and honesty. middle-grade mystery about what happened to 12-year-old Aidan and where he went when he was missing for six days. There's some scariness, suspense, and fear that he might be dead during the time he's missing, with a safe resolution.

I love how David Levithan writes and this book is no exception. The Mysterious Disappearance...focuses on the "reappearance" rather than the time Aidan was gone, so we as readers don't learn much about Aidan's time in his Narnia-like world. We do see what it is like for Aidan to return to a harsh environment of suspicious and resentful friends, family, and neighbors. This is really more realistic fiction than fantasy (or say magical realism), but Levithan's interaction of characters and dialogue is brilliant no matter what genre you call it. While this book isn't for everyone since it is slower paced and quirky, it definitely has readers out there that will savor the words and emotions.

Kids escaping into a fantasy world is a well known trope. But what happens while they’re gone? How much time passes? What happens when they return? How do they explain where they were?

This book explores those questions. Lucas’ brother was missing for six days. But he returns with a story about another world that he accessed through an old dresser in the attic.

Lucas is a compelling, relatable narrator. I couldn’t stop reading! I’m eager to recommend this story about family, belonging, and truth to my students.