Samantha Spinner and the Spectacular Specs

Author: Russell Ginns
Illustrator: Barbara Fisinger

© Date: 2019
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pages: 394
Chapters: Yes
Illustrations: Yes, many page layouts do not have an illustration
Publisher Recommended Age: 8-12
Bonus Activities at End of Book: Yes, fun facts on the value of several items mentioned in the book, more puzzles to solve with websites that have more puzzles (yes, answers to the book puzzles are given at the back of the book), and a map

Summary from Book: When Samantha Spinner’s Uncle Paul disappeared, he left presents for his nieces and nephew.

Samantha’s sister, Buffy, got $2,400,000,000.

Her brother, Nipper, got the New York Yankees.

Samantha got…a rusty old umbrella.

Wow! So unfair, Uncle Paul.

Well, it seemed unfair—until Samantha discovered that the old umbrella holds the plans for a super-secret network of transit systems that covers the globe. It’s the ticket to danger and adventure beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.

But Uncle Paul is still missing. And Samantha just received a new gift from him: a pair of strange purple sunglasses. Are they another powerful present? A clue to his whereabouts? Or just a bad fashion choice? Samantha and Nipper need to figure it out fast, because…here comes the SUN!

Page Pig Thoughts: Following Samantha and Nipper around the world on their adventures is another fun ride. I read through this one while Page Pup and I read the first book together. As I realized that the first book had lots of hints to the second book, I started noticing that this one likely had hints for things that would come in the third book. What a fun way to see a book series layered together and make you want to re-read all of the books. While keeping track of the current adventure clues distracts slightly from looking for possible clues, I enjoyed the challenge of clue searching all the same.

Although if you or your child has a fear of clowns, this particular book may be your nightmare scenario. Samantha and Nipper are chased by clowns that are ridiculous, but could also be rather scary.

I was disappointed that the gross of chinchillas living in the Spinner home did not play a more interesting part in the story though. I was hoping for more chinchilla hi-jinks, but had to settle for imagining what 144 chinchillas in a house would be like.

This one definitely got a Page Pup thumbs up. This book was rather long though, so it takes dedication and more focus than Nipper usually has to get through it. After finishing this one, we moved right into the third book.

Family Unit: The Spinner family: Samantha (11, I think), Nipper (8), Buffy (teenage), Mother, Father, Dennis (pug), and Uncle Paul (lived in an apartment above the garage, but went missing on the first page of the first book). Aunt Penny has been in New York City with Buffy.

Conflict/Social Issues:

Samantha and Nipper are trying to find clues for what happened to Uncle Paul.
Samantha and Nipper are trying to escape from clowns that are trying to steal something from them. The clowns are armed with bad puns, circus peanut throwing machines, gloppy/gross pies, and painful pancakes.
Buffy says that everyone is a fashion disaster and that they all have boring lives that she doesn’t want to hear about. She calls Samantha by the nickname that she hates and calls Nipper her baby brother, which annoys him. Buffy seems to be mostly living on her own in New York City.
Buffy’s assistant, Nathaniel, turns out to be a pirate and tries to hold the Spinners hostage until Samantha hands over her umbrella.
A Komodo dragon eats all of the chinchillas in the Spinner house.

Positive Items:

Samantha and Nipper get along well for the most part, no serious sibling quarrels.
Historical facts are given in the story. They are short, add interest to the story, and don’t feel like boring, teaching moments.
Uncle Paul has confidence in Samantha’s ability to track clues to find him, and he is a rather patient person waiting for her to learn what she needs to to find him.
Each family member, including Dennis the pug, has their special skills that they use at various points to help other family members out. Except maybe Buffy, she is really only into herself, so any assistance that she provides is accidental.
There are so many pieces of the puzzle in action that you can’t be too sure how the book will end, but I appreciated that Uncle Paul was found.

Items of Interest:

Nipper is a nickname, Jeremy Bernard Spinner used to bite people when he was younger.
While Samantha was busy exploring the kitchen with the glasses that Uncle Paul gave her, she had moved a chair next to the counter. Dennis the pug used the chair to jump onto the counter and try to steal a waffle. Unfortunately, Dennis got his tail caught between the hot waffle iron plates. He is now wearing a cone.
Nipper decides to get Samantha a thank you for not letting me die present (she saved his life twice in the first book). He winds up inadvertently ordering her 144 chinchillas. Mr. and Mrs. Spinner don’t seem phased to have that many chinchillas running loose around the house chewing on things and pooping everywhere.
Buffy is now living in New York City while creating a Broadway play. Aunt Penny has been in New York City helping Buffy shop for things for her play.
Uncle Paul has seemingly been living with Buffy going by Horace Temple and producing Buffy’s play, but he has disappeared.
Samantha had been begging her mother to go to New York City to visit Buffy because she believes that Uncle Paul is there, and there is no secret transportation line there. Their plane tickets are not soon enough for her liking. Samantha sends a letter to a grumpy theater critic, which earns her a ticket to New York City to help Buffy keep her fabulous Broadway play dreams.
Samantha and Nipper visit her to help get her play set up. They get a tour of the garishly decorated penthouse, but are forced to use the freight elevator and sleep in the stables intended for the rainbow unicorns that no one has procured for Buffy yet.
Buffy has a grumpy assistant named Nathaniel. At the end of the book, we find out that Nathaniel had trapped Uncle Paul in the June footwear room.
The monkey from the RAIN is now in Buffy’s play. He was supposed to go to jail in France, but since animals don’t get extradited, the police determined that being in a musical is an equal punishment to his required sixty-two thousand hours of community service.
Nipper continues getting his items stolen by the super evil, creepy neighbor, Missy Snoddgrass. She also gets a “discomfort pet,” which is a grumpy parrot that pesters/attacks Nipper.
Nipper is very upset that “his Yankees” have been on a horrible losing streak since Missy Snoddgrass stole them from him.
Samantha and Nipper ride on new super secret transportation to new places, some are smoother rides than others. The slidewalks are a fun concept.
All of the clowns that are chasing Samantha and Nipper have a super sensitive sense of smell, so they can be knocked to their knees with a cloud of cumin or chili pepper seasoning.
Samantha and Nipper are rescued from the clowns by Seydou, a boy on a motorcycle that has his own secret map in his baseball hat. Not many clues are really given about who he really is.
Nipper and Samantha ride a hydropowered rocket through a tunnel. Nipper pushed the start button without noticing that Samantha was not buckled in (she was trying to get to the safety suits). A ride upside down in her seat, getting soaked, and losing her shoe did not leave Samantha in the best of moods.
By the time that Samantha and Nipper get back to the slidewalks, Samantha gets grumpy with Nipper and starts the slidewalk home without him (yes, she leaves Nipper on his own in a foreign country). Nipper isn’t good at waiting for the belt to be ready for him to go home, so he takes a slidewalk somewhere else.
Nipper winds up taking a Komodo dragon home and tries to hide it in his room. He thinks that it is a baby dinosaur. The Komodo dragon slowly eats all of the chinchillas in the house, but gets hungry again and starts setting its sights on small children. Fortunately, their mother hears all of the commotion upstairs and is a veterinarian. She makes nutrient rich waffles for the Komodo dragon, but doesn’t seem phased that it is in her house.
Nipper is attacked by a grumpy llama in Peru.
A balloon clown follows Samantha and Nipper around and all the way to Peru. Once he collects some of their secrets, he snaps Samantha’s leg with an uninflated balloon. She whacks the clown on the head with her umbrella. The clown then makes an aerial escape. Later we find out that he finds Uncle Paul in Buffy’s June footwear room and stuffs him in a theater prop.
Nipper convinces his parents that instead of flying to New York City to see Buffy’s play, they should take the train. In the end, we find out that the only thing he packs is the Komodo dragon.
The Spinner family goes to a Yankees game, along with about 30 other people.
Buffy has been determined to prove the theater critic wrong and has been finding creative ways to sell out her show for a whole week. One night she had a huge banquet with a several course meal, so everyone fell asleep during the show and stayed until the end.
The clowns chase Samantha and Nipper to the theater. Samantha and Nipper find creative ways to dodge the clowns painful circus peanuts and gloopy pies. Samantha winds up on the catwalk that is being knocked apart by flying circus peanuts. She makes it across to Nipper, then discovers that it was a one way bridge.
Buffy is not surprisingly a very bossy, take charge sort of director for her play. She does not take kindly to fashion disaster clowns running around backstage.
The parents had called the police at the beginning of the theater chaos, so the cops take away the clowns that Samantha and Nipper had wrapped up in a ginormous flag.
Buffy is upset that no one in her family watched the play, and doesn’t have an interest in listening to why they weren’t watching.
Uncle Paul had been trapped inside a theater prop. So when a large part of the set was damaged in the clown chaos, he was able to get out.
Nipper disappears from the theater. Mr. and Mrs. Spinner go looking for him. When Samantha and Uncle Paul arrive at Buffy’s apartment, they find Buffy’s assistant, Nathaniel, holding Nippers collar and Mr. and Mrs. Spinner tied back to back with yarn. Turns out Buffy’s assistant was a pirate.
The Komodo dragon comes out of Buffy’s piano and bites Nathaniel’s leg, which is concerning because it is venomous. However, Nathaniel is a true pirate and had a fake leg.
Fortunately, Aunt Penny had called a Wild Animal Rescue Team that arrived to take the Komodo dragon. They took Nathaniel away as well, but then released him and told him to turn himself in.
Nipper is gifted back his Yankees (they were a bargain deal for Aunt Penny because they were losing so badly).
Mrs. Spinner says that they can extend their plane tickets so they can watch Buffy’s play. But Mr. Spinner says he signed Nipper up for math camp. After a big lesson and prep work for Mr. Spinner on how to take care of himself and Nipper. The last five times that Mr. Spinner was alone with Nipper, chaos and destruction happened.
Mr. Spinner gets called away for a light bulb emergency on the Space Needle, so he arranges for a sitter for Nipper. Turns out the sitter is Missy Snoddgrass. The book ends with Missy taking the Yankees back as she wrapped Nipper up in a giant yarn ball, then she rolled him out the door to her house.

Other Books in Series (At Time of Posting):

Book 1 – Samantha Spinner and the Super-Secret Plans (review)
Book 3 – Samantha Spinner and the Boy in the Ball (review)
Book 4 – Samantha Spinner and the Perplexing Pants (review)

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