Leopold “Larry” Berry is average, perfectly average, if you believe the results of his aptitude test given by the pricey college admissions counselor his father hired. And in the Berry household “average” equates to “failure”. The boy is a dreamer, spending his free time tinkering with his late mother’s old car and recreating scenes from an old TV show he found on VHS. Absolutely hopeless!
What Larry’s dad doesn’t know is that the old TV show, “Max’s Adventures in Sunderworld”, is not merely a corny, poorly-filmed fantasy series. It’s also one of his only connections to his mom, who died when Larry was 12. But Larry is starting to suspect that Sunder is more than make-believe; could it be a real world that exists below (or next to? inside of?) his hometown of Los Angeles? Lately, it seems the line between Sunder and the real world is blurring. Larry is seeing things that don’t (or shouldn’t) exist in his world. Worried that he is losing his mind, Larry confesses his experiences to his best friend Emmett, and the two set off to find out why Sunder is revealing itself to Larry. Will they find something truly extraordinary? Or will it just be another in a long list of extraordinary disappointments?
This is the first book in a new Young Adult fantasy series, Sunderworld by Ransom Riggs, the author of the Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children series. The second book will be released in fall 2025.
Riggs, Ransom. (2024). The Extraordinary Disappointments of Leopold Berry. Dutton Books for Young Readers.
