Toby King and the Utility Belt

Toby King and the Utility Belt by Sharon Giltrow (GiltWrote Publishing), RRP $15.00 Junior Fiction ISBN 9-781764-547314

Reviewed by Susan Hancy

After reading book 1 of The Utility Belt Series featuring Samara Rubin, my daughter and I couldn’t wait to read book 2: Toby King and the Utility Belt. In book 1, Toby had been introduced as the class villain – a loner who’d been bullying Samara to relinquish her lunch to him every day and who then stole Samara’s utility belt. But an unexpected moment of heroism at the end of book 1 has left open the possibility that there is another side to Toby, and book 2 gives us the chance to see what makes him tick.

The first four chapters of Toby King and the Utility Belt retell the climax and conclusion of Samara Rubin and the Utility Belt, only this time it’s told from Toby’s point of view. We find out why he’s been stealing Samara’s lunch. We learn that he’s relatively new to Samara’s school, and even he is shocked that he’s being perceived as the class bully. (At his last school, he was the one being bullied). He’s aware that lies pop out of his mouth faster than his brain can keep him in check and that doing so is wrong. But he’s at a loss for how he can go about making friends, and that’s where the utility belt comes in. He’s witnessed his classmates in awe of what Samara can do with her belt, and he sees the belt as his quick ticket to turning those classmates into friends. But despite Samara’s advice that building friendships requires investment, Toby’s poor decisions result in him learning this the hard way.

All in all, the author, Sharon Giltrow, has done a great job in turning a character that we, as readers, started off loathing into someone we care for; willing Toby to make the right choices (he often doesn’t!) and simultaneously testing our own judgement about what we’d do in his situation.

Then, just when we think book 2 and possibly the series is wrapping up, we’re sprung a surprise. We’re introduced to a new character, Kaya, who has the possibility of qualifying for her own utility belt. Just how, I won’t reveal, but we’re left with enough of a hook for what could possibly follow to have us wanting to know: when are we going to get book 3?

Samara Rubin and the Utility Belt

Samara Rubin and the Utility Belt by Sharon Giltrow (GiltWrote Publishing), RRP $15.00 Junior Fiction ISBN 9-781765-547307

Reviewed by Susan Hancy

Samara Rubin and the Utility Belt is the first book in The Utility Belt Series, self-published by Sharon Giltrow with intriguing illustrations by Thu Vu. Gecko-loving Samara Rubin is about to turn 11, and she has one wish – to be courageous enough to stand up to Toby King, the meanest boy in school. Little does she know that when she receives the curious gift of a utility belt from Uncle Steve for her birthday, she’ll discover the confidence to not allow herself to be bullied.

The utility belt used to belong to Samara’s deceased father, and turning 11 is the age that Uncle Steve and Mum have agreed on for Samara to inherit it. But it’s not just the belt she’s received. To Samara’s and Mum’s surprise, it’s come with a Madagascar Day Gecko, whom Samara names Madi and who guides Samara on how to use the belt.  She has 7 days to use all 11 secret gadgets that it contains – or else! What that “or else” is, is anybody’s guess, but it sounds pretty ominous.

Over the following chapters, the reader is pulled into Samara’s world of 11-year-old life challenges, wondering what Madi is going to recommend as the next utility from the belt, how Samara will decide to use it and how she’ll overcome Toby as her class nemesis. Even though this book is positioned as speculative junior fiction for 6 to 12-year-olds, I think it will be a great read for the 7 to 10-year-old age range of kids who have surpassed typical junior fictions but are not quite ready to take on the length and smaller print size of middle grade fictions. It was a hit with my 9-year-old daughter, who took a sneak peek at the end of the book, which introduces book two of the series about Toby King and his utility belt. That got her – and me – even more curious to find out what is going to transpire between Samara and Toby, why he also has a utility belt, and how his perspective will either confirm or change our opinion of him as the class bully. We can’t wait to read book 2!