Fast-moving story about a young orphan boy who agrees to help his uncle steal a sword so he won't go into foster care. Alfred ends up finding out the Knights of the Round table as he tries to outsmart (in a fumbling sort of way) evil Ferrari-driving villains. Would recommend to teen-age boys and King Aurthur lovers. ( )

This book was fantastic. What is ironic is I actually borrowed the book from my 12 year old son. I was sick and had finished every book I could lay my hands on and he begged me to try the book. Well, the rest is history. I LOVE Alfred Kropp!! It was the hardest book to put down. It was magical, whimsical, mystical, dark and full of action and adventure. The Under Dog comes out on top-sort of! Can't wait to see what the future holds for Alfred and maybe Natalia????? I am hooked!!

Reviewed by Cana Rensberger for TeensReadToo.com

Alfred Kropp is big enough to play football, but too clumsy to be any good, and too dense to remember the playbook. In fact, Alfred doesn't really excel at anything. Except for his height and big head, he's pretty much average. Ordinary. If only he were smaller, he could go through each day unnoticed.

He has no father and his mother died of cancer when he was only twelve. For two years he's been juggled between various foster homes until his Uncle Farrell appears and takes him in. And that's when his life becomes anything but ordinary.

A slick, devious stranger offers Uncle Farrell one million dollars to steal a special sword back from Mr. Samson, Farrell's boss. Alfred has many questions. How do they know it really belongs to the stranger? What happens to him if his uncle gets caught for stealing? Why is this man asking them to steal it? Uncle Farrell threatens Alfred. He has no choice. He either helps steal the sword, or he goes back to foster care.

As soon as Alfred wields the sword in his hands, he knows it is no ordinary sword. He finds out he's holding Excalibur, King Arthur's sword. The same sword that knights have been guarding for centuries. From the moment Alfred steals the sword he is pitched headlong into a world unlike any he has ever known. A world that clashes with knights, swords, fast cars, helicopters, daggers, guns, and much more.

Alfred, the ordinary foster kid, finds he has a not-so-ordinary connection to a world forgotten, and through that connection, he has been charged with saving the world by saving Excalibur. An extraordinary task for an ordinary kid.

My fourteen year-old son grabbed this book from my shelf before I had a chance to start it and daily badgered me to read it once he'd finished. I will be adding the second and third installments of this series to my library. This action-packed adventure is a must read. I dare you to try to put it down once you've begun. In THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ALFRED KROPP, Rick Yancey has done the impossible by merging a world of knights in shining armor with today's age of technology, an extraordinary combination! Amazing! ( )

Unlikeable 'hero'. Unremarkable plot. Unimaginative writing. ( )

This one grabbed me from the first page and dragged me through in one sitting. I was doing laundry, and when the dryer buzzed I got up and set it to air dry so the clothes wouldn't wrinkle. When it buzzed again, I just let the clothes wrinkle! ( )