Wizard for Hire
Ozzie's parents moved them out to a hidden cabin in Oregon when he was seven. Unfortunately, they never got to explain why or even unpack. They are kidnapped leaving Ozzie on his own. He spends the next several years eating canned food and exploring all the boxes left by his parents. After he meets a girl on the beach he decides to start going to school. Then he sees an ad in the local paper advertising a wizard for hire. Enter Labyrinth or Rin. Rin claims to be a wizard even though he never actually performs any magic. Ozzie and Rin start trying to find his parents. This leads to some unexpected adventures.
This is one of those books that I think would not have seemed so bad on paper, but the audio highlighted some things I just didn't like. The first was choices made by the narrator; things like actually yelling when people yelled in the book really got old fast. On paper, Clark the mechanical bird may have been funny and decent comic relief. On audio he was annoying and way too over the top. I am also not sure who the intended audience is for this one. The characters are a bit older than would normally appeal to middle grade, but the story won't appeal to middle school teens. It is also a bit long and could have been cut down by 100 pages or so. There is also the question of whether Rin is really a wizard or if he has some kind of mental health issue. It was definitely not my favorite and not what I expected either.