Review by C.J. Bunce
Originally self-published via Kickstarter as With Kind Regards from Kindergarten, a new steampunk children’s chapter book arrives at bookstores this month from Insight Kids, renamed The Clockwork War. Bookended by a grandmother trying to persuade a hesitant granddaughter to give kindergarten a try, in the style of William Goldman’s The Princess Bride, Kline creates a fantasy tale about an orphanage, two friends, and a giant oak tree to nudge the granddaughter along. Addressing those time-honored angsts of childhood: bullies, advertising, commercialism, roaches, the lack of monsters under one’s bed, plastics, progress for progress’ sake, soot and smog, and henchmen, author Adam Kline assembles a clockwork fantasyland in a fable style pointing young ones to the inevitable lesson that at some point everyone must “rise to the occasion.”
Karlheinz Intergarten and Leopold Croak begin their story under the tutelage of Miss Understood and her orphanage, both fast friends with active imaginations. Miss Understood will be likeable for kids, full of mixed-up (but apt) sayings like “the early nerd gets the worm,” “all’s well that smells well,” and “money can fry happiness.” While playing in the giant oak tree during a storm, Leopold is struck by a lightning bolt, and loses his imagination. Lonely when Leopold no longer wants to play, Karlheinz (Karl) leaves town to become apprentice to a clockmaker, whose companion is a clockwork mouse named Pim. Many years later Karl becomes a brilliant clockmaker in his own right, and when his mentor dies he returns with Pim to the town of his youth to find it dying and polluted, driven into the ground by the richest man in town: his old friend Leopold, who has lost sight of fun and friendship and focuses only on his corporation and his moneymaking, popular line of electronic toy girl dolls. He has seemingly forgotten the needs of his real daughter, who is perched above town away from all others, allergic to everything but cucumber tea.
“Some rats are evil, Pim,” sighed Karl. “I won’t argue that. But they’re almost never born that way.” And this is true–of rats, of cats, of dogs, and everything else. It’s especially true of people.
A clockwork fly and mouse, a hungry dog, cats’ fear of any loud noise, a giant thug, a pirate ship, and a dragon all come together under Karl’s guidance to teach lessons to both Leopold and the granddaughter at home hearing the tale. Kline pulls themes and styles from a variety of classic and modern sources, from Pinocchio to Edward Scissorhands, from Aesop’s Fables to the Grimm television series and Mouse Guard, and from The Invisible Man and Hugo to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
is a classic movie in every sense. Unforgettable scenes, quotable dialogue, and a superb story by William Goldman provided the recipe for a film that is not just a fun film to watch now and again but a film girls and boys and women and men alike will outright tell you they love. If there is a more incredible single scene in all of fantasy films than Mandy Patinkin’s Inigo Montoya in his final confrontation with Christopher Guest’s Count Rugen, then I have no idea what it is. “My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”
is the first companion book to the film ever created. Which in itself is astounding–a movie so popular and yet no one thought to release something like this before. The result is what any fan of any film would love to have–it’s the kind of book that has not even been done in this way for films like Star Wars or Star Trek, although many great varieties of books have looked behind the scenes at those franchises. What stands out for 
