This is a mostly clean book, but there are a few things to be aware of. Here are the items to consider for your young reader:
While the two main girl characters are solid, tor most of the book Vincent isn’t the greatest person. This sets up a big transformation for him, but good to know it is there. We read things like him saying Georgia (the other main character) looks weird and “like a homeless person” upon meeting her. He rolls his eyes, complains, is negative, etc. The book includes a sad comment indicating that Vincent’s family only “went to church a few times a year” (important that our kids know it is great to experience God in art and nature, but Christians are called to be together in church!). Note that all of this is before the encounter with Jesus we share below.
In a more serious than the rest of the content moment, Vincent recalls his grandparents home burning down “killing them and his mom’s sister”. A big part of the plot revolves around Lili, Vincent’s younger sister actually being kidnapped by a bad group (certainly handled with the audience in mind, but may frighten some). The most intense comment from this comes when we hear about this group, “About ten years ago the Distortionists massacred most of the Restorationists families”. We are told “If you die in a painting, you die”. One of the paintings they go into has a creepy drawn guy in it they have to avoid and he is shown in one of the few illustrations in the book.
Vincent tries to eavesdrop on parent conversations
Georgia lightly jokingly says, “That’s because this is where the boogy man lives! If you don’t do as you’re told, you’ll vanish”.
Vincent mentions wanting to have a video game marathon
The main characters sneak around the uncle’s house, often late at night, even picking locks and such. This escalates as the adventure goes on.
There is a random mention of zombies (“The only Zombies I want to see are in Minecraft”)
One of the paintings Vincent enters “was full of naked people”. He says, “It’s gross” to which Georgia replies, “Naked people are a part of art. You get used to it. But maybe it’s not a good thing.” (note the kids cover their heads while travelling through here. Discussed a bit in the author’s note.
Someone refers to a quest as a “suicide mission”
Towards the end Uncle Leo and the 3 kids make up a lie to tell the FBI. Here we read, “If she had trouble believing that, she’d never buy the actual truth”, adding “Uncle Leo coached them on the story”.