Return to Exile

July 25, 2011
Thanks to his eccentric uncle Phineas, 12-year-old Sky Weathers is proficient with traps, riddles, and puzzles, and he knows much about supposedly mythical monsters like the Echo ("vaguely treelike with large black leathery wings"), Shadow Wargs, and Edgewalkers ("dream-stealers, gorging on a person's hopes and fears"). When Sky's family moves back to his childhood hometown of Exile, these skills come in handy after he discovers that an ancient evil, long trapped in Exile, is about to break free. Teaming up with a group of would-be monster hunters, Sky unlocks his hidden abilities and fights shape-changing creatures, carnivorous plants, and more, while dealing with the day-to-day reality of school bullies and antagonistic teachers. The frenetic story line, flurry of revelations and secret identities, and large cast occasionally make this debut novel, the first book in the Hunter Chronicles series, hard to follow, but Patten more than makes up for it with his original mythology, easy sense of humor, and action-packed sequences. Amid the innumerable vampire, zombie, and werewolf stories available, it comes as a breath of fresh air. Final art not seen by PW. Ages 8â12.

December 1, 2011

Gr 5-8-Sky, 12, and his family (uber-cheerleader Hannah, home-improvement-challenged Dad, botanically talented Mom) have been on the move forever. The only constant in his life has been his Uncle Phineas, who has provided games and puzzles, plus books and stories about all kinds of strange monsters that no one else has ever heard of, like evil Echoes and thumbless Gnomons. His family's return to the creepy town of Exile is marked with Phineas's disappearance and Sky's continuing dreams of an inner monster named Errand that causes him to behave badly. Complications abound, characters are not who (or what) they seem, and telling the bad guys from the good guys is at times impossible. There is plenty of humor (mostly snarky comments and horrifically bad puns), more than a little violence, but some quieter, more emotional moments as well. By the end, most of the loose ends are neatly tied up, but there are broad hints of more mayhem to come. Middle-schoolers who like untying fiendishly complicated plots will say, "bring it on."-Mara Alpert, Los Angeles Public Library

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