The Whatnot
Peculiar Series, Book 2
سری عجیب، کتاب ۲
فرمت کتاب
audiobook
تاریخ انتشار
2013
Lexile Score
680
Reading Level
3
ATOS
4.9
Interest Level
4-8(MG)
نویسنده
Peter Altschulerناشر
Greenwillow Booksشابک
9780062280367
کتاب های مرتبط
- اطلاعات
- نقد و بررسی
- دیدگاه کاربران
نقد و بررسی
Starred review from September 9, 2013
In this exhilarating, violent sequel to The Peculiar, Bartholomew, a half-fairy changeling, and Pikey Thomas, a penniless 12-year-old street boy with a magical eye, wander a steampunkish Victorian London in search of Bartholomew’s kidnapped sister, Hettie. Bartholomew, Hettie, and Pikey—seemingly mere pawns in the heated dispute between fairies and the English—all have the potential to influence the approaching war. Bachmann writes with a skill that belies his youth. His imagination tends toward the surreal, and he has a genius for envisioning fairy magic and architecture, as in his description of a vast, fluctuating fairy house that Hettie explores: “Sometimes she would step into a hallway that was being reconstructed and would discover a wall behind her where seconds before there had been a door, or that all the panels had been flipped and what had looked like a regular corridor before, now looked like a deep forest of red and rust-colored mushrooms.” Readers will want to start with The Peculiar, and immediately dive into this fine tale. Ages 8–12. Agent: Sara Megibow, Nelson Literary Agency.
This sequel to THE PECULIAR continues the tale of the war between the English and the Fairies. Bartholomew Kettle is on a quest to find his sister, Hettie, a changeling who was pulled into the faery world in Book 1. The story is dark and complex, a fantasy of faeries and an army in a war to the death. Peter Altschuler brings the characters to life, giving them each a unique voice, accent, and personality. His pacing and intonation convey emotions of excitement, exuberance, and expectation. N.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine
October 1, 2013
Gr 5-8-This sequel to The Peculiar (HarperCollins, 2012) is an enthralling read in its own right, but even better for those acquainted with the first book. Bachmann combines the pleasures of a Dickensian cast of characters with the eldritch qualities of British faerie lore and adds a touch of steampunk to entice readers into an alternate universe in which the English are on the verge of war with the fay. Pikey Thomas is an urchin who's been "fairy-touched," which has left him with one eye that can see into the Old Country, but also endangers him in a society that is hostile to anything connected to faeries. Moreover, his real eye seems to be on a pendant around the neck of Hettie, the little girl who was captured by faeries in The Peculiar. Her brother, Bartholomew, has been trying to rescue her ever since and, when he comes across Pikey in a London prison, he effects the boy's release and enlists his aid. Bachmann writes with unnerving assurance for someone so young. (He was still in his teens when he completed the two books.) He describes an army camp: "It spilled out of the huddle of low stone houses like intestines from a goat's belly." The breathtaking beauty of his prose is coupled with a plot that also leaves his audience breathless.-Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Library, NY
Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
September 15, 2013
At the end of The Peculiar (2012), Bachmann's debut, the evil faery Mr. Lickerish had used half-faery Bartholomew's little sister, Hettie, as a Door to open the way between England and the Old Country; here is what happens next. Years have passed in England, and humans are winning the country back from the faeries. One-eyed orphan Pikey (his other was stolen one night, a clouded, useless orb left in its place) ekes out a meager existence in London's underbelly. When a faery returns a favor with an astonishing gem, he tries to pawn it and, predictably, ends up in deep trouble. Meanwhile, Hettie struggles to survive in the Old Country, where just a few days have passed. Captured by the lady Piscaltine and kept as her pet Whatnot, Hettie waits in terror for Bartholomew to rescue her. The story alternates between the Old Country and England, between twig-haired Hettie and Pikey; somehow, he can see her through his clouded eye, which makes him very valuable to Bartholomew, who rescues him from jail for its sake. Bachmann unleashes his boundless imagination in his descriptions of the Old Country, whose rules and landscape are capricious and ever-changing. Hettie's terror is well-justified. Detail upon baroque detail piles up as Bartholomew and Pikey race to find Hettie, the war between humans and faeries inevitably catching them up in it--as does friendship. It's a bleak and breathless read, one that will have readers hoping for a peaceful outcome as fervently as its characters do. (Fantasy. 10-15)
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