The Ever Breath / from the inkhorn & plume of Julianna Baggott.

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Title:

The Ever Breath / from the inkhorn & plume of Julianna Baggott.

Author:

Baggott, Julianna.

ISBN:

9780385737616

Edition:

1st ed.

Publication Information:

New York : Delacorte Press, c2009.

Physical Description:

229 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.

Abstract:

Twins Truman and Camille, spending winter break with their paternal grandmother, follow a secret passageway to the Breath World, where all creatures of magic dwell, to find the Ever Breath, a magical stone that maintains balance between worlds.

Reading Level:

009-013.

Subject Term:

Space and time -- Juvenile fiction.

Magic -- Juvenile fiction.

Twins -- Juvenile fiction.

Brothers and sisters -- Juvenile fiction.

Missing persons -- Juvenile fiction.

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... Avon-Washington Township Public Library	Juvenile Fiction Book Hardback	120791001966679	J BAG	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Follow the secret passageway . . . and discover the magic!

In a world where locust fairies flutter and firebreathers burst from snowbanks, two children are having the adventure of their lives. Truman and his twin sister, Camille, have just met their grandmother . . . and she's a little strange. She whispers a tale about something called the Ever Breath, an amber orb that maintains the balance between our world and a dreamy one of imagination--and evil.

Soon Truman and Camille find themselves in the Breath World, a magical place where ogres clash and a mouse holds the key to a mystery. Some creatures want to help them--and some want them D-E-A-D. That's because the Ever Breath has been stolen, and an epic battle is raging to bring it safely back. Can the twins save not only one world--but two?

Reviews (4)

School Library Journal Review

Gr 4-7-Baggott, who also writes under the name N.E. Bode, introduces twins Camille and Truman. She exudes health while he suffers from every imaginable allergy. The siblings visit their Grandmother Swelda, whom they had not seen since they were babies, and discover her role as gatekeeper to the magical "Breath World." Armed with seeing snow globes, the twins leave our "Fixed World" and enter the Breath World via a basement portal. Once there, magical creatures assist their efforts to restore a stolen stone to the portal, thus reestablishing equilibrium between the worlds. The last page indicates that sequels may follow. Baggott's imagination never falters, but her storytelling goes awry. The constant entrance of various magical creatures negates true character development, especially in a novel of this length. Thus, most episodes feel hasty. As each character appears, subplots emerge that remain undeveloped. Readers might want to know more about ogres, bog people, or the role of the Office of Official Affairs, but Baggott's tale does not permit that explication. Dialogue is often confusing. At one point, Swelda fails to answer a question and then goes off on an unrelated tangent. A continuity error toward the end may also cause reader puzzlement. While children might relish the magical circus, Anna Dale's Spellbound (Bloomsbury, 2008) and Mark Jean and Christopher C. Carlson's Puddlejumpers (Hyperion, 2008) provide better forays into fantasy.-Caitlin Augusta, Stratford Library Association, CT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publisher's Weekly Review

Truman Cragmeal, beset by allergies, asthma, and cowardice, has been taken with his fearless twin sister, Camille, to stay with their grandmother, Swelda, for what is meant to be a three-week stay. Despite Swelda's oddities, the children are entranced by her stories and the unearthly snow globes she gives them, which show disturbing, inexplicable images amid the swirling flakes. But the night of their arrival, Truman is lured through an underground passage into the marvelous and frightening Breath World of Swelda's stories. This world and ours have been endangered by the theft of the Ever Breath, an amber ball that keeps them in balance. Truman soon learns that his missing father is wrapped up in the mystery of the Ever Breath's disappearance and commits himself to finding them both. Baggott's (The Prince of Fenway Park) inventiveness and whimsy never flags; there is some light grisliness: "The man on the ground was wearing a white shirt, but it was turning red." Once Truman forgets about his inhaler and embraces his new purpose, it's a dizzying, nonstop romp through the imagination. Ages 9-12. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Kirkus Review

Fantasy aficionados will gobble up this fast-paced tale, but others may find the jam-packed plot more difficult to digest, as it plunges readers directly into the action and offers little detail to clarify characters and events. Scrawny, sniffling Truman and his twin sister, Camille, are unceremoniously dumped with their grandmother over the holidays. In short order Truman is dispatched to search for a magical object, the Ever Breath. This clear globe resides in the space between the everyday world and a magical one. Without it, both worlds will perish. Truman, magically cured of his allergies, is befriended by a cat-shaped creature called Praddle, a mixed-up revolutionary, a snippy waiter, an ogre and a mouse. Together this motley crew evades monstrous magical creatures and searches for the Ever Breath. Camille is relegated to a supporting (and sneezing) role, but both twins manage to get in on the final action when they rescue their missing father and save the world(s). Baggott's brisk prose propels readers through a tale that feels like a stepping-stone between Spiderwick and Harry Potter. (Fantasy. 9-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

Truman Cragmeal and his twin, Camille, are sent to stay with their weird grandmother, Swelda, after their father's disappearance. Swelda gifts them with two snow globes she claims can show both the past and the future and tells them about the Ever Breath, an orb used to keep the balance between their world and the world of imagination. Believing it only a story, Truman ends up in the Breath World after finding a secret passage, with Camille not long behind. There, they discover that the Ever Breath has been stolen and that it somehow connects to their father's disappearance. This is a fast-paced story that maneuvers the siblings to the Breath World with a minimum of fuss. Events happen in quick succession, characters are charming and quirky but minimally developed, and the Breath World is populated with imaginative creatures, many pictured in the occasional, appealing drawings. Although the confrontation with the thief of the Ever Breath resolves too easily, it also sets up a promising sequel. This is a fanciful, lightweight fantasy for young readers.--Hutley, Krista Copyright 2009 Booklist

Excerpts

chapter one Swallow Road It was cold outside, and the car's heater smelled like a wet dog--even though they didn't have a dog. Truman Cragmeal had always wanted one, but he was allergic to fur--well, to pet dander, actually. Truman was allergic to a lot of things. Strawberries made him break out in itchy hives. Nuts made his throat tighten. Bee stings caused him to swell up all over. Chocolate gave him a headache. Pollen clogged his nose. He was lactose intolerant and mildly asthmatic. He carried an inhaler in one front pocket of his pants and an EpiPen, in case of severe allergic reactions, in the other at all times. Worst of all for Truman at this very moment was the fact that he easily became carsick and his mother was driving along back roads that curved and twisted, dipping in and out of a misty fog. To take his mind off his carsickness, Truman was trying to concentrate on the dog he'd never have. With his stomach full of belchy air, he decided on a Chinese fighting dog--the kind with all the extra skin and the smushed, wrinkly face. He closed his eyes and pictured the Chinese fighting dog but, in his imagination, the dog quickly sprouted horns and then wings and then webbed claws. Truman's brain always seemed to play tricks like that. It was the kind of thing that made his mind wander in class and got him in trouble with his teacher, Ms. Quillum. He burped and opened his eyes. He thought it'd be good to have a dog, especially now that his dad was gone. Boys need dogs, he thought, even though he knew he'd never be allowed to have one and wouldn't be able to breathe if he did. Truman's twin sister, Camille, was sitting next to him. She was reading a book about someone who'd climbed a mountain and almost died and ended up having to have his nose amputated because of frostbite. One month earlier, before their father left, Camille had been a girl who wore pink Girl Power sweatshirts and wrote her homework in sparkle gel pens and dotted her i's with hearts. But now she wore black T-shirts and camouflage pants and spent her spare time watching TV shows where people were dropped off in the middle of the jungle with only a piece of flint, and reading books on disasters--plane crashes, circus fires, shipwrecks, tsunamis, earthquakes, floods. She tied back her curly dark hair with leather shoelaces and sometimes insisted on eating without silverware. She never got carsick, and unlike Truman, she wasn't lactose intolerant, never got hives, and didn't swell up when stung by a bee. She wasn't allergic to pet dander or pollen. She didn't need an inhaler. She didn't even wear glasses. Truman's glasses had thick lenses that weighed them down, and he always had to keep pushing them back up the bridge of his small nose. Truman didn't understand how he and Camille could be twins. They were complete opposites. The car crested a small hill and Truman's stomach flipped and he moaned a little. "Really, Truman," Camille said. "Please don't barf." "I don't barf on purpose, you know!" "This is the right way, don't you think?" Truman's mother said nervously. She was sitting right on the edge of the seat, in close to the wheel, squinting through the windshield. She'd forgotten the map, as well as the directions and her glasses. Since their father left, she'd had to work harder and harder, taking on an extra job at night where she answered phones for doctors who were on call but were at the opera or something. She worked so hard that she forgot things. She was dropping Camille and Truman at their grandmother's so that she could work extra hours over the holidays and get paid overtime. Truman wondered whether she might work so hard over the holidays that she'd forget to come back for him and Camille. He knew it wasn't logical--his mother would never forget them--but still the idea worried him a bit. "Swallow Road? Excerpted from The Ever Breath by Julianna Baggott All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.