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Library | Material Type | Item Barcode | Shelf Number | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Avon-Washington Township Public Library | Juvenile Fiction Book Hardback | 120791002884051 | J PER | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
"A genre-bending, heart-pounding middle-grade romp into a potential future. . . . Perry's layered approach makes for a masterpiece that feels both familiar yet wholly new." --Shelf Awareness, STARRED REVIEW
"This takes getting lost in a book to a whole new level. I loved it!" --James Riley, New York Times- bestselling author of the Story Thieves series
"Once you start this book, you truly can't stop. An adventure full of cheeky charm and delightful whimsy." --Marie Lu, #1 New York Times -bestselling author of Skyhunter
"A fast, fun, furiously inventive, and frequently frightful read." --Geoff Rodkey, New York Times -bestselling author of the Tapper Twins series and We're Not from Here
This clever, fast-paced adventure is a mix of the Story Thieves series and Ready Player One !
Oliver Nelson has a terrible secret-he's a thief.
But he only steals books from the Garden Grove Library that are old, musty, brittle, or incomplete, like his favorite book, The Timekeeper's Children . No one reads anymore, and surely no one will miss them, right? Wrong.
The Pribbles are famous inventors of the most popular toy in the world, alternate-reality goggles. They are also book collectors who are searching for The Timekeeper's Children , so the Pribbles hatch a plan. They invite Oliver, the last person to have checked it out, to their mansion and use special software from their goggles to steal the last remaining copy of the book--from inside Oliver's mind.
Now, Oliver is thrust into the middle of the story and must help the main characters steal pieces scattered around the fictional world of Dulum to build a magical clock that can turn back time before the evil sorcerer Sigil takes over. They'll encounter hideous giants, bloodsucking bats, vicious eels, a Nasty Rodent Eater, a gang of wicked children, and a strange, dark figure that follows them from chapter to chapter, all the while with the Pribbles in pursuit.
Can Oliver save Dulum before Sigil destroys everything? And will he finish The Timekeeper's Children before the Pribbles steal it from his mind?
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3--7--Oliver Nelson is a mostly good if pessimistic kid with a secret: He's a book thief. This wouldn't be a problem--after all, no one visits the local public library anymore--except the Pribbles, two wealthy inventors and book collectors, have taken a sudden interest in one of the books Oliver stole, and his attempt to return it ends in disaster when the book is instead tossed into a garbage truck. Soon, Oliver is sucked into the Pribbles' latest invention, a virtual reality device that will allow them to take the book's plot straight out of his head. Now Oliver must assist the main characters on their quest--all while avoiding giants, bats, eels, and, of course, the Pribbles--in order to escape. This is a fast-paced, funny tale set in the not too distant future that features an amusing cast of characters. Oliver is perhaps a bit too insightful for the average 10-year-old, but his quick wit and humor are sure to captivate readers. Primary characters present as white. VERDICT Much in the style of a classic Roald Dahl, this adventure story has a pleasing tongue-in-cheek style. Recommended purchase.--Kaitlin Frick, Darien Lib., CT
Publisher's Weekly Review
This rollicking metafictional fantasy by Perry (The Magicians of Elephant County) finds 10-year-old Oliver Nelson secreting away in, and stealing books from, a largely unvisited library. It's the latter half of the 21st century, and he's the only child he knows who reads. His classmates, instead, are fascinated by the alternate reality worlds provided by Pribble Entertainment, a corporation helmed by Mr. and Mrs. Pribble, inventors and avaricious collectors of children's books. Keen to collect Mr. Pribble's favorite fictional book, The Timekeeper's Children, the Pribbles track down Oliver, who last checked out the book's last existing copy. With a device of their own invention that's capable of stealing memories, they force him into an alternate reality version of the book. To make his way in the beloved story while attempting to foil the Pribbles' plot, Oliver must forge alliances and persuade the characters to join their quest. Perry's early scene of Oliver sampling the Pribbles' VR goggles clearly aligns fantasy stories with the sorts of video games that are their conceptual descendants, a move that results in an imaginative read for fans of the Land of Stories series. Ages 8--12. Agent: Alex Slater, Trident Media. (Mar.)
Kirkus Review
In this metafictional romp, a boy is trapped inside his favorite book. In the near future, the ubiquitous alternative reality goggles invented by one Edmund R. Pribble have rendered children's literature obsolete--except to 10-year-old Oliver Nelson, who copes with poverty and grief by hiding in a nigh-abandoned library and stealing his favorite volumes. But when Mr. and Mrs. Pribble discover that the last extant copy of an obscure book resides only in Oliver's memory, they use the goggles to force him into the story, intending to steal it from his mind. This kicks off a delightfully gruesome over-the-top race to derail the original plot while still aiding the deliberately shallow, clichéd protagonists as they complete their ridiculously derivative, trope-laden quest, eventually dragging the snarky Had-He-But-Known--style narrator, miscellaneous background characters, and even possibly the Author himself into the effort. While the main actors in the endangered narrative completely lack personality, archetypically nice Oliver and the cartoonishly evil Pribbles are all likable in their ways. Short chapters with deadpan titles and manufactured cliffhangers add to the fun, but an unexpected twist ending and an affecting (if self-styled "mildly sappy") epilogue highlight the complex relationship between authors and readers and the power of stories to change lives. All major characters are White; there is diversity of skin tone in both the real and fictional worlds. Exactly the sort of thing you'll like if you like this sort of thing. (Fantasy. 8-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
With an eye on his likely audience ("His little life had been a series of Roald Dahl tragedies and Lemony Snicket misfortunes"), Perry pits an impoverished young bookworm against a pair of evil book collectors. Oliver Nelson only discovers that the beloved fantasy novel he stole from the local library and lost is the last copy extant when merciless bibliomanes Edmund and Sophelia Pribble, fabulously wealthy inventors of "alternative reality" goggles addictive enough to have turned an entire generation of children away from reading, use their technology to trap him in his vivid recollections of the storyline and then ruthlessly hoover it from his mind. Joining two young protagonists in the novel's world and a comical avian narrator with low self-esteem, Oliver faces giant spiders and like challenges while dying repeatedly, sometimes in explicitly gory fashion, on the way to a "Dark and Twisted End" that--spoiler alert!--is plenty twisted but not terribly dark. A fortunate event, all in all, for fans of tongue-in-cheek tales with metafictive elements.