December 1, 2008
Gr 5-8-Barnaby Grimes is a tick-tock lad-an all-purpose messenger whose "highstacking" route carries him rapidly over the city's rooftops. He is suspicious when retired coachman Old Benjamin tells him about a miraculous cure offered free by Doctor Cadwallader. Then Benjamin vanishes mysteriously, and that same full-moon night, Barnaby is attacked by a vicious, wolflike animal. After intercepting a tardy message to Benjamin about keeping a now-missed appointment, Barnaby visits the doctor, thinking the man might need a more reliable delivery service, especially since a missed treatment could result in "side effects of the most unfortunate kind." Sure enough, Cadwallader hires Barnaby to take similar notes to other patients, all poor, lonely people who disappear soon after. What is the sinister doctor up toand what is his relationship with the owner of a fashionable fur salon? The setting resembles Sherlock Holmes's London as seen in a shadowed, slightly warped mirror. There are hansom cabs, high-gabled row houses, and foul rat-infested slums, but mad scientists hold sway and fiendish creatures lurk in odd corners. Eerie, angular black-and-white drawings complement the atmospheric text. Fans of the macabre will enjoy this first entry in a series by the "The Edge Chronicles" (Random) creators."Elaine E. Knight, Lincoln Elementary Schools, IL"
Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
July 1, 2008
Stewart and Riddell, the team behind the popular Edge Chronicles, introduce a new series and hero in this shivery mystery-horror hybrid, the first in the Barnaby Grimes series. Barnaby is a tick-tock lad (a sort of messenger) who is happiest traipsing abouthis Londonesque city in a manner known as highstacking: leaping from gutter to gable, pillar to pedimentroof to roofwith the arrogant agility of a courting tomcat. During a jaunt about town on a full moon he runs afoul of a vicious wolflike creature, an encounter that leads him to a suspiciously benevolent doctor administering a special tonic to a select group of poor, infirm, and forgotten wretches. Moody, highly detailed pen-and-ink drawings provide ornamentation throughout, lending a classic Victorian feel to help punctuate the drama. Possessing an easy confidence and quick wit, outfitted with a swordstick and stovepipe hat, and nimble as the wind, Barnaby is an appealing character sure to draw readers back to the next installment, due next spring, of what promises to be a rousingseries.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)
January 1, 2009
Barnaby, a tick-tock lad (or messenger), suspects there is a connection between recent wolf attacks and a local doctor's curative tonic after the doctor's patients start dying. Barnaby investigates and becomes a victim of the doctor's wicked scheme. Riddell's illustrations convey the Victorian setting and show Barnaby's skillful maneuvering of the city's rooftops in this gruesome start to an imaginative new series.
(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)