Promotional Information

Hilarious, clever and very original with amazing illustrations to match - a true modern classic in every sense Philip has won the Smarties Gold Award, Blue Peter Book of the Year, and most recently the Guardian Fiction Prize, as well as being shortlisted for the Whitbread Children's Book Award, since his startling debut in 2001. Testament both to his storytelling brilliance and beautiful writing. Fantastic, eye-catching paperback jacket

About the Author

Philip Reeve's first novel Mortal Engines was published to an incredible critical acclaim which his subsequent books have emulated. He is the author of the Larklight trilogy for Bloomsbury. Philip lives in Devon. David Wyatt, has illustrated many beautiful covers for authors including Terry Pratchett and Philip Pullman. He lives in Devon, and is a keen lutist, cyclist, and wanderer of the moors.

Reviews

Gr 6-10-Philip Reeve's novel (Bloomsbury, 2006) combines historical fiction, fantasy, and science fiction into a charming story that young listeners will devour. Art and his sister Myrtle are British youngsters living with their father at Larklight during the reign of Queen Victoria. However, in this alternate Victorian era, Britain controls not only most of Earth-including the American colonies-but also Venus, Mars, and the moons of Jupiter. Larklight is a home that hangs just beyond the moon. Art is happy living in the suburbs of the solar system, but his priggish sister longs for the excitement of London's social scene. When giant spiders attack their home and their father disappears, the siblings are tossed onto a lifeboat and float through the ether until they are rescued by young space pirate with a grudge against the Empire. This Victorian Star Wars trio hurtles through space battling robots, aliens, and a loony scientist. Narrator Greg Steinbruner's British-accented narration helps American listeners understand the wordy English prose, but be sure to have a copy of the book available so listeners don't miss out on the quirky illustrations. The story is complete in itself, but more adventures are promised.-Tricia Melgaard, Centennial Middle School, Broken Arrow, OK Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

Reeve (the Hungry City Chronicles) evidently has a fascination with giant, mobile structures, but here he turns his considerable talent to a whimsical story of Victorian houses floating in space, a Jules Verne-like concoction filtered through the sensibilities of Douglas Adams. Art and Myrtle live with their scientist father in a "shapeless, ramshackle, drafty, lonely sort of house" called Larklight. After fleeing an attack from space spiders, the siblings, adrift on a lifeboat, find themselves on the moon, then aboard the ship of legendary pirate Jack Havock. Readers travel a lot of very strange ground, from the Changeling Trees of Venus and their poisonous pollen, to the offices of the Royal Xenological Institute. Art and Jack discover that the spiders were in fact man's precursors in this universe, and the mad Dr. Ptarmigan is working to help the arachnids reclaim it. Larklight itself is a key piece of the puzzle, as is Art's mother, who was presumed dead and who turns out to be alive and much, much older than anyone suspected ("I was a Dinosaur for a while so invigorating!"). Reeve's humor is oh-so-British and utterly entertaining (the moon is "actually a bit of a dump"; Uranus has been renamed Georgium Sidum because "it provides less opportunity for cheap jokes"), and Wyatt's full-page pen-and-inks and spot illustrations enhance the sense of delight. The climax is an absolute hoot, and leaves the door wide open for any number of sequels. Ages 10-up. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.