Finders Keepers - Softcover

Rodda, Emily

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0688118461 ISBN 13: 9780688118464

Publisher: Beech Tree Books, 1993

Synopsis

While playing a computer game, Patrick is transported to a parallel world and invited to participate in a game show in which he must find three lost items to win several fabulous prizes

About this title

About the Author

Emily Rodda has written many books for children, including Finders Keepers, which School Library journal dubbed "a lively adventure," and several novels about the likable hero Rowan. The first of these novels, Rowan of Rin, won the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year for Younger Readers Award when it was first published. In fact, Emily Rodda has won the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award an unprecedented five times. A former editor, Ms. Rodda is also the best-selling author of adult mysteries under the name Jennifer Rowe. She lives in Australia.

From Kirkus Reviews

An original fantasy from Australia takes middle child Patrick across the ``Barrier'' between alternate worlds to play in a strange quiz show: he's given riddles about three items lost in his own world and told to bring them back for game-show prizes. The items won't look the same in his world: they'll seem less valuable. The quiz-show host is a robot (``What human being could smile like that for hours at a time?''), and the items lost mean much more to the contestants than anyone is at first aware. As his search goes on, a power breakdown almost makes it impossible for Patrick to complete the tasks, but he does restore the items, plus a game-show staff member's sister; he also makes friends, realizes the importance of his family, and ends up with his heart's desire: his own computer. Patrick's family, arguing but caring about each other, and the boy's abandoned daydream about having a quiet house to keep his computer in ring true. Though the fantasy is limited to the barrier and the passage of things between the worlds, it's clever; it even includes an explanation for single socks and other misplaced things. An amusing product of an age of game shows and wishful thinking. (Fiction. 9-12) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Beech Tree Books
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0688118461
• ISBN 13: 9780688118464
• Binding: Paperback
• Illustrator: Young Noela
• Number of pages: 184