The Deadly 7: Who Needs Friends When You've Got Monsters? - Hardcover

Jennings, Garth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1250052750 ISBN 13: 9781250052759

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 2016

Synopsis

When eleven-year-old Nelson's beloved older sister goes missing, he is devastated. She's his only friend and means the world to him. Then his parents join the search and leave Nelson in the care of his crazy uncle Pogo, a plumber who is working at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. There in a dusty crypt Nelson stumbles across an ancient machine that accidentally extracts the so-called seven deadly sins from his soul. The machine turns them into ugly, cantankerous, and embarrassing creatures who follow him everywhere. But there is more to these monsters than meets the eye, and in this off-the-wall debut novel about making friends and taking courage, Nelson finds that these strange newcomers are just the companions he needs for a quest across the globe to rescue his big sister.

About this title

About the Author

Garth Jennings has directed many music videos and commercials as one third of the production company Hammer and Tongs. His work includes videos for Blur, Radiohead, Beck, Fatboy Slim and Vampire Weekend. He is the director of two feature films: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) and Son of Rambow (2007) for which he also wrote the screenplay. The Deadly 7 is his first novel.

From School Library Journal

Gr 4–6—Delightful and inventive, this original story entertains at every turn. On the face of it, Nelson Green seems to be an average 11-year-old Londoner, but then his 16-year-old sister, Celeste, goes missing in Spain, and he worries that it happened because she gave him her lucky necklace. When his parents leave to help search for Celeste, Nelson is sent to stay with his eccentric Uncle Pogo, who, following a devastating accident, gave up on being a rugby player and now plies his trade as a most unusual plumber. The resourceful Pogo has made his own ingenious prosthetic leg that is outfitted with multiple gadgets including a fully functioning phone. Working at the top of St. Paul's Cathedral, he enlists Nelson's help to crawl into a tiny room to fix a plumbing issue. While fixing the pipe, Nelson loses his balance and falls backward onto a table covered in metal spikes. Little does he know, but when he fell on the table, he activated the seven copper test tubes hidden beneath the table and what was in the test tubes is now alive and growing. The contents bubble over, and some strange and horrible-looking creatures come to life. Luckily, the seven little monsters are of the helpful, friendly variety. They and Nelson embark on a wild and wacky adventure to get Celeste back. Hilarious, madcap action combined with rich language will keep readers rapidly turning pages. Pen-and-ink sketches supplement this highly imaginative book that is part mystery, part adventure, and total fun. VERDICT A great purchase for middle grade fiction collections in need of clever, laugh-out-loud fantasy/adventure.—Laura Fields Eason, Parker Bennett Curry Elementary School, Bowling Green, KY

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1250052750
• ISBN 13: 9781250052759
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352