Patrick Griffin's First Birthday on Ith (Patrick Griffin and the Three Worlds, 2) - Hardcover

Rust, Ned

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1626723443 ISBN 13: 9781626723443

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press, 2017

Synopsis

“Recommend to readers who thought A Wrinkle in Time could have been funnier.” ―School Library Journal

Breathtaking suspense and surprising twists come together in Patrick Griffin's First Birthday on Ith, the second book of the page-turning Patrick Griffin and the Three Worlds trilogy by Ned Rust.

After learning Earth is about to be destroyed, 12-year-old Patrick Griffin is on a mission. Under the protection of a powerful griffin, Patrick and his friend Oma travel through abandoned cities on the planet Ith, hiding from the enemy while they work out a plan to overthrow the alternate world's sinister government.

Back on Earth, the gigantic jackalope Mr. BunBun and nine adorable numbats race to warn humans about impending doom. But time is running out. The evil Rex Abraham is back on Ith and will stop at nothing to continue his domination of the Three Worlds.

About this title

About the Author

Ned Rust is the author of the Patrick Griffin and the Three Worlds series as well as the co-author of books in the Daniel X series and Witch and Wizard: The Gift with James Patterson. He lives in Croton, New York, with his wife, son, and daughter.

Reviews

Gr 5–7—This second installment in the series finds Patrick covertly traveling through Ith—one of the series's titular three worlds—on griffinback alongside potential romantic interest Oma. Back on Earth, the jackalope BunBun and nine hyperintelligent numbats have a goal that's similar to Patrick's: to broadcast details of Rex Abraham's plot to take over Earth using a perfect cocktail of dogmatism and sophisticated technological devices. The novel alternates among the first-person points of view of members of Patrick's family, the Griffins' curmudgeonly neighbor Mr. Coffin, supervillain Rex Abraham, and more. The switching perspectives further the plot but do little for character development and make the plot hard to follow at times. The story begins with little explanation of what has already happened, and it ends in a cliff-hanger; this is not a book that works as a stand-alone. That said, Rust succeeds in injecting comedy and whimsy into what would otherwise be a generic upper elementary dystopian. VERDICT Consider where the previous volume in the series is popular. Otherwise, an additional purchase; recommend to readers who thought A Wrinkle in Time could have been funnier.—Shira Pilarski, Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, Washington, DC

Edition details

• Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1626723443
• ISBN 13: 9781626723443
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304