| "The woods were silent, other than the screaming..." (from the first line) When Brian and Gregory receive an invitation to stay at a distant relative's strange manse . . . well, they should know better than to go, since this is a middle-grade adventure novel. But they go anyway. Why not? Once there, they stumble upon The Game of Sunken Places, a board game that mirrors a greater game in which they have suddenly become players. Soon the boys are dealing with attitudinal trolls, warring kingdoms, and some very starchy britches. Luckily, they have wit, deadpan observation, and a keen sense of adventure on their side.
Annotation:
On vacation from school, and without much to keep them occupied at home, teenagers Gregory Buchanan and Brian Thatz accept an invitation from Gregory's Uncle Max to come and visit him in Vermont. Actually, Gregory's not that close to his Uncle Max who, it turns out, is not really his uncle, but rather the adoptive father of Gregory's orphaned cousin Prudence. Once the boys arrive in Vermont, they quickly discover that Uncle Max is even more eccentric than Gregory remembered. In fact, Uncle Max, Prudence, and their servants live and act as if they are in Victorian-era England, which means no cars, no electricity, and no modern-style clothing. Left on their own, Gregory and Brian uncover an odd-looking board game called the Game of Sunken Places, and their innocent act of setting the game's timer literally brings the game to life--complete with trolls, ogres, and warring kingdoms. Now caught up in a confusing, seemingly supernatural adventure, Gregory and Brian struggle to understand their roles in a game that will determine the fates of two very different kingdoms.
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PraiseKirkus
"[S]mart, consciously complex offering that never panders to its middle-grade audience." 06/15/2004Publishers Weekly
"Anderson keeps the tension high even as he cut is with colorful prose and an insightful motif involving the boys' friendship. Dexterously juggling a seemingly impossible profusion of elements, the author builds to a climactic series of surprises, that exploding like fireworks, will almost certainly dazzle readers." 07/12/2004 New York Times Book Review
"[A]nderson gleefully deploys his wicked wit, leavening the Gothic atmosphere with hilariously anachronistic details like duct tape in the unlikeliest places. Jazzier than Susan Cooper, funnier than Philip Pullman, this is a highly original and enormously entertaining read." - James Hynes 07/11/2004 |
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