WHALES ON STILTS! M. T. Anderson's Thrilling Tales
by M. T. Anderson
illustrated by Kurt Cyrus
Harcourt Children's Books
ISBN: 0152053948
Ages 10-up
208 pages

• Read an Excerpt

Lily has always been the most boring one in her group of friends. After all, how could she compete with Katie Mulligan, heroine of the Horror Hollow series of mystery stories? Katie routinely battles zombies and flesh-eating viruses, and she has her own fan club, for Pete's sake! Then there's Lily's friend Jasper Dash, Boy Technonaut. Jasper can invent anything, stars in his own series of adventure novels, and even has a product endorsement deal!

But soon enough, Lily finds herself an unwilling participant in her very own adventure, when she visits her dad's office for Career Day. Her somewhat spacey and clueless dad works in an abandoned warehouse heavily guarded by armed security personnel. His boss, Larry, is a mysterious man who wears a bag over his head, has rubbery blue skin, and pours brine over himself. Larry speaks cryptically about his plans to take over the world. Lily's dad is convinced that Larry is just a jokester, but Lily's not so sure.

Before long, Lily, Katie and Jasper have hatched a plan to spy on Larry and figure out exactly what he's up to. Before they know it, they're up to their necks in trouble, and Lily must rely not only on her famous friends but also on herself to save the world.

Fans of Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events" will find much to enjoy in WHALES ON STILTS! Much like Snicket's books, Anderson's novel can be read on many different levels: it's a really entertaining adventure story, for sure, but it's also a clever play on old-fashioned pulp adventure novels, series fiction, and more serious children's novels (the "Questions for further study" at the back of the book are too hilarious to be missed). The shameless in-text promotion of Gargletine, Jasper Dash's energy drink of choice, will delight older readers, as will the over-the-top dialogue and unbelievably convoluted situations. Even the book's design is reminiscent of 1950s serial novels, including fake ads for other books in the series, many of which have fantastically clever titles.

Even though WHALES ON STILTS! pokes fun at many of the conventions of series fiction, readers will leave Lily and friends eager to read the next installment in this silly, scary, splendid new series.

   --- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

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