The Kneebone Boy
The Kneebone Boyby Ellen Potter
Life in a small town can be pretty boring when everyone avoids you like the plague. But after their father unwittingly sends them to stay with an aunt who’s away on holiday, the Hardscrabble children take off on an adventure that begins in the seedy streets of London and ends in a peculiar sea village where legend has it a monstrous creature lives who is half boy and half animal. . . . (goodreads.com)
Release date: September 14, 2010When I originally tagged this book on Goodreads and LibraryThing I listed it as fantasy. It's not though, it's actually just plain ol' fiction that makes you think it shall blossom into the fantastic and keeps you page turning to find out more, more, MORE!The three children on the cover are, Lucia, Otto and Max and Chester the cat. You do not know who the narrator of the story is, and it is suggested a couple of times that you can try to guess which of the three children it may be. I had my own suspicions through out and I think I might be right. What I had no suspicion about was the ending. Way to surprise me there!The writing is sharp, clever and fun. The children are great characters and their adventures border on the scary (yet not really), mystical (yet not at all) and silly. There is a castle, and a dungeon and a floating bicycle, tattooed thugs and a Viking. All of these things make it sound like this is a fanciful tale, but it's amazing how perception and reality can mesh together so well.I had started reading this book a couple of months ago and got about 3 chapters in before I realized it was publishing in September. Since it was May I decided (with much difficulty) to put it aside until it was closer to the release date. This is not a book I received for review, just one that I was gifted and I have to say I am beyond thrilled with this gift.This is a book that I think DarlaD of Books & Other Thoughts would probably enjoy reading with her girls. I also think that if anyone has read The Thornthwaite Inheritance by Gareth P. Jones, they would probably enjoy this book as well. It's not quite as perilous as the Thornthwaite children make their story out to be, but it's similar in dark (yet not too dark), sarcastic feel.I would also like to point out that I seem to have fallen in love with a cover artist. Jason Chan is the artist for this cover, The Girl Who Could Fly and both of the Théâtre Illuminata books by Lisa Mantchev. I recently discovered that the covers I like most have been created by two artists. Each time I like a cover - bam, it's one of those two. I think I might even do a Rambling Reader post on that at some point.Bottom line? Fantastic middle grade book full of mystery and humour.