The Whatnot

In this exhilarating, violent sequel to The Peculiar, Bartholomew, a half-fairy changeling, and Pikey Thomas, a penniless 12-year-old street boy with a magical eye, wander a steampunkish Victorian London in search of Bartholomew’s kidnapped sister, Hettie. Bartholomew, Hettie, and Pikey—seemingly mere pawns in the heated dispute between fairies and the English—all have the potential to influence the approaching war. Bachmann writes with a skill that belies his youth. His imagination tends toward the surreal, and he has a genius for envisioning fairy magic and architecture, as in his description of a vast, fluctuating fairy house that Hettie explores: “Sometimes she would step into a hallway that was being reconstructed and would discover a wall behind her where seconds before there had been a door, or that all the panels had been flipped and what had looked like a regular corridor before, now looked like a deep forest of red and rust-colored mushrooms.” Readers will want to start with The Peculiar, and immediately dive into this fine tale. Ages 8–12. Agent: Sara Megibow, Nelson Literary Agency. (Sept.)