Review
From the book jacket: This book promises suspense! Intrigue!
Mystery! Fairies fall out of books! Birds turn into dogs! Nuns turn into
lampposts! So I have no idea why you're still lingering here. . . . Start
reading! (Ages 9+)
Comment: N.E. Bode is the loosely veiled
pseudonym of adult novelist Julianna Baggot (
Girl Talk, 2001 &
various short stories and poems). Like a number of recent children's authors,
Bode remains a tangible presence in the story by keeping up a continuous stream
of asides addressed directly to the reader. Personally, I find this style of
writing mildly irritating as I find the commentary pulls me out of the story,
rather than drawing me in; but then again, I'm about 3 decades older than the
intended target audience, so what do I know about it!
Putting that...
Beyond the Book
The sequel to
The Anybodies, The Nobodies, was published a few weeks ago in
hardcover. Now reunited with her real family, eleven-year-old Fern goes to a
camp to learn to practice the Anybody magic, where she unexpectedly faces the
evil Mole, who has imprisoned the mysterious Nobodies in his factory basement.
Kirkus Reviews says,
'Inserting parenthetical descriptions of a jealous
Creative Writing teacher's murder attempts, the pseudonymous "Bode" dishes up a
confection that may disorient readers unfamiliar with the previous outing, but
is nonetheless rich in mystery, action and self discovery-along with plenty of
literary references for well-read audiences to pick up, and occasional urbane
illustrations from Ferguson.'
