[VKK]≡ Download Watch Hollow Gregory Funaro Matthew Griffin 9780062643452 Books

Watch Hollow Gregory Funaro Matthew Griffin 9780062643452 Books

Download As PDF : Watch Hollow Gregory Funaro Matthew Griffin 9780062643452 Books

Watch Hollow Gregory Funaro Matthew Griffin 9780062643452 Books

One of the best books I've read this year. I love reading middle grade books because I teach middle grade students. This is one that will be on my shelves the day it comes out. Who wouldn’t love a story that had middle school age kids with all of their issues, monsters, a spooky house with talking animals? On top of that there is a monster in the woods called the Garr.

The book opens with Lucy Tinker sitting in the display window of her dad’s clock repair shop. She is sitting there because she is in trouble. Her brother is trying to help her father. As they begin to close up a gentleman enters and makes a proposal that seems too good to be true. Mr. Quigley wants Mr. Tinker to repair a cuckoo clock in an old house he has recently acquired. He throws down a large amount of gold as an advance. Up to this point the family has had it financially tough. It doesn’t help that their mother had died from cancer two year before. Lucy seems to be the one who is often impulsive yet seems to be the glue holding them all together.

Mr. Tinker agrees to move to the house and fix the clock. It seems that Mr. Quigley didn’t tell them everything they should have known. The house is very peculiar. There are talking animals. The woods seem to be alive with something evil within. Lucy can tell that something is not right. There father is thinking about how far the money would go. Trouble is not that far away. This book definitely takes you on a journey. The characters are very well done. My students could easily identify with them. Some of the problems they face are the same problems my own students face each day. This has easily become one of my favorites of this year. The adventure, magic, overall story will draw you in and hold you there for some time. I highly recommend this book.
I received an advance copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.


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Watch Hollow Gregory Funaro Matthew Griffin 9780062643452 Books Reviews

"No one can hear you scream in the Shadow Woods."

One of Gregory Funaro's previous series was built around Alistair Grim's Odditorium, and while they were fun books they were also a bit manic and were loaded with weird and fantastical inventions. I expected this book would take off on a similar funsy-steampunky-magicky sort of action/adventure path. I was wrong, sort of. This opens as a more carefully, tightly, and elegantly structured book with many lovely throwaway lines and turns of phrase. The characters are appealing and the pace is more measured; the atmosphere and settings more richly imagined. Indeed, the whole magicky angle doesn't even show up until more than a quarter of the way into the book, and well after the Gothic setting and the interesting characters have been established. After that, of course, the magic clock and its weird characteristics start to move to center stage, so there's still quite enough Odditorium-style creativity to satisfy fans.

But at the outset it's the quality of the writing that first impresses. Our heroine, eleven year old Lucy, sits cross-legged in the display window of her father's clock shop. She looks out through the backwards word "clock" and the "o" and "c" look like a pair of spectacles. Isn't that a nice image? That's what I'm getting at in terms of writing. The book zips along, but nicely placed lines here and there establish a more interesting atmosphere, more appealing characters, and a more layered fantasy reading experience than what I think of as usual for a middle grade fantasy actioner.

Of special interest and appeal is the relationship between the two sibling heroes. Lucy, the younger of the two, and eventually the main character, is a mix of feisty and dreamy. Older Oliver is introduced as a bit of a nerd, but he turns out to be a substantial, empathetic, and resourceful hero. The two siblings support and encourage each other with a deep and authentic mutual understanding and regard that avoids all of the usual battling-siblings cliches you find so often in middle grade fiction. These two appreciate and respect each other, count on each other's strengths, and allow for and forgive each other's weaknesses. It is refreshing and upbeat to have resourceful and self-reliant, but still cooperative, good-humored and supportive, siblings.

All of that said, the magical animals, (why have just one when you can have twelve?), do go right up to the edge, and Funaro can't resist having a complex piece of magical machinery at the heart of the action. MILD SPOILER. The house and grounds are constructed of "light" and "dark" materials and they have to be kept in balance. Because the house is out of whack everything is going to pot. Why it's out of balance is the central mystery. But even here the magicopunk is less central to what's going on, and it never overwhelms the heroes. The themes are more personal and character driven, and the energy is drawn more from enchantment than magical mayhem. That said, though, there is more than enough action - hiding, lurking, running, resisting, fighting - to keep the pages turning. At times the book can get a bit complex, (especially toward the end), but there is a fair amount of monologuing and explaining by the characters, and if the reader pays attention to these well placed mini-info dumps it all makes sense.

So, this was a treat. Good writing complemented engaging characters, and the magic light/evil angle added a lot to the magicopunk vibe. A nice find.

(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book from the author, through Goodreads, without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
One of the best books I've read this year. I love reading middle grade books because I teach middle grade students. This is one that will be on my shelves the day it comes out. Who wouldn’t love a story that had middle school age kids with all of their issues, monsters, a spooky house with talking animals? On top of that there is a monster in the woods called the Garr.

The book opens with Lucy Tinker sitting in the display window of her dad’s clock repair shop. She is sitting there because she is in trouble. Her brother is trying to help her father. As they begin to close up a gentleman enters and makes a proposal that seems too good to be true. Mr. Quigley wants Mr. Tinker to repair a cuckoo clock in an old house he has recently acquired. He throws down a large amount of gold as an advance. Up to this point the family has had it financially tough. It doesn’t help that their mother had died from cancer two year before. Lucy seems to be the one who is often impulsive yet seems to be the glue holding them all together.

Mr. Tinker agrees to move to the house and fix the clock. It seems that Mr. Quigley didn’t tell them everything they should have known. The house is very peculiar. There are talking animals. The woods seem to be alive with something evil within. Lucy can tell that something is not right. There father is thinking about how far the money would go. Trouble is not that far away. This book definitely takes you on a journey. The characters are very well done. My students could easily identify with them. Some of the problems they face are the same problems my own students face each day. This has easily become one of my favorites of this year. The adventure, magic, overall story will draw you in and hold you there for some time. I highly recommend this book.
I received an advance copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.