Drowned Wednesday (Keys to the Kingdom, Book 3)

Grade 5-8 -This third volume in the series also marks its hardcover debut (with simultaneous reissues of the first two books in hardcover). Arthur is in the hospital, recovering from the events of Grim Tuesday (Scholastic, 2004) and trying to explain things to his friend Leaf while apprehensively awaiting the "transport" promised in Lady Wednesday's invitation. His fears are more than realized; the ship from the House takes Leaf but leaves Arthur adrift on the Border Sea. He finds temporary refuge on a buoy-but it's a treasure marker for the dreaded once-human pirate Feverfew, and Arthur is marked as a thief and is in mortal danger. He is rescued by a comic bunch of salvagers from Wednesday's domain, and from them Arthur begins to understand that Wednesday is very different from the other Days he has met. Moreover, she has become a monstrous but tragic leviathan. Seafaring adventure follows; Arthur must elude Feverfew even while breaking into his stronghold, a bubble of the Secondary Realms concealed in Wednesday's stomach where Leaf and hundreds of denizens enslaved by Feverfew are held captive. Feverfew is the real villain here, and Arthur is finally accepting (albeit reluctantly) that he must be a hero. This is another great entry with a cliff-hanger ending. It doesn't stand alone, but it's a must-have for anyone who has the first two entries in this well-crafted, exciting series.-Karyn N. Silverman, Elizabeth Irwin High School, New York City
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Gr. 5-8. One senses a formidable imagination in freefall in Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series, and experiencing it can be at once exhilarating and overwhelming. In this third of seven planned installments, each set on a successive day of a single week, Arthur Penhaligon is summoned from his hospital bed by Lady Wednesday, who has metamorphosed into a 126-mile-long whale. Burdened with asthma, a broken leg, and still-fresh shock at how inextricably his fate is tied to the House (the "epicenter of the Universe"), Arthur plies the Border Sea in search of the Third Part of the Will. The conclusion melds Pinocchio and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, bringing into play a fearsome pirate, mercenary rats, a ship incompetently crewed by accountants, and allies old and new, human and otherworldly. New readers may find the backstory about Arthur's quest to vanquish the Morrow Days and to reassemble the Architect's Will frustratingly esoteric, but those who appreciated the freewheeling invention of Mister Monday (2003) and Grim Tuesday (2004) will emerge from the third book with enthusiasm unabated. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

"[Garth Nix is] the coolest read in the playground." Amanda Craig PRAISE FOR MISTER MONDAY: "I just loved Mister Monday, which is an amazing, no-holds-barred fantasy by Garth Nix. This is destined to be a cult series. Every chapter seems to bring something new and wonderful and ends with another surprise. In all honesty, I've never read anything quite like it and I simply can't wait for Tuesday." Anthony Horowitz "Magic splashes across every page! With a likeable unlikely hero, fast-paced plotting and a plethora of mystical oddities, this series is sure to garner a host of fans." Publishers Weekly starred review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Garth Nix is the New York Times best-selling author of the Seventh Tower series, as well as the acclaimed novels SABRIEL, LIRAEL, and ABHORSEN. He lives in Sydney, Australia, with his wife and children.