Abarat

November 11, 2002
Barker's (The Thief of Always) fantasy for teen readers features some truly bizarre characters and often crackles with creepy and curious imagery. Unfortunately, the material is not served particularly well by Ferrone's sometimes forced-sounding cadence and a reading voice possessing hints of both rumble and rasp. Teenager Candy Quackenbush has had it with her oppressive life in Chickentown, Minn. She'd like nothing more than to leave her smelly (literally) chicken industry surroundings, as well as her alcoholic father and downtrodden mother, for good. She gets her wish when following a mysterious compulsion to go to the outskirts of town. Soon Candy meets up with an eight-headed creature named John Mischief, who ushers her into the magical otherworld of the Islands of the Abarat. Candy wends her way through some breathless escapes and frightening encounters in the strange Abarat archipelago. The numerous fantastic characters and plot strands may overwhelm some listeners, but those who stick with it will enjoy discovering such a vividly imagined place—the supposed background for the three additional Abarat books Barker has planned. Simultaneous release with HarperCollins/Cotler hardcover.
Ages 10-up.

November 1, 2004
Gr 7-10-In this sequel to Abarat (HarperCollins, 2002), Candy Quackenbush is fighting for her life in the mysterious world of the Abarat. The powers of darkness, Christopher Carrion and his murderous grandmother, Mater Motley, plan to overtake it and make it a world of perpetual midnight. As Candy and her friends rush through various adventures, Carrion's obsession with finding her grows, along with his rage and frustration. He hires the Criss-Cross Man, Otto Houlihan, to hunt Candy down. A group of adventurers, including John Mischief and his brothers, continues to look for dragon-hunting hero Finnegan Hob. Candy learns Abarat's history and begins to understand the role she may play in its future. This second title relies on exposition from the first; readers without that grounding may find themselves lost in Abarat's complications. The threads of the narrative take a long time to weave into a unified story, but it's worth the time it takes. With a large cast, a complicated plot, and such varied geography, Barker keeps readers busy juggling, but all that work pays off as the suspense and tension mount. Candy and her allies are engaging characters, if uncomplicated; Carrion and his grandmother are more mustache-twirling than interesting. The Abaratian world is the jewel of this novel, dense and vividly rendered in both striking description and Barker's vibrant artwork. Fans of the first book, as well as of other robust fantasy titles like Garth Nix's Sabriel (HarperCollins, 1996) and Diana Wynne Jones's Dark Lord of Derkholm (Greenwillow, 1998), will enjoy it.-Sarah Couri, New York Public Library

Copyright 2004 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2004
Gr. 7-12. The whimsy is back in full force in the sequel to " Abarat" (2002), but this story is quirkier, much darker, and laced with real horror. Candy Quakenbush of Chickentown, Minnesota, and the geshrat Malingo are traveling the islands of Abarat, taking in all the fantastic sights. Unfortunately, the Lord of Midnight and his evil minions are in hot pursuit. He is obsessed with Candy, but he knows she must die to prevent her thwarting his gruesome plans. The mystery of her birth haunts her as she gradually finds herself remembering things she shouldn't know, including magic, and she begins to wonder if the struggle between the Night-world and the Day-world is at the heart of why she is in the strange land. Barker lovingly and graphically describes the wonders of a magical world, and his vivid scenes of near captures, deaths, and a climactic sea battle that ends in Chickentown will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Once again, more than 100 unusual, full-color paintings by Barker enhance the story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)

October 4, 2004
Candy Quackenbush travels from Chickentown, Minn., to a fantastic otherworld of unbelievable characters, including the Lord of Midnight, Christopher Carrion. "The author's imagination runs wild as he conjures some striking imagery." (Barker's surreal illustrations are not included in this paperback.) Ages 10-up.

July 1, 2005
Candy Quackenbush's journey continues through Barker's convincingly gothic, if increasingly out-of-control fantasy world. Fans of the first book will be undaunted by the excesses, both verbal and visual, of this sequel; initiates will need to begin with "Abarat".

(Copyright 2005 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2003
Only intending to find a subject for her term paper, Chickentown, Minnesota, resident Candy Quackenbush finds herself in a strange and perilous otherworld. Like the dozens of sophomoric but intriguingly baroque paintings that illustrate this hefty fantasy, Barker's writing features a host of arresting images and odd characters, but its narrative line meanders with the arbitrary twists of a computer role-playing game.

(Copyright 2003 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from September 1, 2002
Gr. 7-12. In the first of a planned four-book series, Barker imbues the traditional conventions of fantasy with a whimsical Wonderland quality, providing a host of bizarre characters, a fabulous landscape, and a coherent underlying mythology. Teenage Candy Quackenbush of Chickentown, Minnesota, begins (unbeknownst to her) a prophesied journey toward her destiny when she dives into a mysterious sea that appears outside the town. She is carried to Abarat, an unusual archipelago of 25 islands. Happy to get away from her abusive father, resigned mother, and boring town, Candy eagerly enters a series of zany adventures, making friends and eluding enemies as she finds herself caught in the struggle for power between the Lord of Midnight and the architect of the high-tech Commexo City. The multilayered adventure story not only embraces the lands of Oz, Wonderland, and Narnia but also offers a wink and a nod to Aldous Huxley's " Brave New World." More than 100 full-color paintings by Barker are appropriately quirky, grotesque, and campy, effectively capturing and expanding on the nuances of the tale.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)

October 1, 2002
Gr 7-10-Candy Quackenbush is tired of her humdrum existence in boring Chickentown, MN. After skipping out on a particularly frustrating day of school, she wanders into an empty field at the edge of town, and suddenly her life takes a remarkable turn. Through a series of most unusual events, she finds herself transported to the Abarat, a magical realm composed of 25 islands, each representing one hour of the day, with the mysterious Twenty-Fifth designated for Time Outside of Time. As she travels around the islands, Candy becomes involved in a power struggle between two ruthless and bitter rivals, Rojo Pixler of Commexo City and Christopher Carrion, the Lord of Midnight. Each man seeks to control the island chain, and Candy may be the deciding factor in its survival or destruction. Barker is obviously more comfortable in the Abarat than he is in our more mundane world; the chapters that take place in Chickentown don't seem fully developed. Once Candy is safely in the fantastical realm, however, the story takes off. The rendering of the Abarat's locales, cultures, and mythology, combined with the author's own full-color illustrations and well-realized characters, allows readers to become quickly immersed in this beautiful and frightening world. In spite of a less-than-credible, almost preternatural calm in the face of the bizarre, Candy makes a fine protagonist, displaying strength, vulnerability, and a lack of the forced spunkiness displayed by some adventurous heroines. This first book in a series of four sets the stage nicely for what is sure to be a rollicking, epic ride.-Alison Ching, North Garland High School, Garland, TX

Copyright 2002 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 24, 2002
Like The Thief of Always, Barker's first book for children, this tale finds a bored protagonist venturing into a fantastical world. The novel begins with a rather cryptic scene of three women on a "perilous voyage... from the shelter of the islands." The action then shifts to Candy Quackenbush of Chickentown, Minn., who hates her life as the daughter of an alcoholic father and a depressed mother. One day, humiliated by her teacher, Candy skips out of school and heads for the prairie, where she stumbles on a derelict lighthouse and a creature with eight heads, John Mischief. The opening scene and the thrust of the novel gradually connect, as Candy begins an adventure to a mysterious archipelago called Abarat. Skilled at fantasy, Barker throws plenty of thrills and chills at readers. Candy becomes a pawn between Mischief and the man (Christopher Carrion, "Lord of Midnight") from whom Mischief has stolen something of great value. However, by the middle of the novel, readers may feel that Barker pulls out too many stops; he floods the pages with scores of intriguing characters and a surfeit of subplots (some of which dead-end, perhaps to be picked up in one of the three planned sequels). The author's imagination runs wild as he conjures some striking imagery ("Dark threads of energy moved through her veins and leaped from her fingertips" says one of the three women in the opening scene) and cooks up a surreal stew of character portraits (rendered in bold colors and brushwork, they resemble some of Van Gogh's later work). But much of the novel feels like a wind-up for the books to follow and, after this rather unwieldy 400-page ride, readers my be disappointed by so many unresolved strands of the plot. Ages 10-up. (Oct.)FYI:A national marketing campaign is planned for the Abarat series, for which movie, theme park and multimedia rights have been purchased by Walt Disney Pictures.