Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell are the team who created The Edge Chronicles, an amazing series of books for 5th grade RL and up. This team crams their books full of verbal and visual details that crowd the wonderful, wildly imaginative worlds they create. Riddell's intricate illustrations decorate almost every page. There are ingenious, if impossible, inventions, crazy flying contraptions, wild hats and amazing foods - both scrumptious and revolting. As with all children's fantasy, there are mean adults up to no good that our heroes, the kids, must outwit and/or escape from as well as the occasional missing (but soon to be found) parents. The formula is simple, but Stewart and Riddell are so brilliant at what they do that the reader is never bored.
Far-Flung Adventures feature three different main characters, Fergus Crane, Corby Flood and Hugo Pepper. While the books do not have to be read in any order and do not share plot lines, they do share some people and places and it is fun to catch the references. And, each book ends with an epilogue that is all illustrations and ties up the various character's stories in a very satisfying way. Finally, in each of the Far-Flung adventures, a book and sometimes it's author play a prominent part in the story. After the epilogue and the author and illustrator information pages, there is a humorous page of "information" on the author of the book within each book.
As of this writing, these books are only available in hardcover. However, the packaging (there is a map on the inside of each book jacket) and the marvelous illustrations make it well worth the cost.
4 comments:
You recommended these to me in a comment--thanks! They are great fun!
Excellent! Glad you liked them. I wish they would write more. I was just checking into that yesterday and there are no new Far-Flung Adventures on the horizon... I wish they'd come out in paperback, too!
Wonderfully delightful! I also recommend Mr. Riddel's Ottoline series. Imagine Eloise's older but much nicer and interesting sister!
Yes! Chris Riddell's Ottoline books are fabulous. I reviewed the first one and have not had a chance to read "Ottoline Goes to School" yet. He is a remarkable illustrator and author. I bought my copy of Neil Gaiman's "Graveyard Book" from amazon.uk just so I could have an edition with Riddell's art work. I love your description of Ottoline as Eloise's niver & more interesting big sister. I loved Eloise when I was a child - kind of sad to see the commercialization of her going on these days...
Thanks for reading!
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