Synopses & Reviews
The Great And Glorious Coastal city of MacOongafoondsen (population twenty-one) lies sheltered from the world. Some citizens, like Fierfl the Tailor and Miss Darkniss the Candle Maker, have never even seen the sea. Then a ship washes up with a lone survivor -- a small, odd, hairy figure the townspeople take for a Frenchman and call Monsieur Eek.
While thirteen-year-old Emmaline and her best friend, Philip, welcome Monsieur Eek, devious Shmink the Bailiff has other plans. In short order the newcomer is arrested as a foreign spy and put on trial for his life. Emmaline mounts a spirited defense. But as the town's fear of foreigners (and Frenchmen) grows, it seems that nothing will save her new friend.
In his first book for young readers, noted playwright and humorist David Ives makes a memorable debut, creating a sparkling fable, moving and funny, about two young people who risk everything to change the minds -- and the history -- of an entire town.
Review
“This story will appeal to those who enjoy the ridiculous. Ives kept this reviewer reading.” VOYA
Review
“Fastmoving cinematic plot…nonstop action, a bit of shivery mystery leavened by humor and a happily ever after ending.” School Library Journal
About the Author
David Ives was born in Chicago and educated at Northwestern University and Yale School of Drama. A Guggenheim Fellow in playwriting, he is probably best known for his evening of one-act comedies called "All In the Timing". The show won the Outer Critics Circle Playwriting Award, ran for two years Off-Broadway, and in the 1995-96 season was the most-performed play in the country after Shakespeare productions. His short plays are collected in two anthologies, "All In the Timing" (Vintage) and "Time Flies" (Grove). His full-length works for theatre are available in "Polish Joke and Other Plays" (Grove). He is also the author of a young adult novel,
Monsieur Eek (HarperCollins), the almost-true story of how a chimpanzee got mistaken for a Frenchman.
David Ives is an Artistic Associate at Encores!, the celebrated forum for great American musicals at City Center, New York, where to date he has adapted 15 of their shows. He adapted David Copperfield's "Dreams and Nightmares" for Broadway, wrote the book for "Dance of the Vampires", the Jim Steinman Broadway musical, and is the co-bookwriter of "Irving Berlin's White Christmas", which premiered in San Francisco to huge acclaim in winter 2004. He lives in New York City with his wife Martha.