Synopses & Reviews
When both of Eddie's parents catch a disease that makes them turn yellow, it's agreed he should go away and stay with relatives at their house, Awful End. Alas for Eddie, those relatives are Mad Uncle Jack and Even Madder Aunt Maud and the journey to Awful End will take him to everywhere from St. Horrid's Home for Grateful Orphans to an audience with The Empress of All China. They never actually make it to Awful End, but that's okay. The hilarious, nefarious, precarious journey is well worth its weight in wonderful and wacky words.
Review
"Adult fans of Bleak House and Oliver Twist will appreciate Ardagh's clever crafting, and kids who lap up Lemony Snicket's series will take quickly to this tale and clamor for the next." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
Review
"This frenetic story, told in an arch tone, alternates between winsome and wearying, but fans of the Snicket style will probably enjoy the way the story speeds from one fantastical crisis to the next." Ilene Cooper, Booklist
Review
"A scrumptious cross between Dickens and Monty Python....Brilliant." The Guardian (London)
Review
"[T]he meandering, nonsensical sentences and relentless asides to readers are tedious and overbearing....The British-English glossary is amusing, but is the only highlight to be found within the headache-inducing prose." School Library Journal
Review
"What more is there to say it would be a sad spirit that didn't find this book hilarious." The Financial Times (London)
Synopsis
The hilarious, nefarious, precarious journey of Eddie Dickens is well worth its weight in the wonderful and wacky words that make up this story. Illustrations.
About the Author
Philip Ardagh is over 6 feet 7 inches tall with a big bushy beard. Not only is he very large and very hairy, but he has also written around sixty children's books for all ages, though nothing quite like
A House Called Awful End...until now. Currently living as a full-time writer with a wife and two cats in a seaside town somewhere in England, he has been among other things an advertising copywriter, a hospital cleaner, a (highly unqualified) librarian, and a reader for the blind.
David Roberts is so busy drawing pictures that no one is really sure what he looks like. We do know that he has illustrated several books for children and lives somewhere in England, but whether his home is near the sea or not is anybody's guess.