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Title | Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes | |
Author | Jonathan Auxier | |
# of Pages | 400 | |
Best for Ages | 10-13 | |
# of Clovers | | |
# of Times Read |  | |
Setting:
This book takes place mainly in the Lost Kingdom, and is told in third person. The main character of this book is Peter Nimble, a 10-year old blind boy who is a thief. The genres of this book are fantasy and adventure, and it takes place in an unknown time period. This is the first of two Peter Nimble adventures.
Plot:
Peter Nimble has been thieving for almost as long as he can remember. Peter can pick any lock every made, and is a great thief. The most astonishing part about all of this is Peter Nimble is blind. Not just blind in one eye, but COMPLETELY blind. One day, when he is out thieving, Peter breaks into a carriage and finds a mysterious box. The box contains 3 sets of fake eyes, made out of 3 different jewels. One set is made of gold, another made of onyx, and the last set is made out of emerald. When he puts in the gold pair, the eyes teleport him to an island. This island is the home of Professor Cake, the man who owned the carriage Peter broke into. He tells Peter about a message he received in a bottle. The message was from the Lost Kingdom, a kingdom that mysteriously disappeared from the world a while ago. The riddle is missing one word, so its meaning is unclear. The riddle talks of someone who can save the Kingdom, but their identity is the one word that is missing. Professor Cake sends Peter off to go solve the riddle, but not by himself. Professor Cake sends Sir Tode, a knight who was hexed by a witch and was combined with a cat and a horse. The pair sail off in a boat, and land in the Just Deserts. There, they find themselves surrounded by thieves, who live in fear of the ravens who live at Kettle Rock. (Kettle Rock is a big rock shaped like a kettle that is surrounded by water.) Peter and Sir Todd join with some of the thieves in the Deserts, and try to break into Kettle Rock. The thieves are betrayed by one of their own, and Peter and Sir Todd make their escape using the golden eyes. The eyes teleport Peter to a castle. This castle is on the side of a great chasm, with the castle on one side and the Just Deserts not the other. Peter meets lady named Mrs. Molasses, who takes him to a feast. There, all the citizens dine on exquisite food. But the strangest part about this feast is there are no children. When a bell rings, all the adults hurry off to their rooms, where they are locked in by the Night Patrol. ( The Night Patrol is a bunch of big, talking apes who patrol the castle ground.) Peter escapes from his room, and is almost captured but the Night Patrol. Peter uses the onyx eyes, and they turn him into the last living thing he touched, a beetle. Peter continues to seek around the castle and meets a song bird named Pickle, who tells Peter about the king of the castle. The king uses a plant called the Devil's Dram, to keep his subjects from remembering about where all the children went. All the children were enslaved by the king, and forced to mine. After this encounter, Peter turns back into a human, but is quickly taken by some children. They take Peter to their leader, Princess Peg. Peg is the daughter of the former king of Hazelport. (Hazelport is the city where Peter is teleported to after the Just Deserts.) The current king is Peg's uncle, who tried to kill Peg and her brother when they were young so he could be king. Peg escaped, and formed a band of children that also escaped. Peg tells Peter about her brother, Prince NoName. Peg also finishes the riddle for Peter, and says that only a thief can save them. Peter agrees to help the kids, as he a thief, and Sir Tode also agrees. Peg and Peter scout out the mines where the other kids are being held. The mines are full of the apes from the Night Patrol, and sea dragons. As the situation begins to look more and more hopeless, will Peter Nimble, the greatest thief who ever lived, be able to defeat the king of Hazelport? And will he find out what the pair of emerald eyes does?
Recommendation:
This book is really good! There are many different type of characters in this story, from the loyal Sir Todd, to the fearless Princess Peg. The plot is good, and has a major plot twist at the end. The book started off kind of slow, but slowly built up to a great climax. This book is not very well known in my onion, so if you are looking for a good quest novel, here is one for you.