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The League of Beastly Dreadfuls
Author:
Grant, Holly
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Series:
League of beastly dreadfuls, #1
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Class:
Fiction
Age: 8-12
Language: English
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LC: PZ7.G766
Grade: 3-7
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ISBN-13: 9780385370073
LCCN: 2013050800
Imprint: Random House Books for Young Readers
Publisher: Random House
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Pub Date: 04/28/2015
Availability: Available
List: $16.99
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Hardcover
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Physical Description:
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294 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm
H 8.5",
W 5.75",
D 1",
0.975 lbs.
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LC Series:
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Brodart Sources:
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Brodart's For Youth Interest: Popular
Brodart's TOP Juvenile Titles
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Bibliographies:
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Children's Core Collection, 23rd ed.
Children's Core Collection, 24th ed.
Middle and Junior High Core Collection, 13th ed.
Middle and Junior High Core Collection, 14th ed.
Middle and Junior High Core Collection, 15th ed.
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Awards:
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Horn Book Guide Titles, Rated 1 - 4
Kirkus Starred Reviews
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Starred Reviews:
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Kirkus Reviews
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TIPS Subjects:
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Fantasy
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BISAC Subjects: |
JUVENILE FICTION / Family / Orphans & Foster Homes
JUVENILE FICTION / Fantasy & Magic
JUVENILE FICTION / Humorous Stories
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LC Subjects:
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Aunts, Fiction
Humorous stories
Kidnapping, Fiction
Orphans, Fiction
Shadows, Fiction
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SEARS Subjects: |
Aunts, Fiction
Humorous fiction
Kidnapping, Fiction
Orphans, Fiction
Shadows, Fiction
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Reading Programs: |
Accelerated Reader Level:
5.4
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Points: 8.0
Lexile Level:
780
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| Annotations |
| Brodart's TOP Juvenile Titles | 03/01/2015 |
| Invited to stay with two long-lost great-aunties proves dangerous for 11-year-old Anastasia when a fatal vacuum-cleaner incident takes her parents' lives and she investigates strange happenings at her new Victorian home, which happens to be an asylum for the criminally insane. Can two mysterious brothers help Anastasia plot the perfect escape? League of beastly dreadfuls series, 320pp., B/W Ill. |
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| Starred Reviews: |
| Kirkus Reviews | 12/01/2014 |
| Two sinister spinsters spirit a seemingly ordinary fifth-grader away one day to a moldering former asylum, informing her that she's become an orphan and they are her great-aunts. Yeah, right."Now sit up straight and eat your Lumps." Locked into her room at night by "Aunts" Primrose and Prudence and fed only Mystery Lumps, Anastasia nearly succumbs to misery at first. But like her capable literary heroine, detective/veterinarian/artist Francie Dewdrop, she's made of sterner stuff--and is soon turning up startling clues, terrifying discoveries and, in the asylum's darker reaches, other young captives with decidedly peculiar abilities. Along with drawing most of her characters from Roald Dahl's casting company and concocting an eerie setting positively made for Unfortunate Events, Grant threads her narrative with direct addresses to Readers and delicious turns of phrase: "A pink-patterned carpet runner spooled down the steps like a monstrous spotty tongue." Not to mention multiple atmosphere-lightening references to Anastasia's "tragic flatulence" and the odd wade into the nearby bog to gather leeches for, ugh, nonmedicinal purposes. Anastasia herself displays a few quirks, such as a sudden appetite for moths. Despite revelations following a rescue by a pair of shape-changing allies, the author leaves at least one sequel's worth of unexplained puzzles. Portillo's frequent vignettes add a properly cobwebby Gothic look. A yummy debut, though readers with sensitive stomachs would be well-advised to check them at the door. (Fantasy. 10-12). 320pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2014. |
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| Journal Reviews |
| Booklist | 02/01/2015 |
| Grades 4-6. Reminiscent of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, this book introduces Anastasia McCrumpet. The 11-year-old, still dressed in her Halloween costume from the previous evening, is whisked away from school by two wizened old women claiming to be her great-aunts Primrose and Prudence. Pretending that Anastasia's parents are dead, they take her to their dilapidated Victorian mansion and lock her in room 11 with a crumpled-up old bed and a chamber pot, but no food or toothbrush. Anastasia becomes their servant, but soon realizes she is not the only child in the house. Relying on "knowledge" from the Francie Dewdrop mysteries, she escapes her room and meets two brothers held captive in other parts of the house. The three call themselves the League of Beastly Dreadfuls and plot the demise of the old women. With just the right mix of humor, magic, maliciousness, and suspense, Grant leaves readers waiting for Anastasia's next adventure. Petty, J. B. 320p. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2015. |
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| Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books | 04/01/2015 |
| R. Gr. 3-5. Poor Anastasia McCrumpet! Not only has she just received the news about her beloved father and not-so-beloved mother (may they rest in peace), she's been whisked away with two great aunties she's never heard of, let alone met. Though Primrose and Prudence look delicate and bespectacled as great-aunties might, their metal teeth hint at something more menacing. Anastasia's daily chores allow her to explore, and she soon realizes that many other children have come to the house-and never left. She discovers two brothers alive and well, kept so by Prim and Prude so they can harvest the boys' supernatural abilities. Together the three children, self-dubbed the Beastly Dreadfuls, plan a Daring Escape, one filled with sleeping potions and chocolate laxatives administered to their captors. Between the flatulence and poo references, more subtle jokes, and the engaging narrative voice that addresses the reader and emphasizes phrases like Premonition of Doom, this story is likely to hit the mark with its intended audience. The tone slips occasionally and some important revelations come a little late, but abundant humor more than compensates. This charmingly offbeat first in a series is sure to entertain, and the intimations of Anastasia's own supernatural abilities will have readers returning to learn-and laugh-more. Oh, and extra props for the librarian love. AA. 320p. THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIV. OF ILLINOIS, c2015. |
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| Horn Book Guide | 11/01/2015 |
| 3. Almost-eleven newly orphaned Anastasia McCrumpet has been adopted--that is, kidnapped--by her bloodsucking aunts, Prim and Prude. With help from two shadowboys, a librarian, and a baron, she plots her escape. Influences of Roald Dahl and Lemony Snicket are unmistakable. Scatalogical humor is well-tempered by the melodramatic Victorian narration ("Dear Reader," etc.). Whimsical illustrations and a Victorian "Etiquette Manual" are included. ler. 307pg. THE HORN BOOK, c2015. |
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| Publishers Weekly | 01/26/2015 |
| Ages 8-12. Peculiarities abound inside Saint Agony's Asylum, where "completely average almost-eleven-year-old" Anastasia McCrumpet is doomed to spend her days after her parents are allegedly hospitalized in a "freak vacuum-cleaning accident." To escape her strange (and heretofore unknown) great-aunts Primrose and Prudence, who gnash their metal choppers at breakfast and lock her inside a musty old room at sundown, Anastasia explores the asylum's cavernous halls seeking a way back to her hometown of Mooselick. First-time author Grant is gifted at immersing readers in her fantastical world, infused with comically absurd details like Anastasia's grudge-holding "revenge-pooper" guinea pig and descriptions of her inhospitable new home, "as cold and clammy as an octopus hug." As the first book in a planned series, this fanciful introduction to shapeshifters and shadow dwellers sets the tone for oddities to come while leaving some key questions unanswered. It's clear that Anastasia is anything but average, and her adventures are just beginning as the book comes to a close. Finished art not seen by PW. Author's agent: Brianne Johnson, Writers House. (Mar.). 320p. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2015. |
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| School Library Journal | 01/01/2015 |
| Gr 3-6--Anastasia is completely average. She isn't remarkable in any way, except for having very dreadful things happen to her. After her parents die in a vacuum cleaner accident, two very old and previously unknown aunts, Prim and Prude, pick her up from school, drug her, and take her to the abandoned St. Agony's Asylum for the Criminally Insane. She is locked in her room at night, given mysterious lumps to eat (so she starts eating moths), and told not to go outside or she will be eaten by the Beast (not to mention the attack poodles). Anastasia soon suspects that these two ladies with sharp metal teeth are not truly her aunts, that the boy who wanders the hall wearing a birdcage is not an insane gardener, and that she is not safe if she remains in the old asylum. Riding the dumbwaiter through the many floors of the mansion, Anastasia discovers a ticklish shadow who's really the brother of the "gardener"; both boys were kidnapped by the evil sisters. Together Anastasia and the brothers Ollie and Quentin form the League of Beastly Dreadfuls and plan their escape, including making a sugar key, feeding Prim and Prude laxative chocolate, and using a sleeping drug in their tea. Madcap plots twists abound, which include shape-shifters, a hot air balloon ride, and a kindly school librarian named Miss Apple. This adventure is filled with enough mystery and humor to keep readers wondering what will happen next. A solid debut reminiscent of Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events" (HarperCollins). Clare A. Dombrowski, Amesbury Public Library, MA. 320p. SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2015. |
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9780385370073,dl.it[0].title
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