Haarville

by Justin Davies

Overview

Welcome to Haarville – if you've arrived, you've survived. Off the grid and not on the maps, it's a place shrouded in fog and steeped in pungent pongs. Everything here smells fishy, especially the town's suspicious new arrivals.

Twelve-year-old Manx Fearty is an orphan (his family has a terrible habit of dying, terribly), and now he's about to lose their perpetual device shop to sinister newcomers claiming to be long-lost relatives. As he sets out to prove them wrong, Manx finds himself on the trail of a murky, mist-muddled mystery – and it's one he needs to solve fast, otherwise Haarville is doomed.

With the help of his fiercely protective drag-queen guardian Father G (aka the fabulous Gloria in Excelsis), loyal best friend Fantoosh, and oystercatcher-with-attitude Olu, Manx wades through secrets, schemes and some stomach-churning seafood. Can he save both his family's legacy and his town?

Darkly comic but full of heart, this quirky middle-grade mystery adventure from Justin Davies, award-winning author of Help! I Smell a Monster and Whoa! I Spy a Werewolf (Orchard Books), is perfect for fans of Malamander and A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781782508502
Publisher:	Floris Books
Publication date:	02/23/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	296
File size:	6 MB
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Justin Davies spent years flying all over the world as cabin crew before hanging up his wings to focus on writing for children. When he isn’t writing, Justin works at his local primary school, where he absolutely, never, ever tries out his story ideas on pupils. His first book, Help! I Smell a Monster, won the Fantastic Book Awards in 2021. He is also the author of Whoa! I Spy a Werewolf. Justin lives with his husband and Sally, the greyhound rescue, in Fife, Scotland.

Table of Contents

1. Fearty's Perpetuals 2. Olu Pays a Visit 3. The Customer Isn't Always Right 4. Tittle-tattle 5. Up, Periscope! 6. Marching Orders 7. Room to Let 8. Black Cats and Broomsticks 9. Gushet House 10. Three's a Crowd 11. Ice Warning! 12. Pollock Row 13. A Light Tower Alight 14. The Accused 15. Whoever Heard of the Haarville Hoard? 16. The Storyteller of Crab Gulley 17. Repelled and Expelled 18. The Edge of the Ledge 19. Smash and Grab 20. Sail Away 21. When Snoozing Means Losing 22. Jailhouse Rot 23. Baggit & Son's 24. Rhymes of the Ancient Mariners 25. Round and Round the Merry-go-round! 26. All Aboard! 27. Anchors Away! 28. Hatched 29. Raft Race 30. The Ninth Wave 31. Clam Rock 32. An Eye for an Eye Glossary About the Author Acknowledgements

Editorial Reviews

'A fantastically fishy adventure, packed to the gills with humour and heart. A boat-load of thrills, fun and friendship.' —Maria Kuzniar, author of The Ship of Shadows series

'A wonderfully imagined, ridiculously unique story that I raced through in a day. The inhabitants of Haarville and their secrets will hook you in and leave you wanting more. Justin Davies deserves first plaice for crreating a book every child, and adult, will love.' —Clare Povey, author of The unexpected Tale of Bastien Bonlivre

'Utterly magical and instantly transporting. You'll want to visit Haarville again and again.' —Amie Kaufman, New York Times bestselling author of These Broken Stars

'The plot is lively with high stakes and misadventure. Intermittent illustrations pair well with the quirky sense of humor. An eccentric and fantastical mystery.' —Kirkus Reviews

'This brilliant well-written story transports you to a murky seaside town that is the life and soul of the party. The characters are colourful and heartwarming whilst the villains make it an edgy race to uncover secrets to save the family's legacy and Haarville from sinister newcomers.' —Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books

'A magical story where Manx fights increasingly difficult challenges to uncover the truth and save Haarville.' —YA Books Central

'Steampunk... if steampunk typically involved large quantities of fish. Overall, the book is a funny, whacky treasure hunt with plenty of fishy illustrations and witty sentences. Kids looking for an adventure may enjoy this story of a town cut off from the rest of the world and a boy who wants to save it more than anything else.' — NetGalley Reviewer

From the Publisher

2023-03-29
Manx Fearty smells something fishy in Haarville—and it isn’t the limpets.

Like all his ancestors, Manx, who is cued White, expects to die in a horrific accident one day. That’s the hazard of tinkering with perpetuals, devices powered by amberose. Ever since the founding of Haarville, an island surrounded by fog and treacherous reefs, the citizens have relied on the Fearty family’s talent for handling the volatile substance that heats their houses, pumps their water, and makes their clocks tick. After his parents died when he was baby, Manx inherited the family’s perpetual repair shop, which he runs alongside Gloria in Excelsis, or Father G for short, a drag queen with dark brown skin who apprenticed with Manx’s grandparents. The tides turn unexpectedly with the arrival of Ninian Baggit and his son, Nathaniel, the first strangers to cross the causeway into Haarville in 40 years. Not only do the Baggits announce that they’re direct descendants of Manx’s great-granduncle Fabian, they have proof, and they’ve come to claim their inheritance. With the help of Fantoosh, his best friend whose ancestors sailed to Haarville from the Indian Ocean, Manx embarks on a quest for the truth that teaches him that the dishonesty, greed, and corruption in his community are as perpetual as their fish boilers. The plot is lively with high stakes and misadventure. Intermittent illustrations pair well with the quirky sense of humor.

An eccentric and fantastical mystery. (map, glossary) (Fantasy. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews