The Whatnot

by Stefan Bachmann

Overview

The Whatnot is the acclaimed international bestseller and sequel to Stefan Bachmann's riveting debut novel, The Peculiar, which Publishers Weekly called "an absolute treat for readers of any age," and which the Los Angeles Times compared to "Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, and more recent classics, such as J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events."

Twelve-year-old Pikey Thomas is missing an eye, a family, and friends of any sort. One day, running from bigger boys set on bullying him, Pikey finds himself in front of a grand, beautiful house. There he meets and helps a black-winged faery who is injured. It's a small gesture of kindness and bravery in steam-powered Victorian London, where faeries, now banned, are on the run or imprisoned; where the human armies are preparing for war; and where the changeling Bartholomew Kettle, aided by Arthur Jelliby, still searches for his missing sister, Hettie. This is the epic, dark, imaginative, unforgettable, and ultimately hopeful sequel to Stefan Bachmann's acclaimed debut novel, The Peculiar.

"An enthralling read . . . Bachmann combines the pleasures of a Dickensian cast of characters with the eldritch qualities of British faerie lore and adds a touch of steampunk to entice readers into an alternate universe in which the English are on the verge of war with the fay. The breathtaking beauty of his prose is coupled with a plot that also leaves his audience breathless."—School Library Journal

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062195227
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	09/23/2014
Series:	The Peculiar , #2
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.60(h) x 1.10(d)
Lexile:	680L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Stefan Bachmann was born in Colorado and spent most of his childhood in Switzerland, where he graduated from Zurich University of the Arts with degrees in music composition and theory. He is the author of The Peculiar, his debut, which was published to international acclaim when he was nineteen years old. His other books include The Whatnot, A Drop of Night, and Cinders and Sparrows. He is the coauthor (with April Genevieve Tucholke) of The Secret Life of Hidden Places. He lives in Zurich, Switzerland, and Berlin, Germany. 

Editorial Reviews

Exhilarating . . . Bachmann writes with a skill that belies his youth . . . and he has a genius for envisioning fairy magic and architecture. . . . Readers will want to start with The Peculiar, and immediately dive into this fine tale.”- — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Enthralling . . . The breathtaking beauty of [Bachmann’s] prose is coupled with a plot that also leaves his audience breathless.” — School Library Journal

“[A] breathless read, one that will have readers hoping for a peaceful outcome as fervently as its characters do.” — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

10/01/2013
Gr 5–8—This sequel to The Peculiar (HarperCollins, 2012) is an enthralling read in its own right, but even better for those acquainted with the first book. Bachmann combines the pleasures of a Dickensian cast of characters with the eldritch qualities of British faerie lore and adds a touch of steampunk to entice readers into an alternate universe in which the English are on the verge of war with the fay. Pikey Thomas is an urchin who's been "fairy-touched," which has left him with one eye that can see into the Old Country, but also endangers him in a society that is hostile to anything connected to faeries. Moreover, his real eye seems to be on a pendant around the neck of Hettie, the little girl who was captured by faeries in The Peculiar. Her brother, Bartholomew, has been trying to rescue her ever since and, when he comes across Pikey in a London prison, he effects the boy's release and enlists his aid. Bachmann writes with unnerving assurance for someone so young. (He was still in his teens when he completed the two books.) He describes an army camp: "It spilled out of the huddle of low stone houses like intestines from a goat's belly." The breathtaking beauty of his prose is coupled with a plot that also leaves his audience breathless.—Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Library, NY

School Library Journal

This sequel to THE PECULIAR continues the tale of the war between the English and the Faeries. Bartholomew Kettle is on a quest to find his sister, Hettie, a changeling who was pulled into the faery world in Book 1. The story is dark and complex, a fantasy of faeries and an army in a war to the death. Peter Altschuler brings the characters to life, giving them each a unique voice, accent, and personality. His pacing and intonation convey emotions of excitement, exuberance, and expectation. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2013 - AudioFile

This sequel to THE PECULIAR continues the tale of the war between the English and the Faeries. Bartholomew Kettle is on a quest to find his sister, Hettie, a changeling who was pulled into the faery world in Book 1. The story is dark and complex, a fantasy of faeries and an army in a war to the death. Peter Altschuler brings the characters to life, giving them each a unique voice, accent, and personality. His pacing and intonation convey emotions of excitement, exuberance, and expectation. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2013 - AudioFile

2013-09-15
At the end of The Peculiar (2012), Bachmann's debut, the evil faery Mr. Lickerish had used half-faery Bartholomew's little sister, Hettie, as a Door to open the way between England and the Old Country; here is what happens next. Years have passed in England, and humans are winning the country back from the faeries. One-eyed orphan Pikey (his other was stolen one night, a clouded, useless orb left in its place) ekes out a meager existence in London's underbelly. When a faery returns a favor with an astonishing gem, he tries to pawn it and, predictably, ends up in deep trouble. Meanwhile, Hettie struggles to survive in the Old Country, where just a few days have passed. Captured by the lady Piscaltine and kept as her pet Whatnot, Hettie waits in terror for Bartholomew to rescue her. The story alternates between the Old Country and England, between twig-haired Hettie and Pikey; somehow, he can see her through his clouded eye, which makes him very valuable to Bartholomew, who rescues him from jail for its sake. Bachmann unleashes his boundless imagination in his descriptions of the Old Country, whose rules and landscape are capricious and ever-changing. Hettie's terror is well-justified. Detail upon baroque detail piles up as Bartholomew and Pikey race to find Hettie, the war between humans and faeries inevitably catching them up in it--as does friendship. It's a bleak and breathless read, one that will have readers hoping for a peaceful outcome as fervently as its characters do. (Fantasy. 10-15)

Kirkus Reviews