Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms: Magic, Mystery, & a Very Strange Adventure

Par Lissa Evans, Sterling Children's Books, Stuart Horten 1

«As if being small and having S. Horten as his name isn't bad enough, now 10-year-old Stuart is forced to move far away from all his friends. But on his very first day in his new home, Stuart's swept up in an extraordinary adventure: the quest to find his great-uncle Tony - a famous magician who literally disappeared off the face of the earth - and Tony's marvelous, long-lost workshop. Along the way, Stuart reluctantly accepts help from the annoying triplets next door... and encounters trouble from another magician who's also desperate to get hold of Tony's treasures.»

Une aventure intrigante et mystérieuse, toute en stratagèmes et en poudre aux yeux. Lissa Evans tricote habilement une intrigue enlevante, multipliant les obstacles avec brio, triturant l'ordre chronologique, farfouillant dans le passé et surprenant le lecteur au détour des chapitres, de sa plume malicieuse et cocasse. Si l'inventivité de sa narration et la richesse de son imaginaire sont remarquables, c'est sa galerie de personnages délicieusement déroutants mais indiscutablement attachants qui m'a charmée dès la première ligne. Une épopée sublime, fourmillant d'imprévus, qui ravira à coup sûr!

(Ah, je ne peux pas résister... Voici un petit extrait, le tout début du premier chapitre en fait, pour vous mettre en appétit: "Stuart Horten was small for his age—the smallest boy in his grade at school—and both his parents were very tall, which meant that when he stood next to them he looked about the size of an ant. As well as being tall and quite old (especially his father), his parents were extremely clever people. But clever people aren’t always sensible. A sensible person would never give their child a name that could be written down as S. Horten. A sensible person would realize that anyone called S. Horten would instantly be nicknamed “Shorten,” even by his friends. And Stuart had quite a lot of friends. He also had a bike with eight gears, a yard with a tree house and a large and muddy pond. Life was pretty good.")

Lili lui donne: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★