Tom Angleberger
dont often use this phrase as a descriptor but I cant think of a single more appropriate word for it, sooo at the risk of sounding like an owl, this book was a real hoot! The wordy title alone ought to tip you off about what sort of book this is: Horton Halfpott and the Fiendish Mystery of Smugwick Manor OR The Loosening of MLady Luggertucks Corset.
This middlegrade novella clocking in at just overpages is A Series of Unfortunate Events meets Harry Potter liberally peppered with Dickensian characters and his brand of sharp humor.
Except in this case our hapless protagonist isnt a penniless orphan, Nor is he actually a wizard, or targeted by a failed actor hellbent on stealing his fortune,
Instead, young Horton Halfpott is a penniless kitchen boy employed at Smugwick Manor, up to his eyeballs in washing dirty dishes on a daily basisthat is when hes not gathering precious logs of firewood or getting whacked in the head over and over by the slaphappy cook Miss Neversly and her trusty wooden spoon.
His large family and ailing father live quite a distance away, but the ever devoted son, Horton puts them first time and time again, . .
Read full review on my blog at:
sitelink ly/tBTwU I think that this book was just a little over my head on the imaginative side, When it didn't use too much imagination it was really good,.This is a pretty good story line, and Tom Angleburger is that how you spell it made the ship and the characters really adorable, . . but eh. He breaks the fourth wall in this book a lot, which I like, but he did a bit too much for my liking, He also made some emotions way to obvious for the reader, Also the whole backstory with Bump flys right over the plot, and is just tossed in there, . . but otherwise pretty good. I am a big fan of Angleberger's The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, so I bought this book without caring what it was about, . . It is not like Origami Yoda more like Lemony Snicket, Lois Lowry's Birthday Ball, or The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place pure farce and fun in a Victorian setting.
Plot
Horton is the lowest of the low amongst the Smugwick Manor staff, Whatever five or more course meals M'Lady Luggertuck comes up with, the chef cooks, and Horton is left in the kitchen cleaning every single dish, He's a very very honest boy who always follows the rules, even after the Loosening of M'Lady Luggertuck's corset, Why is this important Well, M'Lady has always liked her corset pulled as tight as possible, causing her to be perpetually angry, but the day she requests it to be just a bit looser, everything in the manor changes.
The family and staff can all sense something is different, and rules are getting broken, Not by Horton, however. He refuses to partake in any extracurricular activities with the other servants,
While delivering a letter to the far off neighbors, the Shortleys, Horton meets a visiting girl, Miss Celia SylvanSmythe, She takes a liking to Horton, despite her title and his lowly status, However, a rather dull boy, Montgomery, was sent to the Smugwick manor to woo her, and Luther Luggertuck the awful, scheming son of M'Lady has devious plans for the girl.
Luther's thefts in the mansion have caused a ruckus, but the stable boys are on the case to solve the mystery of the missing items, But when Luther's plan involves kidnapping Celia, the boys all band together to make their own plan to save Horton and the girl,
I quite enjoyed this book, Horton was such a kind boy, and I was so happy that the stable boys Bump, Blight, and Blemish, were actually quite fond of HortonI expected them to be cruel.
This book is humorous, and has very strange character drawings that remind me of the art from
sitelinkHome Movies, Part of me wishes there were other stories from the Smugwick manor, but I also appreciate that the author stopped at one, I'll have to read the Origami Yoda series instead, It has been a long time since I've read such a lively, genuinely funny book, Please don't tell the author, but I think I may love this book even more than I love his Origami Yoda series! Horton is the kitchen boy who cannot break the rules but when he meets Celia, the wealthy young lady one manor over, all bets are off.
In this rollicking tale, smelly stable boys best world renowned detectives, corsets are unloosened and much mud and mire is spattered about, A sweeter Series of Unfortunate Events married to Matilda, this book should be placed in the hands of as many readers as possible, This would be the perfect winter holiday read! Horton was a poor , miserable servant in the neat and strict Smugwick Manor, When the grouchy Lady of the Manor MLady Luggertuck loosens up her corset , everything goes crazy! Apparently her corset is what made MLady so grouchy and strict.
After she loosened her corset, all the rules of the Manor are broken but what is even worse, the Luggertuck Lump a priceless family heirloom is stolen! The Luggertuck family goes even crazier trying to find who took it.
Horton realizes that the detective that comes to investigate just wants to eat and pretty much cant do his job, Horton finds himself getting blamed for the theft, Horton and his friends, the snooping stable boys Bump, Blemish, and Blight, decide that they have to catch the real thief!
This book was hilarious! The characters in the books were really great.
The names are even funny, like Loafburton the baker, There were also The Shipless Pirates, a cranky cook and kooky relatives in the Manor among others! The book is set in Victorian times and I think it helped the story be even more funny.
There are some illustrations in the book that show what the characters look like, but the story is the best part of the book, I think the book its good for any age because there is no violence or bad words and Mr, Angleberger just writes really well for kids Mr, Angleberger also writes the Origami Yoda series, Although I loved just reading about all the funny characters, I think the mystery part of the book really made the story and I HIGHLY recommend it to everyone!
Hilarious! You know your in for a treat when you have two subtitles for the cover.
I snickered a lot while reading the tongue in cheek names and situations, Horton is a hero worthy of any book especially in a world were there as been a loosening of M'Lady's corset,
We read it for book club and the kids are begging for all the side stories mentioned in the book, They were upset to be told that there isn't another book with all the stories mentioned, That was kind of fun to witness, Maybe I have a little Luther in me I picked up a ARC of this book and got it signed while at ALAN this year, I really wanted to get something signed by the writer since I really enjoyed his book The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, Been reading Horton Halfpott by Tom Angleberger as my before bed read every since ALAN which meant it took me way longer than usual to finish the books because I hardly ever go to bed on time and spend most of my nights writing.
But every time I picked up this book and read a chapter I really loved what I read,
I have heard comparisons for this book to Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events and though I see that in some fashion I never think comparisons are fair and look at each book as what it is, it's own story.
But if you want to compare it to the Lemony Snicket books to find readers for this book then go for it, I think anyone who enjoyed those books will enjoy Horton Halfpott,
This book has a great cast of characters given all the attention they need and no more, giving each scene all the attention it needs and no more, and gives the whole race of the story all the attention it needs and no more.
Those things and more are way I really loved this story, The writer had a story to tell, he told it, and at no point in this tale did he waste the readers time on yelling "Hey, I'm a writer.
" but he is that. And also a very good writer, Very creative and tapping into a scene in a different way that I'm not reading in any other writing at the moment and that's what every writer in my view should strive for.
out ofVery funny book with an excellent, intrusive narrator,
Horton is the goody twoshoes whom, with the help of true friends, triumphs over the bad guy, There will be no surprises here, It is a fun read, however, and I personally enjoyed the reference to Hercule Poirot,
It reminded me a lot of the book about Ivy Pocket that I read last year, But this one was better and Horton wasn't such an irritating and stupid character as Ivy was,
I liked Bump, Blight and Blemish more then Horton, though, I must confess I was prepared not to like this book after reading the first page, I am not very enamored with the trend started with lemony Snicket of snarky narrators who dumb everything down for the reader by explaining everything, This book seemed to follow that trend,
But while the narrator does at time explain things, the writing is smart and funny and lends itself to the reader being able to do some thinking for themselves.
I love the character names! And, who doesn't love a story with a happy ending! This is another one I really wanted to love, because it sounded like just my sense of humorabsurdist British, ala P.
G. Wodehouse to whom I think I caught a veiled reference, I had hoped it would be as funny as Margaret Mahy's delightful 'Great Piratical Rumbustification,' but it just wasn't, and I don't know why, Oh wellit's a fun plot and I think kids will like it, if they appreciate books that play with language and make fun of the Victorians.
That was very cute. Full review to come. “You see, the lives of servants are not lived by clocks, but by the ringing of their masters' bells, ”
Horton Halfpott: or, The Fiendish Mystery of Smugwick Manor or, The Loosening of M'Lady Luggertuck's Corset, P,
Tom Angleberger seems to have entered into that select group of authors elevated in common thought as being particularly good at writing for boy readers.
At their best, his books are so much more than just that, but never does he fail to produce writing that is remarkably suited to the young male mind, displaying the mixture of humor and quickmoving plot that made Lincoln Peirce's Big Nate series and Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid so popular.
Though not quite the artist that either of those two authors is, Tom Angleberger uses his sketchy drawing style to add atmosphere to stories that sway from zany to mildly serious and back again, all while never stepping out of the underlying style of quirky humor that puts many typical boy readers at ease.
Tom Angleberger's books aren't your average novels, but they're not just collections of goofy humor, either, He knows how to write a story that has genuine value for dedicated readers, and Horton Halfpott is a pretty good example of how he manages to do this, in a setting far different from that of The Strange Case of Origami Yoda.
The Luggertuck manor isn't always a nice place to be for its scores of servants and other underpaid employees, Most of what makes it not nice is the presence of M'Lady Luggertuck, mistress of the household, whose strict rules haven't seen a loosening in the entire time that the current employees can remember.
But on the day that M'Lady decides to loosen her corset, all of the strict rules of the manor naturally follow course, and the place is no longer such an unpleasant one in which to live.
For kitchen boy Horton Halfpott, not much has changed, however, Honest nearly to a fault, Horton can't bring himself to take advantage of the long overdue loosening, even when he becomes smitten with a special female guest of the Luggertuck family who arrives to stay with them leading up to a grand ball to be hosted in the next several weeks.
What Horton doesn't know is that M'Lady Luggertuck's scheming son, Luther, also has his eye on the young lady visitor, and is determined to make her go with him to the ball.
Horton knows that he, himself, hasn't a chance with her after all, he's still only a kitchen boy, and no girl from a family of high standing would want to attend a gala event with him when she could have her pick of the richest young nobles in the land.
Yet Horton knows that Luther is certainly no prize, and
fears what the warped heirtobe might concoct to force the girl to go with him if she won't do so of her own volition.
When valuable belongings begin disappearing around the Luggertuck manor, Horton is fairly sure he knows who is responsible for the sudden wave of larceny.
It's only a matter of time before Luther brings together whatever foul plan he's building, and when that happens, who knows what fate will befall Horton and the other servants Maybe Horton has it in him to rise above his inhibitions and finally challenge Luther, to permanently stop him from taking what belongs to others and making their lives miserable.
As the story progresses it becomes increasingly clear that everything will go down on the night of the grand ball, and Horton will have to be smart and prepared if he's to outwit Luther and save his own friends and family.
While I do prefer the Origami Yoda series, Tom Angleberger's sense of humor is on fine display in Horton Halfpott, and I had a nice time reading it.
I'm hoping that there is at least one companion volume to this book, though, as there are loose ends to the story that I'd like to see traced to satisfactory conclusions.
All in all, I would give Horton Halfpott at least one and a half, .
This middlegrade novella clocking in at just overpages is A Series of Unfortunate Events meets Harry Potter liberally peppered with Dickensian characters and his brand of sharp humor.
Except in this case our hapless protagonist isnt a penniless orphan, Nor is he actually a wizard, or targeted by a failed actor hellbent on stealing his fortune,
Instead, young Horton Halfpott is a penniless kitchen boy employed at Smugwick Manor, up to his eyeballs in washing dirty dishes on a daily basisthat is when hes not gathering precious logs of firewood or getting whacked in the head over and over by the slaphappy cook Miss Neversly and her trusty wooden spoon.
His large family and ailing father live quite a distance away, but the ever devoted son, Horton puts them first time and time again, . .
Read full review on my blog at:
sitelink ly/tBTwU I think that this book was just a little over my head on the imaginative side, When it didn't use too much imagination it was really good,.This is a pretty good story line, and Tom Angleburger is that how you spell it made the ship and the characters really adorable, . . but eh. He breaks the fourth wall in this book a lot, which I like, but he did a bit too much for my liking, He also made some emotions way to obvious for the reader, Also the whole backstory with Bump flys right over the plot, and is just tossed in there, . . but otherwise pretty good. I am a big fan of Angleberger's The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, so I bought this book without caring what it was about, . . It is not like Origami Yoda more like Lemony Snicket, Lois Lowry's Birthday Ball, or The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place pure farce and fun in a Victorian setting.
Plot
Horton is the lowest of the low amongst the Smugwick Manor staff, Whatever five or more course meals M'Lady Luggertuck comes up with, the chef cooks, and Horton is left in the kitchen cleaning every single dish, He's a very very honest boy who always follows the rules, even after the Loosening of M'Lady Luggertuck's corset, Why is this important Well, M'Lady has always liked her corset pulled as tight as possible, causing her to be perpetually angry, but the day she requests it to be just a bit looser, everything in the manor changes.
The family and staff can all sense something is different, and rules are getting broken, Not by Horton, however. He refuses to partake in any extracurricular activities with the other servants,
While delivering a letter to the far off neighbors, the Shortleys, Horton meets a visiting girl, Miss Celia SylvanSmythe, She takes a liking to Horton, despite her title and his lowly status, However, a rather dull boy, Montgomery, was sent to the Smugwick manor to woo her, and Luther Luggertuck the awful, scheming son of M'Lady has devious plans for the girl.
Luther's thefts in the mansion have caused a ruckus, but the stable boys are on the case to solve the mystery of the missing items, But when Luther's plan involves kidnapping Celia, the boys all band together to make their own plan to save Horton and the girl,
I quite enjoyed this book, Horton was such a kind boy, and I was so happy that the stable boys Bump, Blight, and Blemish, were actually quite fond of HortonI expected them to be cruel.
This book is humorous, and has very strange character drawings that remind me of the art from
sitelinkHome Movies, Part of me wishes there were other stories from the Smugwick manor, but I also appreciate that the author stopped at one, I'll have to read the Origami Yoda series instead, It has been a long time since I've read such a lively, genuinely funny book, Please don't tell the author, but I think I may love this book even more than I love his Origami Yoda series! Horton is the kitchen boy who cannot break the rules but when he meets Celia, the wealthy young lady one manor over, all bets are off.
In this rollicking tale, smelly stable boys best world renowned detectives, corsets are unloosened and much mud and mire is spattered about, A sweeter Series of Unfortunate Events married to Matilda, this book should be placed in the hands of as many readers as possible, This would be the perfect winter holiday read! Horton was a poor , miserable servant in the neat and strict Smugwick Manor, When the grouchy Lady of the Manor MLady Luggertuck loosens up her corset , everything goes crazy! Apparently her corset is what made MLady so grouchy and strict.
After she loosened her corset, all the rules of the Manor are broken but what is even worse, the Luggertuck Lump a priceless family heirloom is stolen! The Luggertuck family goes even crazier trying to find who took it.
Horton realizes that the detective that comes to investigate just wants to eat and pretty much cant do his job, Horton finds himself getting blamed for the theft, Horton and his friends, the snooping stable boys Bump, Blemish, and Blight, decide that they have to catch the real thief!
This book was hilarious! The characters in the books were really great.
The names are even funny, like Loafburton the baker, There were also The Shipless Pirates, a cranky cook and kooky relatives in the Manor among others! The book is set in Victorian times and I think it helped the story be even more funny.
There are some illustrations in the book that show what the characters look like, but the story is the best part of the book, I think the book its good for any age because there is no violence or bad words and Mr, Angleberger just writes really well for kids Mr, Angleberger also writes the Origami Yoda series, Although I loved just reading about all the funny characters, I think the mystery part of the book really made the story and I HIGHLY recommend it to everyone!
Hilarious! You know your in for a treat when you have two subtitles for the cover.
I snickered a lot while reading the tongue in cheek names and situations, Horton is a hero worthy of any book especially in a world were there as been a loosening of M'Lady's corset,
We read it for book club and the kids are begging for all the side stories mentioned in the book, They were upset to be told that there isn't another book with all the stories mentioned, That was kind of fun to witness, Maybe I have a little Luther in me I picked up a ARC of this book and got it signed while at ALAN this year, I really wanted to get something signed by the writer since I really enjoyed his book The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, Been reading Horton Halfpott by Tom Angleberger as my before bed read every since ALAN which meant it took me way longer than usual to finish the books because I hardly ever go to bed on time and spend most of my nights writing.
But every time I picked up this book and read a chapter I really loved what I read,
I have heard comparisons for this book to Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events and though I see that in some fashion I never think comparisons are fair and look at each book as what it is, it's own story.
But if you want to compare it to the Lemony Snicket books to find readers for this book then go for it, I think anyone who enjoyed those books will enjoy Horton Halfpott,
This book has a great cast of characters given all the attention they need and no more, giving each scene all the attention it needs and no more, and gives the whole race of the story all the attention it needs and no more.
Those things and more are way I really loved this story, The writer had a story to tell, he told it, and at no point in this tale did he waste the readers time on yelling "Hey, I'm a writer.
" but he is that. And also a very good writer, Very creative and tapping into a scene in a different way that I'm not reading in any other writing at the moment and that's what every writer in my view should strive for.
out ofVery funny book with an excellent, intrusive narrator,
Tom Angleberger's latest, loopiest middlegrade novel begins when M'Lady Luggertuck loosens her corset it's never been loosened before!, thereby setting off a chain of events in which all the strict rules of Smugwick Manor are abandoned.
When, as a result of "the Loosening," the precious family heirloom, the Luggertuck Lump quite literally a lump, goes missing, the Luggertucks look for someone to blame.
Is it Horton Halfpott, the goodnatured but lowly kitchen boy who can't tell a lie Or one of the many colorful cast members in this silly romp of a mystery.
Horton is the goody twoshoes whom, with the help of true friends, triumphs over the bad guy, There will be no surprises here, It is a fun read, however, and I personally enjoyed the reference to Hercule Poirot,
It reminded me a lot of the book about Ivy Pocket that I read last year, But this one was better and Horton wasn't such an irritating and stupid character as Ivy was,
I liked Bump, Blight and Blemish more then Horton, though, I must confess I was prepared not to like this book after reading the first page, I am not very enamored with the trend started with lemony Snicket of snarky narrators who dumb everything down for the reader by explaining everything, This book seemed to follow that trend,
But while the narrator does at time explain things, the writing is smart and funny and lends itself to the reader being able to do some thinking for themselves.
I love the character names! And, who doesn't love a story with a happy ending! This is another one I really wanted to love, because it sounded like just my sense of humorabsurdist British, ala P.
G. Wodehouse to whom I think I caught a veiled reference, I had hoped it would be as funny as Margaret Mahy's delightful 'Great Piratical Rumbustification,' but it just wasn't, and I don't know why, Oh wellit's a fun plot and I think kids will like it, if they appreciate books that play with language and make fun of the Victorians.
That was very cute. Full review to come. “You see, the lives of servants are not lived by clocks, but by the ringing of their masters' bells, ”
Horton Halfpott: or, The Fiendish Mystery of Smugwick Manor or, The Loosening of M'Lady Luggertuck's Corset, P,
Tom Angleberger seems to have entered into that select group of authors elevated in common thought as being particularly good at writing for boy readers.
At their best, his books are so much more than just that, but never does he fail to produce writing that is remarkably suited to the young male mind, displaying the mixture of humor and quickmoving plot that made Lincoln Peirce's Big Nate series and Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid so popular.
Though not quite the artist that either of those two authors is, Tom Angleberger uses his sketchy drawing style to add atmosphere to stories that sway from zany to mildly serious and back again, all while never stepping out of the underlying style of quirky humor that puts many typical boy readers at ease.
Tom Angleberger's books aren't your average novels, but they're not just collections of goofy humor, either, He knows how to write a story that has genuine value for dedicated readers, and Horton Halfpott is a pretty good example of how he manages to do this, in a setting far different from that of The Strange Case of Origami Yoda.
The Luggertuck manor isn't always a nice place to be for its scores of servants and other underpaid employees, Most of what makes it not nice is the presence of M'Lady Luggertuck, mistress of the household, whose strict rules haven't seen a loosening in the entire time that the current employees can remember.
But on the day that M'Lady decides to loosen her corset, all of the strict rules of the manor naturally follow course, and the place is no longer such an unpleasant one in which to live.
For kitchen boy Horton Halfpott, not much has changed, however, Honest nearly to a fault, Horton can't bring himself to take advantage of the long overdue loosening, even when he becomes smitten with a special female guest of the Luggertuck family who arrives to stay with them leading up to a grand ball to be hosted in the next several weeks.
What Horton doesn't know is that M'Lady Luggertuck's scheming son, Luther, also has his eye on the young lady visitor, and is determined to make her go with him to the ball.
Horton knows that he, himself, hasn't a chance with her after all, he's still only a kitchen boy, and no girl from a family of high standing would want to attend a gala event with him when she could have her pick of the richest young nobles in the land.
Yet Horton knows that Luther is certainly no prize, and
fears what the warped heirtobe might concoct to force the girl to go with him if she won't do so of her own volition.
When valuable belongings begin disappearing around the Luggertuck manor, Horton is fairly sure he knows who is responsible for the sudden wave of larceny.
It's only a matter of time before Luther brings together whatever foul plan he's building, and when that happens, who knows what fate will befall Horton and the other servants Maybe Horton has it in him to rise above his inhibitions and finally challenge Luther, to permanently stop him from taking what belongs to others and making their lives miserable.
As the story progresses it becomes increasingly clear that everything will go down on the night of the grand ball, and Horton will have to be smart and prepared if he's to outwit Luther and save his own friends and family.
While I do prefer the Origami Yoda series, Tom Angleberger's sense of humor is on fine display in Horton Halfpott, and I had a nice time reading it.
I'm hoping that there is at least one companion volume to this book, though, as there are loose ends to the story that I'd like to see traced to satisfactory conclusions.
All in all, I would give Horton Halfpott at least one and a half, .