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The Shadow Collector's Apprentice (2000)

by Amy Gordon(Favorite Author)

3.31 of 5 Votes: 4

languge

English

genre

review 1: With his father missing in the summer of 1963 and the aunts with whom he is living struggling financially, twelve-year-old Cully Pennyacre takes a job at the local antique store to help out. There's something odd about the shop's owner, Batty, and his disturbing habit of collecting the shadows of others. Cully realizes that these shadows may be connected in some way with his own father's disappearance. Middle grade readers with a taste for odd characters and the doings in small towns will certainly enjoy this well-written story. The only parts that didn't work were how a character such as the school bully is introduced but only followed briefly and the inclusion of notes or journaling from various characters. Some seemed effective in moving the book forward while others di... mored not.
review 2: The book started off really interesting with mystery and fantasy mixed together. I'm not entirely sure why the book was set during the cold war since it really could have been set during any time period and still worked. Maybe the author felt that spies wouldn't be interested in invisibility today since they have all kinds of special gadgets - who knows. Once the major mystery was more or less solved, though, and the author needed to wrap it up, the book dissolved into a "love conquers all" type of feeling and everything worked out splendidly for the good guys and poorly for the bad guys. I would recommend this to voracious middle-school readers who enjoy fantasy that doesn't have to do with kings or queens. less

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