AMY GORDON

THE SHADOW COLLECTOR'S APPRENTICE

Holiday House (2012)

1st edition, 1st printing

Condition: very good, no markings, very minor shelfwear.  NOT ex-library.

Fans of Holly Horvath and Kate DiCamillo will love this warm, eccentric, and enchanting middle-grade novel. 

Peculiar things are going on in the town of Medley over the summer of 1963, but it's hard for twelve-year-old Cully Pennyacre to figure out what it all means. His father has disappeared mysteriously, people don't seem like themselves, and his apprenticeship at Batty's Attic antique store gets stranger each day. The owner has a disturbing hobby of collecting people's shadows with a weird projectorlike machine and foul-smelling chemicals. He claims the process is harmless, but it leaves his victims listless and passive. Odd happenings become the norm as Cully, Batty's granddaughter Isabel, and Cully's best friend band together to get to the bottom of a secret black market in human shadows.

Commentaries on line:

Amy Gordon's excellent writing weaves science fiction, history and ethical behavior into one superb story. I'm not usually one for science fiction, however, this is light on science fiction and heavier on human interaction and events. The characters are dimensional and the story is creative. Nothing controversial in story to keep it off school shelves. Highly recommend for reluctant readers.

The Shadow Collector's Apprentice by Amy Gordon is a mixture of story and magic. Several times I had thought of Harry Potter, though the stories are not at all the same. The mystery began just as I looked at the cover: a shadowy head projected against a wall. What is that?

I thought this book was very good--genuinely scary at times, but leavened by humor; you develop feelings about (almost) all of the characters and care what happens to them...and the concept is actually ORIGINAL, for crying out loud! 

Kudos to Amy Gordon, I finished this in 2 days as it truly is a heart-warming page turner.

YA Lit meets a little mystery and a little sci-fi. Interesting ideas which I'd never heard of before.