My Book Corner have ventured to Victorian London in Jenny Moore’s latest middle grade novel, The Misadventures of Nicholas Nabb.
A botched bread roll robbery spells trouble for Victorian sewer scamp, Nicholas Nabb—big trouble. But when a mysterious veiled widow, Annie, steps in to save him, it looks like his luck might finally be changing. Only Annie vanishes before they can become properly acquainted, leaving Nick with nothing but questions. Who is the lady behind the black veil? Why does she seem determined to help him? And, most importantly of all, where is she now? Nick will stop at nothing to find out.
When Nicholas Nabb is caught stealing a loaf of bread, he is convinced his days as a sewer urchin are over. Having escaped the Victorian orphanage he has lived in most of his life, he unwillingly accepts his fate and presumes he will be sent back there again. When a strange woman unexpectedly turns his fortunes around, he welcomes the chance to escape the hands of the law and loses his captors amid the nooks and crannies of the town. Along with his saviour, Annie, they hide from the police in an intriguing Charity Magic Show for Lost Ladies and Homeless Boys. With conjuring tricks and optical illusions galore, Nicholas and Annie find themselves drawn in and it’s not long before she’s on stage taking part in a daring act. When Annie mysteriously disappears, Nicholas tries to find her but she seems to have vanished into thin air!
It soon becomes clear that there is a more menacing, darker side to the theatre that was built to entertain.
When Nicholas and Edwin, a boy who survived the show, discover a room full of frightened children, they’re running out of time to save them all before they’re captured by the menacing magician too!
Tension fills the air as Nicholas and Edwin attempt to set them all free only for them both to be captured and sent to the Graspworthy Reform Academy for Criminal Boys. Edwin has a secret to tell that could jeopardise their plans to flee the strange, unwelcoming house with its locked doors and creepy cellars. Now that he is separated from his friend, Nicholas has to find a way out for both of them AND he needs to find Annie before the magician gets up to any more tricks.
The reader is taken on an emotional roller coaster ride of epic proportions as Nicholas not only finds out who he really is but the revelation of how important Annie is to him.
In a world of uncertainty, all you need are friends, family and some courage to achieve the seemingly unachievable! With flashes of ‘Oliver Twist’ meets ‘The Nowhere Emporium’, Nicholas Nabb is a superb page turner.
A truly moving story of survival against all odds.
Jenny Moore has a fantastic way of pulling you in from the first page as if you are right there beside the characters as they fight for their freedom time and time again. I held my breath for many of the amazing action scenes skilfully weaved throughout as the story culminates in a superb ending. What an amazing story from Maverick publishers with a fantastic cover from Marco Guadalupi.