Alex and the Ironic Gentleman by Adrienne Kress and Christopher Lane

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Alex and the Ironic Gentleman from Children

Alex and the Ironic Gentleman
Available from Amazon
Price: $18.96
Updated on 12-28-2008.

Features

Reading level: Ages 9-12

Audio CD

Publisher: Brilliance Audio on MP3-CD; MP3 Una edition (September 18, 2007)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1423347544

ISBN-13: 978-1423347545

Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches

Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces ()

Review
"I read Alex and the Ironic Gentleman, and to be honest it had me at the title. A clever title to live up to and the story did not disappoint. I found it quirky, hilarious and genuinely exhilirating. There was a nod to Lewis Carroll and a wink to Charles Dickens, but no more than that, Adrienne's words are packed with originality. Alex is a wonderful hero who deserves to return for further adventures, indeed I suspect there will be a riot if she does not. Great plot, larger than life characters. The future is bright." -- Eoin Colfer, Best-selling Author of the Artemis Fowl Series

"This is a swashbuckling tale of adventure and loyalty in the tradition of The Princess Bride and Harry Potter." -- Michelle Branch, Editor Smartgirl.org

Starred Review.
Kress's debut is a wonderful blend of whimsy and moral, with winks at the reader on every page. Alex, who lives with her uncle in the flat above their doorknob shop, is dreading the sixth grade and the stern teacher who comes with it, but on the first day she learns that a new teacher has been installed - the young Mr. Underwood ("a marvelous teacher despite being ever so distinctly odd"). He turns out to be a descendant of a famous pirate, and soon three vicious men turn up in town, looking for a map to a fabled family treasure. The map is somewhere in a stately manor house, run by the vicious old ladies of the Daughters of the Founding Fathers' Preservation Society; Alex finds the map and escapes, but returns home to find that her uncle has been killed and Mr. Underwood has been kidnapped by the pirates of the shop Ironic Gentleman. She sets off to find him and has some odd encounters along the way (at one point, she meets an enormous octopus, distraught over how computer animation has wrecked his movie career). Eventually, Alex ends up on the Ironic Gentleman, face to face with the dreaded Captain Steele the Inevitable, whose identity comes as a big surprise. Kress has a delightfully simple, observational prose style that recalls A.A. Milne, right down to the frequent capitalization of Good Things and Very Interesting Things and so on. This inspired book should hold up to many re-readings. Ages 10-up. -- Publishers Weekly, September 2007 --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description
Often mistaken for a boy because of her haircut and name, Alex Morningside is an inquisitive girl of ten-and-a-half who attends the prestigious Wigpowder-Steele Academy. Unfortunately, though she loves to learn, Alex just can’t bring herself to enjoy her classes. Her teachers are all old and smelly and don’t seem to know about anything that has happened in the world the past thirty years, and her peers…well they are quite simply ridiculous.

Luckily for Alex, the new school year brings an exciting new teacher. Mr. Underwood makes lessons fun and teaches her how to fence. But Mr. Underwood has a mysterious family secret - the swashbuckling and buried treasure kind - and not everyone is glad he has come to Wigpowder-Steele. When the infamous pirates of a ship called the Ironic Gentleman kidnap Mr. Underwood, Alex sets off on a journey to rescue him, along the way encountering a cast of strange and magical characters, including the dashing and sometimes heroic Captain Magnanimous, Coriander the Conjurer, the Extremely Ginormous Octopus, and the wicked Daughters of the Founding Fathers’ Preservation Society.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Alex and the Ironic Gentleman (Hardcover) This book is sure to be a hit with fans of A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Artemis Fowl and Children Of The Lamp. Imaginative and funny, action packed and exciting, this is a book that any child (and some adults) would want to read again and again. Alex is an orphan, her parents having been involved in a tragic spelunking incident in Iceland. She lives with her Uncle, who owns a doorknob store on the side of a bridge, and she attends a fancy-schmancy school called The Wigpowder-Steele Academy. It seems that the original Wigpowder was a very wealthy pirate, who entrusted the distribution of his spoils to a rich philanthropist named Steele by way of a treasure map. Over time, bitter family feuds and fencing duels, the location of the map was forgotten and new generations of Wigpowders and Steeles are still quite busy hunting for it. Sure enough, some very unpleasant gentlemen soon arrive in town, and before long the trouble begins. The next chapters follow Alex on dangerous missions, including encounters with the dastardly Daughters of the Founding Fathers' Preservation Society, a train ride to nowhere in particular, and a hotel very much like the Hotel California (you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.) She also encounters fascinating characters like The Extremely Ginormous Octopus, Lord Poppinjay, the MakeCold 6000 and Coriander the Conjuror, and ingeniously named places like Port Cullis and The Gangrene Inn. Her goal is to find the notorious Pirate Captain Steele and the ship Ironic Gentleman, and then hopefully successfully execute a rescue mission. Along the way she enlists the services of the noble and upright Captain Magnanimous and his ship HMS Valiant, and takes part in a nautical battle. As if all that weren't enough, there's a tricky riddle still to be solved, and treasure to be found. Immensely entertaining and wonderfully creative, this one is highly recommended for readers of all ages. Amanda Richards

Alex and the Ironic Gentleman
List Price: $24.95
Available from Amazon
Price: $18.96
Updated on 12-28-2008.