  | Lunatic's curse Author: Higgins, F. E. | |
| Price: $6.50 | ||
Summary:
Rex tries to uncover evidence from an inescapable insane asylum to prove his father is imprisoned under false pretenses.
| Accelerated Reader Information: Interest Level: MG Reading Level: 5.80 Points: 11.0 Quiz: 145789 | Reading Counts Information: Interest Level: 6-8 Reading Level: 5.30 Points: 17.0 Quiz: 57203 | |
Common Core Standards
Grade 4 → Reading → RL Literature → 4.RL Key Ideas & Details
Grade 4 → Reading → RL Literature → 4.RL Range of Reading & Level of Text Complexity
Grade 4 → Reading → RL Literature → 4.RL Craft & Structure
Grade 4 → Reading → RL Literature → 4.RL Integration & Knowledge of Ideas
Grade 4 → Reading → RL Literature → Texts Illustrating the Complexity, Quality, & Rang
Grade 5 → Reading → RL Literature → 5.RL Key Ideas & Details
Grade 5 → Reading → RL Literature → 5.RL Integration & Knowledge of Ideas
Grade 5 → Reading → RL Literature → 5.RL Range of Reading & Level of Text Complexity
Grade 5 → Reading → RL Literature → Texts Illustrating the Complexity, Quality, & Rang
Grade 6 → Reading → RL Literature → 6.RL Key Ideas & Details
Grade 6 → Reading → RL Literature → 6.RL Craft & Structure
Grade 6 → Reading → RL Literature → 6.RL Integration of Knowledge & Ideas
Grade 6 → Reading → RL Literature → 6.RL Range of Reading & Level of Text Complexity
Grade 6 → Reading → CCR College & Career Readiness Anchor Standards fo
Grade 7 → Reading → RL Literature → 7.RL Key Ideas & Details
Grade 7 → Reading → RL Literature → 7.RL Range of Reading & LEvel of Text Complexity
Grade 8 → Reading → RL Literature → 8.RL Key Ideas & Details
Grade 5 → Reading → RL Literature → 5.RL Craft & Structure
Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews (06/01/11)
School Library Journal (03/01/12)
Booklist (08/01/11)
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (10/11)
Full Text Reviews:
Booklist - 08/01/2011 Rex is convinced his new stepmother has everything to do with his father’s mental breakdown and eventual death, but the only way to prove it is to unravel the meaning behind his father’s final messages: “Don’t fly too close to the sun” and “Use your head.” His journey leads him straight to the insane asylum and into the hands of the inmates themselves. Higgins returns readers of the Sinister City series to the Oppum Oppidulum neighborhood to peek into another shadowy family window. Here, she unveils greed, insanity, cannibalism, and monster fish. Story atmospherics, quirky circumstances peopled by characters with tongue-teasing names like Gerulphus, Acantha, and Velhildegildus, and clever plot twists that surprise to the very end appear throughout. Lunatic’s gothic flavor evokes the Edwards—Lear and Gorey—and readers may find this a tempting, if slightly more serious, treat to follow Lemony Snicket. This would also make a good read-aloud choice for upper-elementary- and middle-school audiences. - Copyright 2011 Booklist.
Bulletin for the Center... - 10/01/2011 Luridly illuminated cover art and a foreboding title should be enough to have eager hands grabbing for Higgins’ latest, but those who have already ventured into her dark lands of Pagus Parvus and Urbs Umida will recognize that these are comparatively gentle teasers for what lurks inside. This tale, now inscribed in Joe Zibbidou’s notorious black book (introduced in The Black Book of Secrets, BCCB 11/07), relates the tragedy that befalls twelve-year-old Rex Grammaticus when his brand-new stepmother, Acantha, has his father, Ambrose, committed to a lunatic asylum. Ambrose makes his escape when the inmates stage a rebellion and breakout, but he only meets with his son long enough to take him on a mysterious trip to a shadowy business establishment where the boy is drugged and . . . who knows. That night Ambrose is carried off and killed, leaving Rex with a couple of cryptic clues and the duty of solving the crime. Acantha arranges for her troublesome stepson to work for the asylum’s new director, Dr. Velhildegildus, and that’s exactly where Rex wants to be—within the building where his father said the truth lies. Though Rex has the support and assistance of a young maid just hired on, he can’t know the enormity of the cabal he’s up against—The Society of Andrew Faye, which is actually his mishearing of (dun, dun, dun) the Society of Androphage, or cannibals. Higgins is a deft hand at grossout, maximizing shivers and yet cushioning the horror with fantastic details of a Perambulating Submersible, a voracious sea monster, and diamonds coughed up from the floor of an icy, impossibly deep lake. Newcomers can enter Higgins’ world via any of her titles, and an endnote directs readers to specific novels that tie in to plot points in this particular “polyquel.” This series is shaping up into an enticing, shadowy den where scary-story addicts can get their fix. EB - Copyright 2011 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.
School Library Journal - 03/01/2012 Gr 5–8—This title is a "polyquel" to Higgins's other novels. It is a dark tale set in a fictional town reminiscent of Victorian England. At the center of Oppum Oppidulum is a lake, and at the center of the lake is an island where the Asylum for the Peculiar and Bizarre is located. No one has ever escaped. This is where Rex Grammaticus's father is sent after a harrowing incident of violence against his wife. Twelve-year-old Rex sets out to solve the mystery behind his father's incarceration and save himself from an equally horrifying fate. He is convinced that his father is not insane and that his stepmother is to blame for the man's irrational behavior. The Lunatic's Curse has a large cast of twisted characters and a winding plot that will keep readers delightfully immersed in macabre adventure.—Mindy Whipple, West Jordan Library, UT - Copyright 2012 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.
