Persimmony Smudge lives on the peaceful Island at the Center of Everything. When she gets lost in the woods, she starts a series of events that will change her life and the life of those on the island.
Persimmony longs for adventure, and with her very active imagination it's hard for her family to understand. Her mother morally objects from everything to using soap to reading books. Her sister, Prunella, is not much different. Persimmony takes after her long missing father, who may have gone off on a heroic adventure of his own...read the book to find out. While lost in the woods, she overhears something about gold beneath the King's castle and how the Leafeaters ("Reclusive denizens of the secret underground city of Willowroot who love ceremonies, hate rudeness, and (ahem) eat leaves.") are going to dig straight to it. From here, Persimmony and her friend Worvil the Worrier find out that the daily rise and fall of the island is actually a sleeping giant and must not be woken lest the island be destroyed...and it's up to her to convince everyone.
This book has a wonderful cast of characters, from Persimmony herself to the playful, happy-go-lucky Rumplebumps, the aforementioned Leafeaters, the quarreling citizens of the island, and my favorite, thirteen-year-old King Lucas the Loftier, who will have you rooting for some and laughing at others. He is full of his own self-importance and obsessed with pepper. This is a wonderful debut from this author, and I hope she has many more tales to tell us. A great read-aloud and hard to put down!
-Ruby
-Ruby
Ages 9-12
Publisher: Dial (December 2010)
ISBN: 9780803733756
Available as an eBook
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