Garth Jennings

Alright, I'll admit it. I'm often drawn to a book because of its cover. There's nothing wrong with that. Why else would they hire people to make them attractive and spend so much time designing them to be eye-catching? And then there's the blurb on the back of the book. These can range from evocative, cringeworthy, perplexing, or in some cases spoiler-y. Even after reading the back of the book jacket of today's book and seeing the title and looking at the cover image I was still surprised to discover just what this book was about. Maybe you're all smarter than me. Can you guess what Deadly 7 by Garth Jennings is about just from the name? What if I told you that it was about a little boy who had 7 little monsters accompanying him on a rescue mission and each of them had a very separate personality? The main character of Deadly 7 is Nelson who comes across a machine which creates 7 monsters that only he can see. One is always sleeping, one is angry about pretty much everything, one keeps stealing everything in sight...have you figured out what they are yet? I almost hope you haven't because then I won't feel like such a dolt. This is Garth's debut novel but he's no stranger to writing as he was the genius behind the movie Sing. However, this book is pretty much nothing like that movie. This story feels like it could be rooted in our present but with a decided twist. There's an ever-present feeling of dread while flipping the pages of this book which honestly I think that a lot of kids feel at this age. Remember the anxiety and fear when you realized that you were changing and you didn't know into what? Jennings taps into that and uses the monsters as a way to illustrate it which I think is rather brilliant. I have to say that the plot of this is kinda all over the place but the writing is solid so I have hope that further books by him will be tightened up and be even better. Nonetheless, it was a quick read and entertaining and I think it would be a good springboard for conversation. It's a solid 6/10.… (more)

[Guest Blogger]
My son, Joshua!!

Hello! My name is Joshua and my mom is the owner of this website. Since I am homeschooled, I have to read a lot. A lot. When she got this book, she said I would like it. She was right but I did not know I would be blogging on it. No pressure.

Everything in this review will come from me. I am even typing it, but Mom, Alyssa Hunt, will be putting in the links and the fancy stuff. I am the brains and she's the back up.

The Deadly 7 is by Garth Jennings (he has a really fun website, by the way) and is about a boy named Nelson. His sister is kidnapped while on a trip in Spain which is pretty scary. His parents leave him with his Uncle Pogo (he has a wooden leg), who lives in London while they search for her. While there, Nelson helps his Uncle and ends up being stabbed in the back when he falls on to a strange machine below St. Paul's Cathedral! The machine removed seven entities (mom said that was a good word), from Nelson. All of them are what are from the seven deadly sins we have inside us! They appear to Nelson as weird looking monsters, but they behave like minions. Each creature has a bad or embarrassing habit and they don't always get along, but they are all there to help Nelson find his sister. They have strange powers that link themselves to Nelson and know when he needs help. So they go off on a mission to bring his big sister back home...
*For the full review: http://tinyurl.com/gpdkrug
**Book provided by Shelf Awareness and MacMillan Children's Publishing Grp., for an honest review..… (more)

One man is rescued from the destruction of the Earth.

The adaptation seems to miss the point most of the time, leaving out jokes (or worse, just leaving out the punchlines) and replacing them with Hollywood cliches. So, it's not anywhere near as funny as it should be. And between squeezing three hours of material into a movie, and forcing a half-assed love story into it on top of that, it doesn't have much chance. But it's still pretty fun. One thing it keeps intact is the sense of wonder; between the amazing special effects and Adams' ridiculously huge ideas (which the mediocre script doesn't quite squish in spite of itself), it can be pretty impressive - for the right audience. I can only imagine it would be a confusing mess to someone who hasn't read the book, or (like me) listened to the original radio drama a million times.

Concept: A
Story: C
Characters: A
Dialog: B
Pacing: D
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: A
Acting: B
Music: C

Enjoyment: B

GPA: 2.9/4… (more)