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The telephone cord was hanging from the receiver, wires sticking out of the broken, dangling end.

Time to go, Stuart thought.

And then the phone rang.

______________________

Ten year old Stuart Horten considers himself a most unfortunate soul. He is unnaturally small for his age, a fact that is magnified by the combination of exceptionally tall parents and a name that shines a spotlight on his deficiency: S.Horton. His parents are extremely clever but not, as he puts it, sensible. People mistakenly believe he is younger than his ten years.

But it is the start of summer vacation and even Stuart feels like all is right with the world. Then the bottom drops out. Stuart Horton’s mom is offered a new job and the family up and moves to the small town of Beeton, leaving friends and familiarity far behind.

It is of little comfort to Stuart that his father hails from this area, that is until he discovers that there was a magician in the family, Tony Horton, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances many decades ago. Sometimes all it takes is a small spark to start fire, and this familial history strikes a match that sets young Stuart ablaze, sending him on an improbable and perhaps impossible adventure.

Lissa Evan’s first young adult novel, published last year in Great Britain as Small Change for Stuart, crackles with the energy of the endlessness of youthful summers and skillfully demonstrates why it was shortlisted for the 2012 Costa Award for Children’s Fiction and the Carnegie Medal.
Continue reading Horton’s Miraculous Mechanisms ~Lissa Evans →