Gwendolyn, aged twelve, lives in a city which is concrete
and steel, glass and gray. Most of her world is gray,
except her red hair. So her marvelous imagination is her
refuge, conjuring up leafy, wild worlds for her to run and
play in... but this doesn't go down well on the bullet train,
or in school. Young adults who find life can be boring and
closed in, will enjoy THE MARVELOUS ADVENTURES OF GWENDOLYN
GRAY, as our heroine, trying to be good, somehow causes
trouble.
The Lambents are devices for teaching. Pupils stare into
the Lambent and get taught what they need to know. But Gwen
doesn't like the bright light, which gives her headaches,
so she just reads and draws. She starts to notice
suspicious happenings. Kids who use the Lambents forget
things that occurred that day. They forget a girl who was
taken out of class. Pity the bullies never forget to pick
on Gwen. And they don't believe what she tells them. Trying
to escape, Gwen takes a long train ride, right to the edge
of the automated factories, to the border of the City.
Nobody goes here. Whatever she finds, it's bound to get her
into more trouble.
The ensuing escapades are like The Matrix crossed with
Stardust as some wondrous inventions are all that save Gwen
and two inventive kids, Sparrow and Starling, from faceless
gray men. One thing for sure, your vocabulary will increase
while reading this steampunky book. Gwen travels in a
bathysphere and boards a pirate airship called Lucrative
Endeavour, expanding the locations and characters, while
fleeing a horror. This is an exciting read with great
variation.
B.A. Williamson is a father and a teacher, and is a
recipient of the Eli Lilly Teacher Creativity Fellowship.
He has imagined the kind of school he really doesn't like
and turned events around to a way he does like. His story
is full of movement and choices, rigidity contrasted with
change. Trust in the power of imagination and the future it
will bring. THE MARVELOUS ADVENTURES OF GWENDOLYN GRAY is
suitable for YA readers from ten to teenage. I think it's
just right for reading under the covers.
The Marvelous Adventures of Gwendolyn Gray is part fantasy, part dystopia, part steampunk, and all imagination as dreamer Gwendolyn evades thought police, enters a whimsical world, befriends world-jumping explorers and ragtag airship pirates, and fights the evil threatening to erase the new world she loves and her old world that never wanted her. Gwendolyn Gray faces an overwhelming battle every day: keeping her imagination under control. It’s a struggle for a dreamer like Gwendolyn, in a city of identical gray skyscrapers, clouds that never clear, and grown-ups who never understand. But when her daydreams come alive and run amok in The City, the struggle to control them becomes as real as the furry creatures infesting her bedroom. Worse yet, she’s drawn the attention of the Faceless Gentlemen, who want to preserve order in The City by erasing Gwendolyn and her troublesome creations. With the help of two explorers from another world, Gwendolyn escapes and finds herself in a land of clockwork inventions and colorful creations. Now Gwendolyn must harness her powers and, with a gang of airship pirates, stop the Faceless Gentlemen from destroying the new world she loves and the home that never wanted her—before every world becomes gray and dull.
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