Spring-Heeled Jack
"The wisps of fog were whisked aside, and the girls looked up at the  stars and saw--The devil? Well, if he wasn't the devil, then who the devil was  he?" Philip Pullman can sure tell a story.Spring-Heeled Jack, originally  published years ago in the U.K., is an over-the-top Victorian romp in the  boisterous vein of the master storyteller'sCount KarlsteinandI Was a Rat. All the  ingredients for an edge-of-seat page-turner are here: three hapless orphans; the  brandy-swigging Mr. Killjoy and his horrible assistant, Miss Gasket, at the  Alderman Cawn-Plaster Memorial Orphanage; and the greedy, murderous Mack the  Knife who awaits them in the dank city of London. Of course, this is no bad-luck  Lemony Snicket tale. There's a superhero named Spring-Heeled Jack to save the  day! Pullman is at his tongue-in-cheek best here, telling half the happy-ending  tale with a sooty, dramatic Dickensian spin, and the other half with David  Mostyn's artful cartoons, undercutting the mock-heavy-handed drama at  every turn. Readers will find plenty of Pullman's characteristic wit and  wordplay amid the nonstop, rip-roaring adventure. Excellent! (Ages 8 to 14)--Karin Snelson--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.