The Deadly 7

"Everything was happening so fast and it was all so . . . mad. It was as if someone had taken reality, made it into a jigsaw, thrown the jigsaw on to the floor and then said, "Now, hurry up and put it all together!" as they danced all over the jigsaw pieces in a clown suit, blowing a trumpet." When Nelson's beloved big sister goes missing on a school trip, Nelson is devastated - he's not that good at making friends and his sister is the only person he can talk to. His parents join the search party and leave Nelson in the care of his mad uncle Pogo. Uncle Pogo is the caretaker of St Paul's Cathedral and it is here that Nelson stumbles across a machine, invented by Christopher Wren and buried for hundreds of years. Designed to extract the 7 deadly sins, the machine had a fault - once extracted, the sins became living, breathing monsters who would then follow the sinner around for eternity (unless they ate him first, in the case of the particularly sinful). Nelson accidentally extracts 7 deadly monsters from his own little soul. Ugly, cantankerous, smelly and often the cause of much embarrassment, Nelson's monsters are the last thing he needed in his life, but at least they're fairly harmless (he's a pretty good kid, on the whole). When he learns of their individual powers he realises the monsters can be put to good use, and together Nelson and the Deadly 7 set out on a quest across the globe to find and rescue his big sister. Somewhere along the way, Nelson realises that he finally has friends, even if they are smelly, lazy friends who like smashing stuff up.

About the Author :
Garth Jennings has directed many music videos and commercials as one third of the production company Hammer and Tongs. His work includes videos for Blur, Radiohead, Beck, Fatboy Slim and Vampire Weekend. He is the director of two feature films - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) and Son of Rambow (2007) for which he also wrote the screenplay. He is currently directing an animated feature for the studio that created Despicable Me.

Review :
Anarchic, original, hilarious fun. A zany page-turner. Packed with the sort of perilous adventure and icky humour that 9+ kids will love. Written with style and boundless imaginative power, and illustrated throughout by the author, The Deadly 7 are simply drop-dead fantastic! Garth’s debut children’s novel exudes so much confidence and bravura. . . Nelson’s seven monsters are inspired comic creations, and readers will thoroughly enjoy this nutty adventure. Garth Jennings has illustrated the book too and there are numerous black and white line illustrations to add to the appeal. He deserves credit too for the authorial voice, an omniscient narrator that brought to mind E. Nesbit for me. An uproarious romp, and though the Seven would deny it, the book has a heart too. The Deadly 7 is one of the cleverest and funniest middle grade books you will read this year. Highly imaginative and wonderfully told. Adventurous, imaginative and slightly bonkers (well, aren't all the best books), The Deadly 7 is as refreshing and funny as you'd expect from the guy who wrote and directed Son of Rambow. This has got to be one of the funniest books I have read, I found myself giggling the whole way through and didn’t really want the story to end. The Deadly 7 is a fantastic, action packed book that I would rate as a five star read. I loved the cover and illustrations inside the book, they really add to the story and help bring the monsters to life. Warm and funny with a high yuck factor.