City of Secrets
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Read the graphic novel that Caldecott medal-winning illustrator, Dan Santat, calls, "An edge-of-your-seat thriller!"
Ever Barnes is a shy orphan guarding a secret in an amazing puzzle box of a building.
Most of the young women who work at the building's Switchboard Operating Facility, which connects the whole city of Oskar, look the other way as Ever roams around in the shadows. But one of them, Lisa, keeps an eye on the boy. So does the head of the Switchboard, Madame Alexander . . . a rather sharp eye.
Enter Hannah, the spunky daughter of the building's owner. She thinks Ever needs a friend, even if he doesn't know it yet.
Good thing she does!
Lisa and Madame Alexander are each clearly up to something.
Ever is beset by a menacing band of rogues looking to unlock the secret he holds--at any cost.
And whatever is hidden deep in the Switchboard building will determine all of their futures.
On a journey that twists and turns as much as the mechanical building Ever Barnes calls home, he and his new friend Hannah have to find out what's really going on in this mysterious city of secrets . . . or else!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Four years before this graphic novel's start, Ever Barnes was orphaned, and he inherited the secret his father guarded before him: a safe that holds a dangerous weapon. Living alone in the six-leveled Grand Capital City of Oskars, Ever, now 12, spends most of his days hiding from the switchboard operators and using a complicated system of levers to manipulate the facility's moving features to protect its workers and guard the safe. When Hannah, privileged daughter of the building's owner, catches wind of Ever, her excitement at Ever's "freedom" lures her from the responsibilities of becoming a lady. The two begin a rollicking journey that develops into a close bond as they explore the tantalizing secrets underlying their fantasy steampunk world. Though overlarge speech balloons can detract, Ying's flowing illustrations feature billowy, thin lines and a strong sense of motion that energize the Hugo Cabret tinged story. Alongside the characters' evolving motivations and found family tropes, moments of peril become increasingly visceral, accentuating emotional beats of loss and realization. Ages 8 12.
