Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing With Fire: Book two in the Skulduggery Pleasant series

Name: William Joseph
Price range: $

by Derek Landy

Interest age: 9+
Reading age: 10+

Published by HarperCollins Children's Books, 2008

Adventure
Coming-of-age
Fantasy
Funny
Ghost story
Horror
Myths and legends
Thriller

About this book

Skeletons, vampires, black magic, ancient gods, secret powers and a gruesome monster who is a distant relation of the one Frankenstein brought to life but far less friendly and much more dangerous...

If you still need encouragement to pick up this book and follow the adventures of Skulduggery Pleasant, skeleton detective, and his sidekick Valkyrie Cain as they try to stop the evil Baron Vengeous and save the world, the story is also very funny.

This witty and irreverent fantasy adventure has a ludicrous plot, unbelievable characters and will be loved by most 9-14 year olds.

Be warned though, some of the violence may be a little too graphic for younger readers.

About the author

Before writing his children's story about a sharply-dressed skeleton detective, Derek Landy wrote the screenplays for a zombie movie and a murderous thriller in which everybody dies.

As a black belt in Kenpo Karate he has taught countless children how to defend themselves, in the hopes of building his own private munchkin army. He firmly believes that they await his call to strike against his enemies (he doesn't actually have any enemies, but he's assuming they'll show up, sooner or later).

Derek lives on the outskirts of Dublin, and the reason he writes his own biography blurb is so that he can finally refer to himself in the third person without looking pompous or insane.