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House of Secrets, #2: Battle of the Beasts

by Chris Columbus & Ned Vizzini

Greg Call, illustrator

Balzer + Bray       3/25/2014

978-0-06-219249-3

Age 8 to 12    480 pages

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“Since the siblings’ last adventure, life in the Walker household is much improved—the family is rich and the Wind Witch is banished! But no Walker will be safe until she is found, and summoning her to San Francisco brings all the danger that comes with her and puts the Walkers in the crosshairs of a mysterious journey through Denver Kristoff’s books. As the Walkers travel from ancient Rome to World War II to Tibet, they’ll be tested in ways that cut deeper than before, by Denver Kristoff, the Wind Witch, and each other.”

Opening

“Brendan Walker knew the package would be there by eight a. m. It had to be.”

The Story

Eleanor, Brenda, and Cordelia Walker return, but not ready to take on more novel-dictated adventures. Dr. Walker (dad) is secretly—and quickly—tossing away all the fortune Eleanor arranged for the family at the end of book 1. Despite defeating the Wind Witch and safely returning home to finding mom and dad alive, none of the kids is faring well. Then Denver Kristoff appears as Dr. Walker and kidnaps Eleanor, taking her to the Bohemian Club in downtown San Francisco. He really wants Cordelia, but she ran off. Soon Brendan and Will arrive and finally Cordelia. Thus begins their adventures with the Wind Witch.

The kids land, house and all, outside the Roman Coliseum, once again in the middle of a Denver Kristoff novel. Brendan envies Emperor Occipus, ruler of Rome, and stays to live—and die—as a powerful, greedy Roman Emperor-in-training. Cordelia, Eleanor, and World War I pilot Will leave without Brendan. The trio deal with three Denver Kristoff novel changes. They face robotic World War II Nazis, odd Himalayan mountain top monastery monks with a wild frozen beast to defeat, the Romans once again, and then the Wind Witch once more.

Off all the battles, that with the Wind Witch proves to be the most difficult. She may lead the kids home, but what she says in the process will shock them, mostly Cordelia, as they try to understand and accept their fates. Book 3 is the final installment of House of Secrets.

Review

I looked forward to Battle of the Beasts and torn into once it arrived. I was immediately put-off by Brendan’s attitude and that carried into the Rome story. He behaves like a spoiled, whiny, rich kid. Leaving him in Rome suited me fine. After that, the story picked up and began to zoom just as book 1 had from almost the beginning.

Not as many of the secondary characters stood out as they had in the first book. World War I pilot Will returned to San Francisco with the kids but then became homeless and lost. I do not understand the reasoning behind this and find this storyline unnecessary, especially considering how quickly Cordelia found Will (though the kids had looked for a year prior to the start of book 2). Will easily returned to his old self.

I enjoyed the gladiator Felix. Bravely he leaves Rome with the kids. This new strapping man is not the most educated and misunderstands much of the new worlds he encounters with the Walkers and Will. I wish Felix would have stayed, as Will did, ready to begin the final installment. There are many humorous moments and statements, and twists and turns to enjoy.   and loads of miscalculations by the Wind Witch, who can’t decide if she will kill the kids or if a relational endearment she feels, sI enjoyed them all.

spoiler

The strangest occurrence is not Emperor Occipus, robotic Nazis, frost beasts, odd monks, or anything else that occurs, except for one. The Wind Witch’s declaration to Cordelia that they are closely related—won’t say in what way—is the strangest, yet most logical twist. Cordelia found an old diary belonging to the Wind Witch’s mother. In it, she read more than she told the others I think she already knew but hearing it, straight from your . . . witch’s mouth, made this final and real.

That one statement explains the Walkers and their canny abilities to survive. The Wind Witch suffers many miscalculations and fights her own emotions. She wants the Walker kids dead, but her aims fail. Is it possible the relationship that exists causes an endearment toward the kids, which does not allow her to follow through? How this will play out in the final book I cannot imagine, but it should be one of the biggest sensations in middle grade novels when it does. Time will tell.

end of spoiler

The writing is great as it is in book one. I did notice a slight change, imperceptible but there, after the first half of the story. This made me wonder how much of Battle of the Beasts Ned Vizzini completed before his premature death. Something felt off, yet examples or proof elude me. I had to put the book down for a while and read something else. I enjoyed Battle of the Beasts, though not as much as the first book.

Kids who enjoyed House of Secrets, book 1 will enjoy Battle of the Beasts. The action is constant, once it begins, and the adventures unusual and varied, yet play on what seem to be the same field. None of the novels is located far from the others, or so it felt. There is nothing that will give kids nightmares, but the action is imaginative and often intense. Boys will probably like the robotic Nazis best. This group reminded me of the white soldiers in Star Wars. At 480 pages, Battle of the Beasts is a long read, making this a great book for advanced readers and those with long attention spans. Reluctant readers should stay away.

HOUSE OF SECRETS #2: BATTLE OF THE BEASTS. Text copyright © 2014 by
Ned Vizzini and Chris Columbus dba Novel Approach, LLC. Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Greg Call. Published 2014 by Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY.

Buy House of Secrets #2: Battle of the Beasts at Amazon—B&N—iTunes—Audible—HarperCollins—your local bookstore.

EXCERPT BOOK 2 BATTLE OF THE BEASTS

video is for House of Secrets, #1

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Got a treat for you kiddos today.  You may have seen that charming It’s Kind of a Funny Story movie trailer they’ve been showing in front of films these day.  You know.  This one:

Cute.

Anyway, this film is based on a teen novel by Ned Vizzini.  And Mr. Vizzini, believe it or not, once spoke on a Children’s Literary Salon panel in my library a year or so ago.  Recently I spoke with him about how his book become a movie, and since there’s a chapter in my upcoming Candlewick book about author cameos in screen adaptations I asked if Mr. Vizzini had one of his own.  He shared with me this story, and it’s just so darn good that I had to present it to you here today with his permission.  This is pretty cool, folks.  From Ned:

“When word got out that my book It’s Kind of a Funny Story was being turned into a film, people asked me, “Will you have a cameo?” This struck everybody as a good idea, but it worried me — ideally, I don’t want anyone to come to my books with a preconceived notion of what I look like. Picture this: a reader familiar with my work drags her/his friends to the opening night of It’s Kind of a Funny Story, the film based on my novel. In the middle of the film, my dumbass face appears. The reader recognizes me and grabs her/his friends: “That’s the author!” The friends (who couldn’t care less about me) think: “So this is the doofy white guy responsible for this stuff…” Now, what if these friends are Czech? Chilean? Kiwi? What if they’re 62? 17? 45? I’m a 29-year-old Italian-WASP from Brooklyn; it’s very specific. By staying hidden, I increase my chances of a reader empathizing with my characters without prejudging me. For this reason, I took a pass on the whole film cameo thing. However, when I saw a screening of It’s Kind of a Funny Story, I was pleasantly surprised to see that in place of me, one of my books has a cameo. My second book and first novel Be More Chill (2004) is featured in a scene being read by Craig Gilner, the main character, played by Keir Gilchrist. The directors, Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, put this “Easter egg” in the movie without telling me — I love it. Now, in my scenario, the fictional reader grabs her/his friends: “That’s the author’s other book!” And the friends know what to buy.

I did get to participate in It’s Kind of a Funny Story in two ways besides the Be More Chill Easter egg: One of the producers of the film, Ben Browning of Wayfare Entertainment, asked me in the middle of shooting, winter 2009, if I had a T-shirt with a band name on it that I could “clear” for him. He wanted a character in one scene to be wearing a band T-shirt but he didn’t want to bother the Pixies. I was happy to oblige. I had a shirt from a band I love, Drunk Horse, a San Fra

I don’t know how you like to wake up on your Sunday mornings, but I for one enjoy a rousing rendition of Bjork set to eerie stop animation.  Particularly if that animation involves Moomins.  This is quite possibly one of the odder openings I’ve ever placed on this blog.  To be fair, “comet” and “dammit” really are ideal rhymes.  Just not the kind of thing you’d expect to find in a music video for a children’s film.

As for the actual film itself, you can see a trailer for it here:

I bet you save a lot of money if you don’t have to worry about flapping jaws.  Dubbing’s easier too.  Here’s the actual website for the film.  Thanks to bookshelves of doom for the links.

If you’d like to get that song out of your ears (and, admittedly, I wouldn’t blame you), trade it in for this one.  It’s the booktrailer for Gordon Titcomb’s The Last Train and a catchier little melody you will not find today.

Let us now consider the state of the modern book trailer.  If you absolutely must have voiceover work done, consider doing so with professionals.  The difference is distinct.  Imagine how differently this video for Lesley M.M. Blume’s newest work Modern Fairies, Dwarves, Goblins, and Other Nasties would have felt if not for the singular vocal dynamics at work.

Now some actual movie movie trailers.  Were you guys aware that they turned Ned Vizzini’s It’s Kind of a Funny Story into a film?  This is a charming little trailer and not just because of the huge swath of cameos you can spot.  To my mind, the greatest challenge of any film set in a hospital is the poor lighting.  A good film makes you forget it.  A bad film fails.  This looks, and granted I’m just working on the trailer here, like a pretty good film.

Thanks to Abby (the) Librarian

Ed. Note: After Meg's relieved review of "Ramona and Beezus" earlier this week, I thought it would be interesting to hear a teen's initial response to an unexpected favorite read heading to the big screen. Below Ypulse Youth Advisory Board member... Read the rest of this post