Anyone But Ivy Pocket

Description

Ivy Pocket is a twelve-year-old maid with the natural instincts of a wartime Prime Minister. Or at the very least, a lighthouse keeper. For the princely sum of GBP500, Ivy has agreed to courier the Duchess of Trinity's most precious possession - the Clock Diamond - from Paris to England, and to put it around the neck of the revolting Matilda Butterfield on her twelfth birthday. Acquiring bosom friends and instant enemies as she goes, it's not long before Ivy finds herself at the heart of a conspiracy involving mischief, mayhem and murder. Illustrated in humorous gothic detail by John Kelly, Anyone But Ivy Pocket is just the beginning of one girl's deadly comic journey to discover who she really is ...

Caleb Krisp was raised by militant librarians who fed him a constant diet of nineteenth century literature and room-temperature porridge. He graduated from the University of Sufferance with a degree in Whimsy and set out to make his mark in the world as a writer. Years of toil and failure followed, until, following a brief stint working in a locked box, Caleb moved to an abandoned cottage deep in the woods and devoted himself to writing about the adventures of a twelve-year-old lady's maid of no importance. Caleb has a strong dislike of pastry chefs and certain domesticated rabbits. His only communication with the outside world is via morse code or kettle drum. He trusts no one.

A wonderfully entertaining heroine' * Financial Times * Exuberantly told with apt and wildly witty caricatures from John Kelly, it has a fun, original voice * Sunday Times * Praise from bloggers: "an exuberant, lively, enthusiastic, mysterious, playful, layered and most of all highly enjoyable read!" Children's Book Chat; "a delight; a laugh-out-loud cobweb of intrigue and mystery with a Dickensian feel, a dash of fantasy, and a heroine like no other" Space on the Bookshelf; "Funny, morbid and entertaining....a hilariously bizarre protagonist who will definitely make you laugh" The Bibliomanicac; "This story absolutely blew me away" * What Lexie Loves *