- Mass Market Paperback: 160 pages
- Publisher: Puffin USA (Mar 23 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0141306971
- ISBN-13: 978-0141306971
- Product Dimensions: 19.7 x 12.7 x 1.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 150 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #334,045 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From School Library Journal
Grade 4-6-- Professor Childermass and his young friends Johnny and Fergie are swept up in a madman's plot to rule the Earth in this latest addition to the series. Childermass stands to inherit his brother Peregrine's multimillion dollar estate, but only if he can stay on the estate all summer, plus interpret a cryptic rhyme. As usual, Bellairs salts the story with apparitions, vague warnings, deep forebodings, magic effects, tombs, corpses, and the like. The Bad Guy, Edmund Stallybrass, outwits Childermass and the boys at every turn, and finally locks them up in a burial vault and leaves them to die. Enter Crazy Annie, a local witch, who opens the vault, then in the climactic scene, confronts and kills Stallybrass in a wild play of spells and counterspells. Johnny, Fergie, and the professor don't have much to do here except rush about and explain to readers what's happening. The elements of plot and character are slapped together in an arbitrary, disjointed way that leaves plenty of unanswered questions and gaps in logic. A perfunctory outing from an author who has done much better in the past. --John Peters, New York Public Library
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
Professor Childermass's brother Peregrine has left behind a huge inheritance--a mansion, ten million dollars and a cryptic riddle that might save the world from a madman. The only catch is that the professor must stay on the estate up in Maine for the entire summer. Johnny Dixon and his friend Fergie decide to come along to keep the professor company but little do they know the dangerous magic that awaits them there. As they try to decode the strange rhyme in Peregrine's will, a powerful force is circling ever closer. Will they solve the mystery in time? Will the madman stay one step ahead of them? Who will help them save the world from destruction? This seventh book in the Johnny Dixon mystery series will have readers on the edge or their seats...or maybe hiding under the covers.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Johnny wasn't sure who or what it was that awoke him. Read the first page
Front Cover | Excerpt | Back Cover
Johnny wasn't sure who or what it was that awoke him. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Chessmen Of Doom (Mass Market Paperback)
The Chessmen of Doom was the best book I've ever read! If you like mystery books, get this, but don't read it at night.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Chessmen Of Doom,
By A Customer
This review is from: Chessmen Of Doom (Mass Market Paperback)
A dead eye....a room with a no view.... pallid dwarves on a board that is not true....What did Professor Childermass's eccentric brother mean by this mysterious riddle? And why has he left a will that says the professor must stay the entire summer on his ramshackle estate or lose the huge 10 million dollar inheritance.Anthony, a 13 year old blonde haired kid, and his two friends, Roderick Childermass,and Fergie, a tall red-head, join together to defeat Mr. Stallybrass to stop from destroying the world. At the old estate, Anthony finds himself sleeping one night in the estate when something is standing right next to him and says "You might be close to the clue of all time," Anthony ponders then finally dozes off to sleep. One day they meet up with a strange person and little dwarves fall out of his trench coat. But in the tower room they find a chessboard? What could that mean? The man Mr. Stallybrass has the power to destroy the world by using comets? How wil Anthony and his friends save the world form this wizard? Can a pin and a witch save them from the evil! I really liked this book, because it has a lot about mysterious things,and riddles that you can follow through the story. So I give it two thumbs up! So if you like riddles, mysterious, science-fiction books this one is right down your alley. So get down to your local bookstore and buy The Chessmen of Doom by John Bellairs!
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing .........,
By
This review is from: Chessmen Of Doom (Mass Market Paperback)
This is the second John Bellairs story I've purchased and read to my 8 and 10 year old kids and they disliked it even more than I did. In their words: "boring!". The characters aren't developed all that well, the story is uneven and the ending is anticlimatic. Rather than "being on the edge of our seats" we kept waiting for something of real interest to develop and once finished, we were more than happy to put this one behind us and move on to the latest Harry Potter book. Forgive me all you John Bellairs fans, but after reading two of his supposedly best books (this one and The House With The Clock In Its Walls) I think we'll try some other recommended authors.
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