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Johnny and the Dead (Johnny Maxwell #2)
The second hilarious fantasy novel about Johnny Maxwell from master storyteller Terry Pratchett.
Sell the cemetery?
Over their dead bodies.
Not many people can see the dead (not many would want to). Twelve-year-old Johnny Maxwell can. And he's got bad news for them: the council want to sell the cemetery as a building site. But the dead have learnt a thing or two from Johnny....more
Sell the cemetery?
Over their dead bodies.
Not many people can see the dead (not many would want to). Twelve-year-old Johnny Maxwell can. And he's got bad news for them: the council want to sell the cemetery as a building site. But the dead have learnt a thing or two from Johnny....more
Paperback, 240 pages
Published
August 17th 2010
by Corgi
(first published 1993)
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Of all the Terry Pratchett books I've read (and I've read them all, as far as I know) I was very surprised to see how much I enjoyed the books he'd written for children.
This is no book for very young readers, but my ten year old son read it and greatly enjoyed it. Terry's usual razor sharp satirical wit is toned down just enough to not baffle a young reader, but enough to keep an adult flipping the pages happily.
I loved the way he portrayed young Johnny's ability to comprehend the older generati...more
This is no book for very young readers, but my ten year old son read it and greatly enjoyed it. Terry's usual razor sharp satirical wit is toned down just enough to not baffle a young reader, but enough to keep an adult flipping the pages happily.
I loved the way he portrayed young Johnny's ability to comprehend the older generati...more
Review by Nerfreader for the audio version.
This second book in the Johnny Maxwell series hits the Halloween sweet spot. Terry Pratchett is a comedy master, and Johnny and the Dead has some really funny parts. The writing has tightened up a bit from Only You Can Save Mankind. The plot is smoother and the laughs louder. Luckily, Johnny and the Dead can stand on its own.
Johnny and his friends are the best part of these books. They're well developed and play off of one another with expert timing. I...more
This second book in the Johnny Maxwell series hits the Halloween sweet spot. Terry Pratchett is a comedy master, and Johnny and the Dead has some really funny parts. The writing has tightened up a bit from Only You Can Save Mankind. The plot is smoother and the laughs louder. Luckily, Johnny and the Dead can stand on its own.
Johnny and his friends are the best part of these books. They're well developed and play off of one another with expert timing. I...more
Of course, I've read the Johnny Maxwell books in the wrong order, starting (correctly) with Only YOU Can Save Mankind (which I liked) but then going on to #3 in the series, Johnny and the Bomb (which I thought was absolutely splendid). My opinion of Johnny and the Dead falls roughly midway between. Johnny has developed the ability (as would the kid in M. Knight Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense a few years later) to "see dead people" -- notably those in the local cemetery which the council wants to se...more
May 16, 2009
Patrick
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
junior-fiction-elementary-age,
young-adult
Great story! It features Johnny Maxwell from Only You Can Save Mankind, and you have a more complete picture of the characters, especially his 3 friends if you've read that one first, but it is basically unrelated plotwise. Well, same clever themes, but different storyline.
This one is better. Despite the cover, the book is not meant to be creepy at all. It is actually kind of a sweet book, though the criticism of modern-day uncaring society is a tad heavy-handed, and deals with Johnny trying to...more
This one is better. Despite the cover, the book is not meant to be creepy at all. It is actually kind of a sweet book, though the criticism of modern-day uncaring society is a tad heavy-handed, and deals with Johnny trying to...more
I liked this one a lot better than the first, which I found a bit meh, though interesting in parts. Maybe it's just me, though - give me a choice between aliens and ghosts, and I'll pick ghosts every time. :>
This one, though, seemed to have more humor, and I was glad to see more of Johnny's friends, who seemed more surface in the first book but more relevant in this one, though it's still very much Johnny's story.
And I really liked the different, um, living challenged, especially William Stic...more
This one, though, seemed to have more humor, and I was glad to see more of Johnny's friends, who seemed more surface in the first book but more relevant in this one, though it's still very much Johnny's story.
And I really liked the different, um, living challenged, especially William Stic...more
Johnny Maxwell can see the dead. Perhaps because he's just too lazy not to, perhaps because he's missing something that keeps everyone else from seeing them. The why isn't what this story's about. This otherwise normal young man from a city very like many others--worn out, dying, infested with bad neighborhoods and recession-stricken strip malls--finds himself the voice of the dead as he tries to keep a huge company from tearing down the local cemetary for high rises.
As a long-time Terry Pratche...more
As a long-time Terry Pratche...more
Reminiscent of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, this book also takes place mostly in a graveyard -- one that is threatened with removal after being practically given away to a big developer. Johnny begins to see and hear the "residents" who demand that he do something to save their home. In the process of doing research about the people there buried, he discovers that a group of men had all gone off in the same regiment (Pals' Battalion) to WWI and only one, Tommy Atkins, survives the first com...more
Very fun book sort of Beettle Juice (without the highly stylized after life as presented by Tim Burton) mixed with Stand By Me. The dead are treated as persons and are not gruesome in the least. The plot centers around a little boy confronted with the challenge of standing up to adults and bureaucracy for something he believes in and the dead who learn there's still something of life left in them.
Very entertain with humor and the oddly philosophical notes Sir Pratchett manages to bring to all hi...more
Very entertain with humor and the oddly philosophical notes Sir Pratchett manages to bring to all hi...more
I loved this book! I know, I know, I love most everything that Terry Pratchett writes...but this one will open up a great opportunity for discussion with your children about death and your beliefs...as well as opening discussions on "fighting city hall."
Semi-spoiler alert...here are some of my favorite quotes from this book...
"It all balances, you see. The living have to remember, the dead have to forget."
"You've heard of a train of thought...this is a flight of imagination!"
"Johnny blinked. And...more
Semi-spoiler alert...here are some of my favorite quotes from this book...
"It all balances, you see. The living have to remember, the dead have to forget."
"You've heard of a train of thought...this is a flight of imagination!"
"Johnny blinked. And...more
The thing I liked best about this book is just how prosaic and small the whole conflict was. There is nothing earth-shattering, nothing of national import, nothing even that would impact anyone too much in the same town. Not only is Johnny an ordinary fellow, but the conflict of the book has no real importance to anyone but Johnny and some dead people. Yet the story is interesting and engaging. And the resolution is both unpredictable and ironic. I was dissappointed only by the fact that the sem...more
First of all, just let me say i'm a huge fan of everything that this guy writes!
His books are always funny and you just can't help yourself laughing out loud.
So when I got this at the bookstore in Amsterdam Amstel on my way home, I really thought that this would be a great, fun story to read! And really it WAS!
Johnny Maxwell isn't afraid of ghosts, well yeah..first he thinks he's going out of this mind..I mean talking to dead persons, how many people do you know that does that?? But after a whil...more
His books are always funny and you just can't help yourself laughing out loud.
So when I got this at the bookstore in Amsterdam Amstel on my way home, I really thought that this would be a great, fun story to read! And really it WAS!
Johnny Maxwell isn't afraid of ghosts, well yeah..first he thinks he's going out of this mind..I mean talking to dead persons, how many people do you know that does that?? But after a whil...more
I'm beginning to understand the point of the Johnny Maxwell books. There are bits of wisdom here, about life, death, and what cemeteries are really for. Bits of wisdom that most people may not develop until later in life, but here they are broken down and distilled into a format that's accessible to a younger audience. I thought the "ghosts" were a bit silly at first, especially considering Pratchett's well known stance on the supernatural, but it soon fell in line with a Discworld-esque after-l...more
Mar 12, 2010
Kirsten
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
childrens-literature,
fiction
"Granddad was superstitious about books. He thought that if you had enough of them around, education leaked out, like radioactivity."
Terry Pratchett has a wonderful way of saying things not unlike Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and other witty, comical British authors. His interaction with his characters usually leans toward the satirical without being entirely unkind.
"Mrs. Nugent was the Johnson's next door neighbour, and known to be unreasonable on subjects like Madonna p...more
Terry Pratchett has a wonderful way of saying things not unlike Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and other witty, comical British authors. His interaction with his characters usually leans toward the satirical without being entirely unkind.
"Mrs. Nugent was the Johnson's next door neighbour, and known to be unreasonable on subjects like Madonna p...more
Feb 05, 2009
Ryan Mishap
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
young-adult-fantasy
The second book in the Johnny Maxwell trilogy finds the local graveyard under threat from a big corporation. The dead inhabitants of the place ask Johnny to help them stop the destruction of their final resting place. As Johnny agrees to help, he causes the dead (ghosts? that offends them when called such) to behave in ways they hadn’t thought they could. So funny and delightful that the reader hardly notices all the positive messages being learned. Another great YA book from our hero.
Johnny and the Dead is the second book in the Terry Pratchett's series involving Johnny Maxwell, a kid who sees things a little differently. In this story that's particularly true, as Johnny begins seeing the dead people in the cemetery near his home. He soon learns that the city has plans to shut down the cemetery and turn it into some kind of commercial development -- I don't remember exactly what.
Johnny ends up being the advocate for the dead to keep their cemetery intact, and he learns a lot...more
Johnny ends up being the advocate for the dead to keep their cemetery intact, and he learns a lot...more
I really appreciated this Terry Pratchett book much more than the first Johnny one. It is a cute and fun story, easy to read and easy to finish. Johnny gets into the cementery and suddenly he's seeing dead people and is able to talk to them. Here's the catch though, the cementery is being knocked down in a few days to make way for an office complex. With their new found outside friend, the dead learn this and decide that they won't stand for it. Johnny starts to help them out as they try to save...more
Johnny sees dead people! He begins communicating with the inhabitants of the Blackbury Cemetery, which is about to be razed and built upon by a faceless corporation that does...whatever it does. It's no The Graveyard Book; the dead bear some resemblance to the ghosts in that book, but that's probably because Gaiman and Pratchett clearly share similar senses of humor when it comes to the talking dead.
A fun Pratchett book about a boy who can see the dead and tries to save their resting place from an evil corporation that bought it for pennies (or pences, as the case may be). Some of the best lines come during a town hall meeting about the construction, when, rather than argue a particular point, Johnny instead flat out asks if anything any of them will say could change the course they've obviously already decided on. Smart kid.
Though technically a children's book (or young adult, I suppose), there's nothing childish about it. A very poignant little story about what it means to be dead and what the dead mean to the living. All the Johnny Maxwell books are worth a read (hell, all Prachett's books are), but this one strikes a special chord with me. It feels very true to life, even as it deals with supernatural elements. Great book.
This one was even better than Only You Can Save Mankind, deeper and more meaningful. Pratchett explores our relationship to the dead and to the past. I was extremely touched at the death of Tommy Atkins, but then there's something about the first World War that always tugs at my heart. I think this one was also funnier than the first, with more laugh-out-loud lines. Highly recommended.
I loved this book. Well I love Terry Pratchett so there you go. I loved listening to the narrator, the voices were so defined. It give the story an extra dimension. Great book to listen to when you're just toiling around the house, which is what I did; I listened to it while doing lawn work, it really helped with that endless chore.
This might be my favorite book of the series. I love that Johnny can see the dead mostly because he doesn't realize he's not supposed to. Terry Pratchett does good YA fiction because he treats young adults like regular people. He doesn't take an adult story and simplify it for younger readers, he just tells a story that young adults would like just as much as their parents.
My first ever Terry Pratchett book! I read this when I was seven and I was totally hooked on Terry after that. He is great Author. Its kind of confusing though because different sources out the series in different orders. This site puts "only you can save mankind" first but the site used put this book first.
Pratchett can do no wrong. This may be targeted for kids, but I still read it. I really appreciate how he can put another perspective on fantastical subjects, like my reaction here was "how come I didn't imagine it that way?" Hopefully I can come across the other Johnny books at the secondhand bookshop and finish this series.
Though this is the second in the Johnny Maxwell series, it reads well as a stand-alone story. A quick read, it is a good YA in-between novel. Though the subject is sort of dark, Terry Pratchett keeps it light and enjoyable. There are even several good lesson quotes for all ages.
this is mildly below the average of Discworld series yet it is better than most fantasy/dark-humor content. it is a nice plot. However, it makes you fuzzy inside while giving a faint tingling in the neck whereas Discworld books tear your reality apart and leave you shattered.
My regrets for being introduced to Terry Pratchett works so late. It doesn't matter if this work meant for YA and I don't mind to have read it though it could make others think 'Oh!common let's move up'
This work is not about superstitious sort of thingy but its about courages, public morale, freedom fights all done by YA Johnny and his friends.
This work is not about superstitious sort of thingy but its about courages, public morale, freedom fights all done by YA Johnny and his friends.
I probably should remove a star for the ending which was, well, rather dead. Nevertheless, I am always charmed by Terry Pratchett. Gaiman's The Graveyard Book was better for story, but this had a little more thinking, more reality leaking out, between the lines.
One day Johnny discovers he can see- and talk to- the dead.
I really enjoyed this sequel, perhaps a bit more than the first. The way Pratchett deals with dead people is not macabre or scary: they are just people, with personalities and quirks.
I really enjoyed this sequel, perhaps a bit more than the first. The way Pratchett deals with dead people is not macabre or scary: they are just people, with personalities and quirks.
As light easy read. No shocks or surprises. Well written and humorous with a solid conclusion. He avoids well-worn plots and leads the story in a very original direction. It is not difficult to understand why Terry Pratchett is so popular.
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Sir Terry Pratchett sold his first story when he was thirteen, which earned him enough money to buy a second-hand typewriter. His first novel, a humorous fantasy entitled The Carpet People, appeared in 1971 from the publisher Colin Smythe. Terry worked for many years as a journalist and press officer, writing in his spare time and publishing a number of novels, including his first Discworld novel,...more
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“I think it's IMPOSSIBLE for anyone famous to come from here, because everyone around here is insane.”
—
23 people liked it
“Look, this is just the cemetery. It's got bylaws and things! It's not Transylvania! There's just dead people here! That doesn't make it scary, does it? Dead people are people who were living once! You wouldn't be so worked up if there were living people buried here, would you?”
—
4 people liked it
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