Rereading: PETER GRAVES by William Pène du Bois

Du Bois wrote a number of excellent fantasy novels/stories for young readers, this is my second favorite after “The 21 Balloons.” They are illustrated by him usually in black line with gray tones, as above.

Peter Graves is a teenage boy in the town of Houndstooth in a rural area of the eastern United States. As the story opens, he’s leading an ambitious and dangerous game of Follow the Leader for his gang, the Houndstooth Growlers. Peter leads them through a river, along the cables of a large suspension bridge, across a field containing a dangerous bull, and as his final destination, to the front door of the town’s most feared citizen, Houghton Furlong. Not one of the gang stays to this point, and Peter finds himself face to face with the strange old man, and invited into his house.

Furlong is an inventor, formerly employed by the US Government, and now retired to Houndstooth, where he continues his dangerous experiments. It’s a regular thing for Houghton to call the fire department to put out fires he’s started with his experiments, and he even has his own fire signal bell on his front lawn. At other times, strange noises and clouds of noxious gas emerge from the house. Despite his reputation, Peter is surprised to find Houghton quite friendly, and he’s soon being shown some of Furlong’s inventions. The most important one is Furloy, a metal with anti-gravity powers. Peter begins to think of interesting ways to use that, something Furlong hasn’t bothered to explore.

Then another accident happens, when Peter loses control of a ball containing Furloy that bounces higher than it was dropped. This sounds tame enough, but it’s a heavy ball, and before long it’s completely destroyed Houghton’s home. The inventor and the teenager then join forces with plans to put on shows using Furlong to raise money to rebuild the house and laboratory, but a sinister and resourceful figure is lurking nearby with intentions of stealing the amazing invention.

A great read, highly recommended.

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