Alex and the Ironic Gentleman

Alex and the Ironic Gentleman #1

by Adrienne Kress

When pirates kidnap ten-and-a-half-year-old Alex Morningside's beloved new teacher, Mr. Underwood, Alex sets off on a journey to rescue him, along the way encountering a steady stream of hilarious and colorful characters.

Genres: Fantasy, Middle Grade, Adventure, Young Adult, Fiction, Pirates, Childrens

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Adrienne Kress is a Toronto born actor and author who loves to play make-believe. She also loves hot chocolate. And cheese. Not necessarily together.

2016 saw the release of HATTER MADIGAN: Ghost in the H.A.T.B.O.X., an exciting collaboration with NY Times bestselling author Frank Beddor (set in the same world as his Looking Glass Wars YA books). And April 2017 she releases the first book in her new Middle Grade series: THE EXPLORERS - The Door in the Alley (Delacorte, Random House).

October 2016 her essay appeared alongside work by the likes of Margaret Atwood and Mariko Tamaki in the non-fiction anthology THE SECRET LOVES OF GEEK GIRLS (Dark Horse).

She is also the author of two other children's novels: ALEX AND THE IRONIC GENTLEMAN and TIMOTHY AND THE DRAGON'S GATE (Scholastic). And also the YA novels, THE FRIDAY SOCIETY (Steampunk Adventure from Dial Penguin, 2012) and OUTCAST (a quirky YA paranormal romance from Diversion Books, 2013).


Some more info about Adrienne: she is a theatre graduate of the Univeristy of Toronto and London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in the UK. Published around the world, ALEX was featured in the New York Post as a "Post Potter Pick," as well as on the CBS early show. It won the Heart of Hawick Children's Book Award in the UK and was nominated for the Red Cedar. The sequel, TIMOTHY, was nominated for the Audie, Red Cedar and Manitoba Young Readers Choice Awards, and was recently optioned for film. THE FRIDAY SOCIETY was nominated for a Quill Award, and has been optioned for television.

Oh, and the German title for ALEX is:
DIE HALSUBERKOPFUNDKRAGENDRAMATISCHABENTEUERLICHE KATASTROPHENEXPEDITION DER ALEX MORNINGSIDE.

No.

Seriously.

Find her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AdrienneKress

On Instagram:
https://instagram.com/AdrienneKress

And on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Adrien...

Reviews

[Nikoleta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Είναι πολύ παιδικό και αυτό με αποθάρρυνε από το να το απολαύσω περισσότερο. Όχι ότι δεν διαβάζω παιδικά μυθιστορήματα (τα αγαπώ), αλλά δυσκολεύτηκα να συνηθίσω την αφήγηση, είναι πολύ γούτσου γούτσου με πολλές περιγραφές, που επαναλαμβάνονται και οι οποίες είναι κατάλληλες για πολύ μικρότερες ηλικίες. Το ίδιο πιστεύω και για τους ήρωες, οι οποίοι έχουν υπερβολικά χαρακτηριστικά. Στα συν, η κινηματογραφική ροη και η ατμόσφαιρα που δημιουργεί μια αίσθηση μαγείας… Το προτείνω σε παιδιά 8-10 ετών (ίσως και μικρότερης ηλικίας) και μόνο.

[J.M. Frey · Rating 5 out of 5]

You might be forgiven for thinking that Alex Morningside was a boy. For one thing, she wasn't. And for another thing, she didn't mind. This was because she had an Excellent Sense of Humour. And after all, it doesn't matter if you're a boy or a girl, because everyone is just People.

Adrienne Kress delights with her first foray into fiction, providing a compelling and entertaining adventure story in which our heroine, Alex, must risk even trains, egotistical octopi, abandoned hotels, and extremely polite pirates in order to rescue her sixth grade teacher, Mr. Underwood from the intimidating Captain Steele. Along the way she meets a very cranky cat, learns about the secret of the Wigpowder Treasure, and has many exciting adventures.

Kress is deft with wordplay and witticisms, and while set firmly within the middle grade oeuvre, it is clever enough to keep adults entertained as well. Kress' power lies in her vast imagination and her ability to create a story that is just as absurd and fantastical as anything that a child might tell, while still providing great moral lessons about respect, trust, and believing in oneself. It is also a fantastic send up of common middle grade adventure story tropes - for instance, it is common for absentee parents to exist in MG books, but Alex's are gone because they died while spelunking in Iceland!

Kress also provides an important lesson for her female fans - that just because you're a girl doesn't mean you can't buckle swashes with the boys.

Alex is an intelligent, capable, and clever heroine who would appeal to readers of any sort, and any age. The book has great forward momentum, and is nicely divided to make for perfect reading-at-bedtime or reading-before-recess chapters.

The worldbuilding is up there with Rowling's, and the language is lovely and fun.

I can't think of a better story for classrooms. A teacher friend has three copies she lends to students and she can't keep the things on the shelf.

Adrienne Kress is not only a delightful writer, but an entertaining, witty, energetic and intelligent speaker with professional theatre training. I have had the good fortune of watching her at work with children in writing and storytelling workshops and I can say that there is no better author to have for a school visit or to appear at your conference, convention, or festival.
Adrienne honestly and genuinely cares about sharing stories and the magic of storytelling with her audiences, and her swashbuckling workshops for kids is an utter hoot. I look forward to her forthcoming books eagerly.

The sequel book, TIMOTHY AND THE DRAGON'S GATE, is also stunning and fun and a great story about learning to take responsibility for oneself and the importance of cultural tolerance.

[Keli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had me hooked from the title. And it is indeed ironic, droll and, at times, frightening. Ten year old Alex (who is a girl though she's often mistaken for a boy)finds a treasure map and must save her sixth grade teacher from pirates and help him find the buried treasure that is his birthright. What ensues is a surreal journey, much in the style of Lewis Carrol, complete with kindly inn keepers, a train to nowhere and a musical number with jazz hands. Yes, I did say a jazz hands. With her theater backgroud, Kress brings in a lot of unusual literary elements. And it's clear that she's worked a lot with the eleven year old age group. The motivations and thought processes of the protagonist ring true. The surrealism and dry humor is sure to appeal to this age group. Some of the situations are too scary for younger readers, especially the train to nowhere with a dangerous agenda. However, this book might be a good choice for older readers who are a bit below thier reading level.

[Maria Papadaki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Μα τι γλυκό βιβλίο είναι αυτό! Η συγγραφέας έχει γράψει μια περιπέτεια με πειρατές, κρυμμένους θυσαυρούς, τρελές γεροντοκόρες και τεράστια χταπόδια
χωρίς να σε κουράζει καθόλου.
Ένα εντεκάχρονο κορίτσι ξεκινάει να σώσει τον αγαπημένο της δάσκαλο που τον έχουν απαγάγει αδίστακτοι πειρατές που το όνομα του πλοίου τους είναι "ειρωνικός τζέντλεμαν". Θα περάσει πολλά, θα δοκιμαστεί αρκετές φορές αλλά θα αντιμετωπίσει και μαγευτικές καταστάσεις. Σε κάθε σελίδα του νιώθεις, απο τον τρόπο της γραφής του, οτι η συγγραφέας στο αφηγείται εκείνη την ώρα και αυτό δίνει στο βιβλίο μια υπέροχη πινελιά.

[Sina & Ilona Glimmerfee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Der Schreibstil an diesem Buch ist besonders, denn des Erzähler des Romanes spricht zwischendurch den Leser direkt an. Dadurch hat es etwas märchenhaftes, als wenn euch jemand mitnimmt in ein seltsames Märchen. Irgendwie lies mich der Erzählstil durch die Seiten fliegen und die Beschreibungen beamen an einen in den Ort des Geschehens.
Die Story hatte etwas von einem Point&Click Adventure, die ich als Kind gerne spielte, im besten Fall und im schlechtesten erinnerte es mich an Alice im Wunderland, als sei hier ein Schaulaufen des Seltsamen. Ob es ein Mann ohne Augen, Hände, Ohren und Nase ist, ein Zug der Seelenlosen, eine gefährliche Gang alter Frauen oder ein schauspielernder Kraken, der nicht mehr nur als Monster in Horrorfilmen auftauchen will. Das war mir oft zu viel des Guten. Mal habe ich mich mit einer Situation wohlgefühlt, oft fand ich es zu überzogen und dann war meine Logik verwirrt. Ganz klar, dieses Buch war zu kreativ für mich.
Die Atmosphäre des Buches hat mich auch durcheinandergebracht. Das Märchenhafte von vergangenen Zeiten lullte mich ein, um dann durch Filmsets und Mobiltelefone erschüttert zu werden. Auch das es in unserer modernen Welt spielt, die Filmproduktionen sogar verstärkt auf CGI setzen und dann doch Magie und das Unglaubliche existieren, hat mich verwirrt und minderte den Lesespaß. Wahrscheinlich ist es ein Buch in das man sich reinfallen lassen muss, statt zu denken und das fällt mir immer extrem schwer.
Für mich war alles zu unausgewogen und daher ging der Mix für mich nicht auf. Ich denke aber, dass es ein gutes Buch für jemanden sein kann, der kreative Kinderbücher liebt.

[C.J. Milbrandt · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quirky adventure of the punny, tongue-in-cheek, intentionally (and intensively) whimsical sort. It took a while to get used to Kress's narrative style, which dictates and doubles back on itself in droll ways. This would likely make this a fun read-aloud book.

[Nenangs · Rating 2 out of 5]

pinjaman dari nenny :)

sesungguhnya buku ini bisa mengasyikkan kalau saja saya tidak sangat terganggu dengan hal2 berikut:

1. jamannya membingungkan
buku ini latar setting waktunya nggak jelas. dari awal sudah terasa, ada yang aneh dengan kombinasi teknologi pada cerita ini. detil yang paling bikin terperangah adalah pada saat diceritakan penulis di kapal bajak laut itu menggunakan laptop. ya. laptop. apa yang aneh dengan laptop? well...saya yakin seyakin2nya, pada saat manusia membuat laptop, teknologi yang bernama senapan mesin, kapal besi bermesin, radar, dan bermacam remeh temeh lainnya sudah jauh lebih dulu ditemukan. jadi, pada saat imajinasi romantis saya dimanjakan oleh cerita berlayar memburu bajak laut dengan kapal layar kayu, bajak laut bersenjatakan pedang, golok, tombak, trisula, halberd, & pistol pletok (yang maksimum cuma berisi 2 peluru), pertarungan pedang baik satu lawan satu ataupun keroyokan, semua jadi nggak match ketika saya teringat bahwa pada saat itu sudah ada laptop...damn!

2. kebanyakan detil ngga perlu
karena emang ngga penting, saya ngga inget apa aja detil2 yg saya maksud. yang pasti saya sering banget mikir "bagian cerita ini apa hubungannya sama kisah utamanya yah..", atau "eh, bagian ini kok ngga penting banget sih..." dsb.

3. unexplained things
yg ini terutama berkaitan sama para nenek perkumpulan putri blablabla yg dipimpin seorang poppy. entah bagaimana, ni kumpulan nenek2 ngga asik bisa ngikutin kemanapun si alex pergi. seolah2 punya homing device yg nempel ke alex & melakukan pelacakan lewat satelit. mengingat kebingungan teknologi pada no 1 diatas, yah jadi mungkin2 aja. trus hebatnya lagi, mereka ditangkap sedang mendayung kapal, setelah mencuri harta karun (yg banyaknya 5-6 peti besar) dari tangan para bajak laut. bagaimana caranya? ngga sempet diceritakan. pokoknya bisa. bayangkan gerombolan nenek2 5 orang, okey, salah satu dari mereka ridiculously strong, tapi teuteup aja nenek2 & sisanya ngga diceritain punya kelebihan apa gitu.
some things can be accepted without too much explanation. unfortunately, this book had too many things that need explanation.

enjoyable yet annoying book.

[Linden · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a hard book to characterize for a couple of reasons. But, well, let me try.

The story has all the characteristics of a straight-forward adventure, set in the times of piracy and swordplay, about a girl (Alex) who attends a less-than inspiring private school, the Wigpowder-Steele Academy. The WSA is also the likely site of clues which will lead to a long-buried treasure. All the right ingredients.

Yet the author occasionally abandons her established context rather jarringly: the times of piracy also include cameras, refrigerators and radios; there is a section of pure fantasy on a train which begins and ends rather abruptly; and there is an Extremely Ginormous Octopus who fares very well as an ambulatory landlubber.

Kress ably gives the reader humor of all sorts: sometimes in wonderfully evil old ladies, sometimes in the names of characters and towns (Captain Magnanimous is a pirate, and Port Cullis is a town), and sometimes in how she indicates dialogue (see page 18 for example).

I'm not sure quite what prevents me from loving this exuberantly written story. In a way it reminds me of the way some children make friends. They offer every aspect of themselves fully and without stint, almost without regard for the audience they are hoping to woo. I don't know. I'll bet the author will turn out to be a fine wine after a bit.

Genres: Adventure, fantasy, humor

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

My daughter read this with her dad, then asked me to read it to her so I would know what it was about. There was a lot to like about the book, particularly the voice of the intrusive narrator and the character of Alex. I felt, though, that Kress wasn't that familiar with genre conventions, for she mixed elements from lighthearted adventure, spooky/creepy fantasy (a la Neil Gaiman/CORALINE), horror, and realism together without regard for the way that these different genres set different expectations for their readers. I like it when authors break conventions, but only when they KNOW they are breaking them, and are breaking them for a reason. In this book, it just felt like Kress didn't know any better, didn't know how one genre's conventions are often at odds with another's...

The peripatetic plot also left me confused -- the opening so clearly promises a pirate adventure story, but doesn't deliver it until the final quarter of the book. In between Alex slips into fantasy spaces -- a train where people gradually disappear, a movie set with a talking star octopus, a hotel with no guests -- each fascinating, but with no real connection to the main pirate plot.

An author worth watching...

[Lydia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Timothy is not every one's favorite son. In fact, he is downright obnoxious, especially since his standard response to any statement is "Whatever." But Timothy finds that life, after being expelled from every school in his area, may demand more of him than he, or his parents, could ever have expected. Especially when those demands involve believing in dragons, pirates, and that what you do and commit to, can actually make a difference.

Kress has constructed an intricately involved plot with colorful, exciting and engaging characters. This is THE perfect book if you have young people who like to be read to at night. The chapters are short and purposeful, with action and excitement. There is no fear of inducing bad dreams, but may result in dreams of an expanding mind.

Unfortunately, I read Timothy's version first (can you believe I found this book in the discount bin at my grocery store??) but I am ordering Alex's tale right now!

I highly recommend this book. It's even better if you find it in your local grocery store bin. Don't worry! We can still support the author by reading, reviewing and checking out her future work!

[April]

I was enjoying this story up until all the adults were shown to be really bad caricatures of actual people. They weren't realistic at all. A pack of evil grannies holding a 10 year old hostage during their relaxing stolen wine afternoon for hours in a closed museum? A modern police detective more interested in creating forms with ridiculous questions (Is your name Peter? If no fill in the word avocado and skip to question 3.) and asking other ridiculous questions than actually detecting. A police officer who aids a now parent-less 10 year old in escaping the police station (and the idiot detective)and running off to the train station to travel to another city in search of pirates.

Yes, yes, it is fantasy, I know that. But, fantasy stories should have fantastic elements and realistic characters. Well, the ones I tend to favor do.

So, while the main character was charming and the story itself was rather interesting, the sense of the ridiculous with regards to the adults in the story curtailed my enjoyment.

[Harold Ogle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book felt quite strongly like a reaction to "A Series of Unfortunate Events." It has the same surreal quality of cavalier attitudes about danger to children, anachronistic settings/people/situations, and a chattily verbose narrator who likes to pontificate about vocabulary. Both are a bit like Mr. Rogers retelling the movie "Se7en" to children.

The book is mostly fun, with the protagonist Alex traipsing merrily from one adventure to the next, all in search of her 6th grade teacher who has been kidnapped by pirates. She's amusingly pursued by a gaggle of octogenarian museum docents, resembling little so much as vindictive zombies. One imagines that Kress had one or more traumatic experiences caring for elderly relatives in her life, as so much detail is given to the horror of the old women's slimy cold touch, bad teeth, bulging eyes, and so forth. Similarly, Alex's attention to the alcoholic and how he behaves indicates a certain sensitivity to abuse at the hand of addicts. Neither Alex nor the narrator notices or comments on anyone else's behavior to the extent that she immediately notices how Coriander's drinking turns him mean and maudlin.

Unlike "A Series of Unfortunate Events," Alex and the Ironic Gentleman is extremely episodic...or perhaps you could say that they are similar in that respect, if only "A Series of Unfortunate Events" was condensed down into one book. I found it hard going, reading this comparatively short book, because there was little narrative impetus to move me as the reader forward from one place to the next. At several times in the book, I was reminded of Voltaire's Candide in this regard, or even Pilgrim's Progress. The succession of settings and characters was random and nonsensical; each was not at all connected to the one before it or the one after it. This is a minor issue for me, but it did strike me as unusual in the extreme: most children's adventure books like this one don't follow such dream-like logic. It diminished what was otherwise quite an enjoyable read.

Detailed summary here:
Alex starts out, living in a doorknob shop built into a bridge in a large cosmopolitan city. The tone and imagery is of Dickens' London, though clues throughout show us that it is actually modern day. Alex is blonde, small, and often mistaken for a boy. She doesn't get along with her peers and instead enjoys the company of her uncle, the geriatric doorknob merchant. Her uncle is on the school board for a prestigious school for rich kids - the Wigpowder-Steele Academy, so Alex gets to attend as well, even though they could never afford the tuition. There, starting sixth grade, she finds that the crone whom she was expecting to have teach her has been replaced by the affably daffy Mr. Underwood (a film adaptation would have him played by a young Hugh Grant or Colin Firth), who takes an immediate liking to Alex. They hit it off so well, in fact, that he begins to rely on her to help teach fencing to the rest of the class - a sport for which she has natural aptitude. Then when he is thrown out of his apartment, Mr. Underwood ends up becoming a lodger at the doorknob shop. There, he reveals his dark secret: he is actually the descendant of Captain Wigpowder, who with Captain Steele, amassed a gargantuan fortune through piracy hundreds of years earlier. Wigpowder used his portion of the treasure to found the Academy. He then hid the rest of the treasure and willed that it should be inherited by his son(s). But his second wife was greedy and kept the location of the treasure a secret, never releasing the map to the Wigpowder juniors. Steele squandered his fortune, and he and his descendants have been searching for the Wigpowder map ever since. Mr. Underwood is the last living male descendant of Captain Wigpowder, and he fears that the Steele gang is after him, even though he has no knowledge about the map. Alex goes off to investigate the Wigpowder Mansion (which has been turned into a museum) for clues. While there, she aggravates a group of ancient women who are the docents of the museum. Though she finds the map, she is caught by the docents. They detain her for breaking the rules (she crossed the velvet rope!) and visit a long series of devious punishments on her. She manages to escape their clutches, barely, and makes it back to the shop, only to find that Mr. Underwood has been kidnapped and her uncle killed by pirates looking for the map. She's left with nothing but Mr. Underwood's bicycle and the map. She determines that she must find Mr. Underwood to give him his birthright.

The next vignette is at the police station, where she undergoes another unpleasant interrogation before escaping. Now a fugitive, she bikes away to the train station to go to Port Cullis, the coastal city where
she hopes to learn more about where the pirates have gone.

The next episode starts with her at the train station, trying to get aboard the train for Port Cullis. An old man with a mop warns her not to board the first train, but she does. It's filled with pod people, who are vacant for one of two reasons: they've been drained of their souls by the evil mastermind aboard the train, or they've been imbibing the souls of others with the help of the evil mastermind. There is one other she meets: the cat, Giggles. The train seems to be in a time loop, and moves eternally round and round the line, without ever arriving anywhere. Alex endures several frenzied dinner parties in the dining car, followed by frenetic dancing with a live orchestra, followed by a few minutes' respite, then the whole sequence is repeated...though every time it is repeated, there is one less guest (because his/her soul has been drained). Alex escapes his clutches and, with Giggles' help, tricks him into being suffocated to death by the soulless zombies he's created. Then she restores their souls to the zombies and exits the train with Giggles stuffed into her backpack.

The next episode finds her and Giggles in the depths of the forest, far from civilization. She follows a string of overheard obscenities to find a film production. The director is furious, because his star, the Extremely Ginormous Octopus (a veiled reference to early monster movies, particularly "It Came from Beneath the Sea"), is busy demolishing a local pub. There are no roads, paths or thoroughfares in this deep, dark forest, but somehow both the film production and the pub manage to operate with no connection to the outside world. Alex talks to the Extremely Ginormous Octopus and convinces him and the director to work together, despite a rude interruption by the dogged docents of the Wigpowder Mansion. Alex flees the docents in terror, once again lost in the trackless forest.

The next episode finds Alex stumbling across a fancy five-star hotel in the midst of the wilderness. There she meets both a talking refrigerator and the owner of the hotel. The owner is convinced that everyone should be able to read his mind, and so nothing gets done because no one can communicate. Alex hits on the idea of manipulating his delusion into getting him to do what she wants, and so she organizes an expedition to Port Cullis, ostensibly to convince the City Council to extend a road to the hotel. Unfortunately, the docents track her down again, and she flees to Port Cullis on her own after the refrigerator helps in capturing the horrible old women.

At Port Cullis, she finds Coriander and Heather at the Gangrene Inn. At first, Coriander is a charming drunk, and Heather his friend and enabler, a proprietor of the Inn. They give Alex free room and board, and Alex entrusts them with the secret of the map. Heather carefully copies the map so that Alex will have a backup, and Alex later witnesses Coriander being belligerent and abusive with Heather. The next day, Alex leaves to find a ship; her plan is still to try to find Captain Steele and rescue Mr. Underwood.

The next interlude has her meeting and befriending Captain Magnanimous and the crew of his Imperial Navy ship. One of the crew is the attractive Francesca, who is a crackpot inventor character. Alex reveals the secret of the map to all of them, too, and they set sail. Alex immediately takes to the sea-going life and becomes adept at all shipboard activities. They arrive at a port where Captain Steele's ship was last seen, but Steele has already left - no one knows where.

The next interlude has Captain Steele appear on the Ironic Gentleman (her dreaded pirate ship), ambush Captain Magnanimous' ship, kidnap Alex, and sink the Navy vessel with all crew aboard (including Giggles). Alex meets all the freaks and monsters that constitute the crew of the Ironic Gentleman, including, finally, Captain Steele: a beautiful but merciless woman, just as obsessed with the Wigpowder fortune as all her ancestors.
Alex is thrown into the brig, where she has a brief interaction with Mr. Underwood, who is horrified that Alex is there and in danger. Alex resents this reaction, and that resentment fuels her decision to join Captain Steele and become a pirate (the only turn of events in the book that surprised me). Alex learns even more of the life at sea as a pirate, and they drop anchor at the island of the Wigpowder treasure.

The next part is about retrieving the treasure, and Alex begins to see that Captain Steele isn't the really nice lady she's been pretending to be. Captain Steele shoots two or three of her crew members dead with little or no provocation other than the Captain's paranoia. Alex reads the riddle on the map and solves the puzzle, finding the vast treasure for them all. They all lug the five huge treasure chests back to shore, where they pass out in exhaustion. While they sleep, the docents arrive and steal all the treasure. When the pirates awake, Captain Steele immediately suspects Alex of betraying her, and they take Alex back to the Ironic Gentleman under guard. There, she is about to be hideously tortured by a fake Doctor when Mr. Underwood escapes his cage, grabs a sword, and fights his way to the deck. The torturers leave Alex. Left alone with him, Alex is able to kill the faceless blind freak who has been chasing her since the beginning of the book. She takes his sword and rushes to the deck, joining in the sword fight. Mr. Underwood - Wigpowder's descendant - ends up killing Captain Steele just before Captain Magnanimous arrives with his ship (all his crew survived, even Giggles!) to capture all the living pirates.

Mr. Underwood adopts Alex, and they use a part of the treasure to convert the Ironic Gentleman to a ocean-going school, so that he can continue both being a teacher and swashbuckler.

There's lots of excitement and adventure in this book, and it's quite funny in places as well.

*****************

One last quibble: I generally don't pay much attention to the presentation of a book - I think that graphics, illustrations and font faces are more often distractions than enhancements to any volume that isn't a children's "picture book" - but I do feel strongly that a cover should reflect the contents of the book. That is to say, both the title and the illustration should have something to do with what happens in that book, and ideally something that happens early in the book, both so that the ending of the book isn't revealed by the title and the reader isn't distracted by wondering just what, exactly, "that" has to do with the book. In some respect, Alex and the Ironic Gentleman fails on both counts, though I would never alter a rating on a book based on its presentation. First, the Ironic Gentleman isn't mentioned for at least the first third of the book, and until it has been, the name is nonsensical. Second, the image on the cover shows a brunette girl wielding a sword on a ship at sea with a cat on her shoulder. This - having a picture on the cover that doesn't portray something actually in the book - is a big pet peeve of mine. First, Alex is blonde. Further, she doesn't get to sea until four-fifths of the way through the book, doesn't touch a sword at sea until she becomes a pirate (about nine-tenths of the way through the book), and never has a sword and Giggles at the same time (all the way through the book). Grr. This sort of thing is not at ALL unusual, of course, but it still rankles a bit, as it reeks of either carelessness or dishonesty on the part of the publisher. I feel for every author who's ever had a book published under his/her name that has such a dichotomy between cover and contents.

[Nicole Luiken · Rating 3 out of 5]

(My daughter who is in the targeted age range for the book rates it four stars.)

There's a lot to like about this book: engaging and intrepid main character, humour, lots of fun side characters and a pirate treasure plot at the heart.

It was the middle section of this book that down-graded it to three stars for me. It took WAY TOO LONG for Alex to reach Port Cullis and return to the pirate plot. (Though, admittedly, this was exacerbated because I was reading it to my daughter, one chapter every second night. It literally took a month to get through this section, whereas if I'd been reading it myself it would have taken an afternoon.) It's not that the side adventures weren't interesting--they were, and in fact the MakeCool6000 talking fridge is my favorite part of the novel--but the fact that it had nothing to do with the main plot and could have been cut without damaging the story DROVE ME NUTS. My mind is trained to look for patterns and there weren't any. End of rant.

[Madame Reads · Rating 1 out of 5]

Have you ever had a really weird dream?
The kind of dream that starts of fairly normal. Say, you're in a museum. Nothing crazy about that. But then you break a museum rule and some old ladies start stabbing you with pens as punishment. And all you want to do is to get away from those stab-happy crones. Then a little while later everything abruptly changes and now you're on a 20's themed train ride where everyone takes naps and has amnesia, trying to escape a scarf-wearing scary man with no ears or nose, all while another creepy man is trying to suck out your soul so he can make it into champagne. Also pirates kidnapped your 6th grade teacher and you're trying to save him. And now the old ladies are stabbing you again!
Crazy, creepy, CRAZY stuff.
Well, lo and behold all of those things actually occur in this book. It's just like an unsettling, disconnected dream. And I pretty much loathed it.
If you are into Alice and Wonderland or magic realism, this may be the book for you.
But it was definitely not the book for me.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a funny, light read. It's not much for worldbuilding or believable conflicts (talking robot refrigerators coexist with pirate ships and boarding schools, and Alex gets chased around by a bunch of mean old ladies for no other reason than that they're just mean), but Alex is a likeable protagonist, and it's an adventure that younger readers will probably enjoy. It's too juvenile to really entertain most adults (though it entertained me -- make of that what you will...).

[Simi · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a wonder that I didn't get serious childhood trauma

[Marsha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alex is a resourceful and redoubtable ten-and-a-half-year-old girl who’s frequently mistaken for a boy. It’s useful to be mistaken for the opposite sex sometimes, a foreshadowing that bears fruit later in the novel.

On the hunt for a missing treasure, Alex runs into all sorts of odd and inexplicable people, folks inserted more for color than for real character development. They are meant to show how clever and capable Alex is at getting herself out of trouble; most of the people she meets disappear neatly from the story once she leaves them, never to be seen again.

I have to admit that I expected adventure when I realized pirates were involved. However, I wasn’t expecting the truly fantastical elements like a man who can bottle spirits (literally human spirits rather than the alcoholic kind) or a talking octopus. These things are accepted as a matter of course by everyone around them so the reader is forced to accept them, too.

Expect weirdness, expect pirates, treasure, murder and adventure on the high seas. While the story may be episodical in nature sometimes, Alex is a smart, bold, brave girl and a character I’d be happy to read about in future. Perhaps some of the quirky characters she met on the road will appear again. I, for one, wouldn’t mind reading about the Extremely Ginormous Octopus again.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dit boek zit vol met droge logica, droge humor en absurdisme - het doet een beetje denken aan Lewis Carrolls Alice in Wonderland of, dichter bij huis, de stijl van Mark Tijsmans. Opvallend dat Kress een Canadese is; het lijkt me veeleer een Britse schrijfstijl, eigenlijk. Heel erg aangenaam.
Het is ook een leuk, onderhoudend verhaal met een goede vertaling. Misschien is de stijl een beetje té kinderlijk naar mijn smaak, maar ja, het is dan ook een kinderboek (10+, staat er op de kaft). De vertaling zelf lijkt de lat iets hoger te leggen door toch woorden te gebruiken die je in die leeftijdscategorie minder tegenkomt, en dat maakt het als oudere lezer wel plezant.
De setting is intrigerend. Met de cover, de piraten en de algemene achtergrond lijkt het eerder op een verhaal dat zich in de negentiende eeuw afspeelt of zo - tot je dan een moderne filmcrew tegenkomt en er sprake is van een laptop. Is dit deel van het absurdisme, is het escapisme, of is het eclecticisme? (Wat een woord, eigenlijk.)
Als je wel eens een echt kinderboek leest, is dit in elk geval een aanrader!
7,8/10

[Ashley Lambert-Maberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought it ... didn't read it ... then read the reviews, and decided (despite some) to give it a whirl. And it wasn't so bad! Clearly the author was aiming for a Rouald Dahl, Lemoney Snicket, Joan Aiken-ish kind of milieu, where over-the-top baddies imperil decent young protagonists. I actually like that sort of thing.

And yet, but about page 100, it all began to pall. It was too picaresque, too odd without the counter-balance of anything especially funny or touching, essentially too uninteresting. So ultimately it wasn't the unsettling strangeness of old ladies basically torturing a child for crossing the rope, it was the way it was all handled, both in the scene itself, and how it knits together into a book.

I found it unsatisfying, and have moved on to the sequel to The Willoughbys which is similarly over the top, but (so long as it matches the power of Lowry's first volume) much better handled.

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s).

[Vickey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Got to 50% and did not finish - just couldn't get into it. Seems right up my alley with a tomboy main character and some pirate treasure but it was just a bit to Disjointed and Whymsikal for my taste. Kress is obviously going for a Lemony Snicket style of writing but her narrator is condescending and annoying and Alex just sort of stumbled from one ridiculous situation to another with no real contribution to the main story. I see in other reviews that the beginning and end so relate to each other but I can't be bothered to drag myself through the chaotic middle to get there. Sometimes I read a kids' book and think it's not for me but I can see why kids would like it but that isn't the case here. It's not really funny or interesting enough.

[Hannah Belyea · Rating 3 out of 5]

After befriending the new teacher at her school, Alex learns that he is being hunted for a treasure his ancestor left him hidden somewhere at sea - but when he ends up kidnapped, she must traverse an assortment of oddball dilemmas to save him and find the treasure before their enemies do. Kress will keep younger readers entertained with the unpredictable, though the pointless obstacles and confused tone may drive off older perusers. Can Alex come up with a plan in time to rescue her teacher before the pirates get their hands on the treasure?

[Twyla · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite part was when Alex was reunited with Giggles, Mr. Underwood, and the crew of the HMS Valiant, at the end, after escaping/capturing the pirates and the five old ladies that had been chasing Alex a long ways just for going past the red rope. My least favorite part was when the HMS Valiant was thought to have sunk, and Alex was going to be tortured to try get her to tell where the treasure that she didn't steal was, because the pirate captain didn't believe what she was saying.

[Eugenia Profeti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Αυτό το βιβλίο το είχα διαβάσει όταν ήμουνα μικρούλα δύο φορές και θυμάμαι να μην μπορώ να ξεκολλήσω από τις σελίδες του, οπότε το ξαναδιάβασα τώρα που είμαι έφηβη. Τα γεγονότα που εξιστορούνται είναι πολύ διασκεδαστικά και απολαυστικά και θυμίζουν κατά κάποιον τρόπο το "Μια σειρά από ατυχή γεγονότα". Μια ενθουσιώδης ιστορία με μυστήρια και πειρατές, που συνιστώ ανεπιφύλακτα σε όλους τους μικρούς μας αναγνώστες, για μια ανεπανάληπτη εμπειρία στον αλλόκοτο κόσμο της Άλεξ.

[Jasmine Fogwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found Alex and the Ironic Gentleman to be a little bit random. Some of the situations Alex found herself in on her way to rescue Mr. Underwood dragged on a little too long and didn't really seem to have a point other than to add pages to the book. I liked Alex's character and she actually began pursuing the Ironic Gentleman, the story picked up and was quite fun.

[Eddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and amusing writing style, the book was a farcical adventure that kept getting more and more farcical. I was a little tough maybe for kids as several people are killed/die in the book (not in gruesome ways mind you) but it might be a bit heavy for younger kids. I would guess they find the writing style very amusing though.

[Shaie F · Rating 1 out of 5]

Originally intriguing, but the plot, or lack thereof, I
involved a random string of events that did nothing to build tension or bring growth to the main character. I still don’t know what the theme of the book was.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely fun and engaging middle school novel. I loved the author's witty writing, though it got just a tad overdone in some parts. Definitely would recommend for people who love creative young adult novels.

[Hal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun little read, all the more enjoyable for those in it's target age group I'd think.

The style reminds me of Snicket's at least until the last 50 pages or so where something changes though I'm unable to describe what.

I won't be continuing the series but would recommend this book to children.

[Jasey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun, twisty book with a feisty ten-and-a-half-year-old protagonist who is both lovable and relatable, and a Norton Juster-esque feel that doesn't stifle the book's overall creativity and spark.
4.5 stars rounded up!

[Puja Harikumar]

Great book. A bit heavy on the exposition and flowery pose and I feel like Alex should have had more adventures with the HMS Valiant before (spoiler alert) getting caught by the pirates. But all in all a fun read and her character arc is very satisfying to watch