Hatter Madigan: Ghost in the Hatbox

by Frank Beddor, Adrienne Kress

Overview

An exciting new adventure featuring a teenaged Hatter Madigan, one of the most popular character from the New York Times best-selling The Looking Glass Wars trilogy by Frank Beddor!

Combat training! Secret society initiations! Self-serving rivals! Welcome to Wonderland’s prestigious Millinery Academy: where those born to protect the queendom train to become spies, assassins, and bodyguards. With all that to contend with, not to mention following in his popular older brother’s footsteps, just getting through Imagination Class seems impossible already.

And that’s before he starts seeing ghosts lurking in the corridors…

When students begin behaving strangely throughout the academy, Hatter and his fellow cadets must unlock the mysteries behind the ghosts, and the headmaster’s suspicious behavior, before the entire student body finds itself possessed!

Join Hatter and his fellow cadets on their first adventures in Wonderland. Let’s just hope it isn’t their last!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780991272921
Publisher:	Automatic Publishing
Publication date:	04/19/2016
Series:	Hatter Madigan
Pages:	408
Sales rank:	1,059,006
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Literary Sleuth and world creator Frank Beddor dared to expose the true story of Wonderland in the New York Times bestselling young adult trilogy The Looking Glass Wars. To satisfy the awakened curiosity of his readers he continued to tell the parallel adventures of Royal Bodyguard Hatter Madigan’s search for the lost princess in the graphic novel series Hatter M. He lives in Los Angeles.

Adrienne Kress is a Toronto-born actor and author of the internationally published and award winning children’s novels Alex and the Ironic Gentleman and Timothy and the Dragon’s Gate, as well as the young adult novels, The Friday Society and Outcast. In late 2015 her essay appeared in the non-fiction anthology The Secret Loves of Geek Girls and in the fall of 2016 she will be releasing the first book in an upcoming middle grade series, The Explorers Club.

Editorial Reviews

04/25/2016
Fans of Beddor's Looking Glass Wars novels will delight in this first book in a prequel series focusing on Hatter Madigan, the Mad Hatter–inspired bodyguard from the earlier books. As the book opens, Hatter has just turned 13, and tradition dictates that he enter the Millinery Academy to train to become one of Wonderland's guardians. Hatter's class is the first to use a state-of-the-art training simulator built by combining science and the imaginative power of caterpillar thread. Code-named H.A.T.B.O.X., it provides tangible holograms for cadets to fight. As Hatter moves up the ranks, he begins to notice cadets acting oddly and holograms appearing where they shouldn't. Not knowing whom to trust, Hatter and his friends work together to find out what's behind the aberrations and save the day. Beddor and Kress introduce a wealth of entertaining new characters and keep things moving with fight scenes and fascinating worldbuilding. Readers new to the larger world of Beddor's series might be a bit lost, but both new readers and existing fans should be left anticipating the next book. Ages 9–12. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

06/01/2016
Gr 4–7—This is the first installment in a new prequel series to the author's popular "Looking Glass Wars" trilogy. Aimed at younger readers than the original tales, this volume features breakout character Hatter Madigan, whose side adventures were most recently explored in the "Hatter M" graphic novel series. Now Beddor takes readers back to Madigan's origins at Millinery Academy, giving readers a fairly standard coming-of-age story: Madigan struggles to succeed in school while navigating friendships, learning to control his emotions, and uncovering secrets at the academy. Though the story runs long and is sometimes burdened by overcomplicated world-building, the characters are likable and the plot engaging. VERDICT Accompanied by an aggressive marketing campaign and promotional tour, this work introducing a new, younger demographic to Beddor's version of Wonderland will win over new fans.—Eliza Langhans, Hatfield Public Library, MA

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