Lilliput

by Sam Gayton, Alice Ratterree (Illustrator)

Overview

In a city full of giants, can one tiny girl find her way home?

She is a girl three inches tall with eyes like drops of dew. Her clothes are cut from handkerchiefs and stitched with spider silk. For half her life, she has been suspended in a birdcage while Gulliver, her giant kidnapper, sits below her, writing in a leather-bound book the size of a house.

Her name is Lily, and tonight she is planning her 35th escape attempt. She is going to find a way to get home. To Lilliput.

Inspired by Gulliver's Travels, Lilliput is an exhilarating and imaginative adventure filled with cunning escape plans, evil clock makers, and talkative parrots. Join Lily as she travels through eighteenth-century London—over rooftops, down chimneys, and into chocolate shops—on a journey to find the one place in the world where she belongs...home.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781682630068
Publisher:	Holiday House
Publication date:	10/03/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)
Lexile:	620L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Sam Gayton received a master's degree in Writing for Young People at Bath Spa University. A playwright and novelist, he is the author of several middle grade novels. He lives in England.

Alice Ratterree began her career in music, as a classically trained singer working in operatic, concert and oratorio venues. Her work has been featured in greeting cards, children's books, and original paintings and drawings. She lives in South Carolina.

Editorial Reviews

08/31/2015
Cliffhanger chapter endings and vibrant language should quickly ensnare readers of this suspenseful takeoff from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, British author Gayton's U.S. debut. Snatched up from the beach when Gulliver returned to Lilliput, tiny Lily, "almost twelve moons old," is now trapped in an enormous world of adults. After enlisting assistance from nature's smaller creatures—a spider, a mouse—in her ingenious escape plans, Lily gradually learns to trust human help. Along the way, she meets captives of other sorts, confronts unimagined obstacles, and gains the satisfactions of friendship. Compressing the tale into a few days heightens the theme of time's preciousness, evoked too by Ratterree's pencil illustrations, which have a theatricality and precision reminiscent of Tony DiTerlizzi's work. Despite the occasional anachronism ("sleepover") or one-dimensional supporting character, Gayton's colorful prose depicts a true adolescent: moody, clever, and feisty—albeit with heightened sensory perception, a flair for languages, and fierce defenses coating a heart longing for affection. This literate romp through 18th-century London will have readers cheering Lily home. Ages 8–12. Author's agent: Becky Bagnell, Lindsay Literary Agency. Illustrator's agent: Marietta Zacker, Nancy Gallt Literary Agency. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"Readers who enjoy adventure and visiting new places will want to meet Lily."—School Library Journal

"Cliffhanger chapter endings and vibrant language should quickly ensnare readers of this suspenseful takeoff from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. . . This literate romp through 18th-century London will have readers cheering Lily home."—Publishers Weekly

"This delightful adventure inspired by Gulliver's Travels will appeal to budding fantasy readers – and position them for the source material later on."—Kirkus Reviews

"This 'sequel' to Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels is equal parts escape tale and philosophical exploration of freedom."—Booklist

From the Publisher

2015-05-06
A pocket-sized but fiery heroine proves that brains always beat brawn, even in the streets of London. After enduring ridicule back home in London for his stories about the tiny citizens of Lilliput, Gulliver is intent on proving that his travels there actually occurred. He returns to the island and plucks young Lily right off the beach to act as living proof. Imprisoned by Gulliver for six months (or half her life), Lily is determined to return home before it's too late. Gulliver keeps her trapped in a bird cage hanging from a ceiling in a musty attic above a clockmaker's store, but Lily perseveres with her numerous escape plans. After failing for the 33rd time, she loses all hope of seeing her grandmother again. However, the clockmaker's apprentice, Finn, discovers the note she tied to a mouse's tail from Escape Plan 21 and rescues her from Gulliver. Finn and Lily's new friends, Mr. Ozinda, a chocolatier who speaks only in rhyme, and his parrot, Señor Chitchat, offer comic relief as they come to her aid. Young readers will adore Lily's grouchiness yet relate to her compassion for those less fortunate. Sporadic pencil-and-watercolor illustrations offer a hint of Lily's fiery temper but mostly serve to break up the text. This delightful adventure inspired by Gulliver's Travels will appeal to budding fantasy readers—and position them for the source material later on. (Fantasy. 7-10)

Kirkus Reviews