From the Publisher
2022 Bram Stoker Award for Best Middle Grade Novel
* "This series continues to be disturbing and brilliant in equal measure." —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
Praise for They Threw Us Away:
“Truly captivating.” —The New York Times
“A deliciously macabre fairy tale, full of snuggles.” —Holly Black, award-winning author of Doll Bones and co-creator of The Spiderwick Chronicles
“Reminiscent of Watership Down...reflective children will revel in this thought-provoking world.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
“By turns swashbuckling and reflective, touching and disturbing, this existential work of fantasy and horror considers what one is willing to sacrifice when utterly lost.” —Publishers Weekly
“With a nod to Watership Down...[r]eaders with a taste for disturbing adventures and disquieting revelations will be well served.” —Booklist
“Fans of Toy Story or The Velveteen Rabbit might be aghast, but readers who knew there was always something a little off about their playthings will appreciate this uniquely horrific take.” —The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2021-07-27
In the second installment of The Teddies Saga, the bears resume their quest, this time to find their manufacturing origins.
Picking up months after the first book, Buddy and his teddy friends have been living a stable, if not idyllic, life, mostly hidden under Darling’s bed. When the girl’s mother discovers them and becomes outraged, the teddies set out on another journey. Still yearning for the love of a child and encouraged by a final Proto story, they decide to find the Suit and his factory and demand that he fix them. Faced yet again with death and other dark challenges, the remaining bears end up among a village of discarded teddies. While younger readers may not grasp the ambitious nods to The Giver and Paradise Lost, it’s easy to understand the terror the teddies face in this dystopian camp with strange rules and loss of identity. Lending to the horror are loosely drawn scenes in grayscale. Like many middle novels in a trilogy, the worldbuilding is lengthy and slows the narration, yet it gives Buddy more opportunities to explore his leadership, question the ways of the world, and ponder why Furringtons seem to be so reviled. Another cliffhanger ending evokes mysteries to be solved in the next volume.
This series continues to be disturbing and brilliant in equal measure. (Fantasy. 9-12)
