Terrible Times ( Eddie Dickens Trilogy Series #3)

by Philip Ardagh, David Roberts (Illustrator)

Overview

The third (and final-or is it?) installment in the fabulous Eddie Dickens Trilogy!

"America?" said Eddie Dickens in amazement. "You want me to go to America?"

In the third installment of the Eddie Dickens saga, Eddie, our steadfast hero, finds himself en route to North America aboard the sailing ship Pompous Pig along with a cargo hold full of left shoes, the world-famous Dog's Bone Diamond, and some of the most disreputable traveling companions anyone might have the misfortune to share a berth with. A mysterious stowaway and some familiar faces from Eddie's past only complicate matters, as does being tied up and set adrift in a leaky rowboat. Will Eddie ever reach America?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780805071566
Publisher:	Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Publication date:	09/28/2003
Series:	Eddie Dickens Trilogy Series , #3
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 8.18(h) x 0.73(d)
Lexile:	1070L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 13 Years

About the Author

Philip Ardagh is over six feet seven inches tall with a big bushy beard. Not only is he very large and very hairy, but he has also written around sixty children's books for all ages, though nothing quite like the Eddie Dickens Trilogy. Currently living as a full-time writer with a wife and two cats in a seaside town somewhere in England, he has been-among other things-an advertising copywriter, a hospital cleaner, a (highly unqualified) librarian, and a reader for the blind.

David Roberts is so busy drawing pictures that no one is really sure what he looks like. We do know that he has illustrated several books for children and lives somewhere in England, but whether his home is near the sea or not is anybody's guess.

Table of Contents

1	Explosive News! In which America is mentioned, but the author gets somewhat sidetracked	3
2	A Painful Surprise: In which Mad Uncle Jack gets it in the end and Even Madder Aunt Maud has an attack of guilt	15
3	A Cure for Ills? In which Dr. Humple pays yet another visit to Awful End, and Eddie goes in search of shiny things	22
4	A Brief Family History: In which Eddie learns more about his family and the reasons for going to America	32
5	Looking Backward, Looking Forward: In which we learn more of Eddie's past and more of his excitement at the upcoming voyage	48
6	Going ... Going ...? In which Eddie and the reader are almost halfway through the book and neither is sure whether Eddie is ever going to get to America	58
7	... Gone! In which, to everyone's amazement, including the author's, Eddie actually sets sail for America	68
8	Discoveries: In which Eddie may be at sea, but we seem to spend most of the time amongst familiar faces on dry land	82
9	That Sinking Feeling: In which both Eddie and Mad Uncle Jack make plans regarding the "recapture" of Even Madder Aunt Maud	91
10	Dazzling Events: In which not only Even Madder Aunt Maud shows an interest in a priceless shiny thing	102
11	Going Overboard: In which various characters pick themselves up, dust themselves down, and start all over again	115
12	Back and Forth: In which we go backward and forward in order to try to make sense of it all	126
	Glossary: The meanings of some of the not-so-normal words and phrases I threw into the mix when I cooked up this adventure	141

Editorial Reviews

A Book Sense Children's 76 Winter 2003 - 2004 title

"Lemony Snicket fans in need of a happy ending might take to this very British farce as a change of pace." —Kirkus Reviews

"Editor's Choice" —Boston Herald

From the Publisher

This fall marks the return of many favorite characters. Philip Ardagh wraps up the Eddie Dickens Trilogy, illus. by David Roberts, with Terrible Times, in which Eddie, in the care of Mad Uncle Jack and Even Madder Aunt Maud (if one can call it that), sets out for America and washes overboard-will he ever cross the pond? PW said in a starred review of the series' launch, A House Called Awful End, "Kids who lap up Lemony Snicket's series will take quickly to this tale and clamor for the next." Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

This is the third book in "The Eddie Dickens Trilogy." If you have not read the first two, don't worry, by the end of this book you will feel as though you know the stories of A House Called Awful End and Dreadful Acts. The story is delightfully ridiculous. Since young Eddie Dickens is the only member of his family not afflicted by insanity or a serious physical ailment, he is selected to travel from England to America to settle a business matter. His family unknowingly hires a murderess to act as his travel companion, but it turns out she is only one of the characters Eddie has to beware of. His aunt, Even Madder Aunt Maud stows away on the ship with her stuffed stoat, and one of the other passengers is an escaped convict who holds a grudge against Eddie. The writing style is almost an exact copy of Lemony Snicket's style in A Series of Unfortunate Events. The authorial voice is strong and were it not for digressions, the story would be less than half its length. Although the digressions, vocabulary lessons and history lessons are not handled as skillfully as in Snicket's works, it is a fun read. 2002, Holt, Ages 9 to 14.
— Renee Englot

Children's Literature

Gr 4-6-At the opening of this final installment in the series, Eddie's parents tell him that they are sending him from England to America. Before his journey begins, however, numerous disasters are described, all of which seem to have happened to members of the boy's crazy family, but not to him. Unfortunately, the events do not proceed with enough character development or imminent danger to keep even avid readers hooked. Once young Dickens and his seemingly sweet but ultimately murderous chaperone board the ship for America, the action picks up, but many youngsters may not stick with this long-winded, confusing novel to find that out. Humorous black-and-white cartoons appear throughout. If your library has the first two of the trilogy, by all means pick up the third. Otherwise, look for Debi Gliori's Pure Dead Magic (Knopf, 2001) to meet the requests of your Lemony Snicket fans.-Sharon R. Pearce, Chippewa Elementary School, Bensenville, IL Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Ardagh claims to be closing out this trilogy, but readers of the earlier volumes may be justifiably skeptical. Here, after reintroducing young Eddie, his nutcase parents, his Mad Uncle Jack and Even Madder Aunt Maud (abbreviated to MAJ and EMUM for convenience), the author sends his naïve but capable lad off to America. She's joined by Lady Constance Bustle, whose previous traveling companions have all suddenly and mysteriously died, leaving their estates to her, an escaped convict from a previous adventure, and the fabulously huge, aptly named Dog's Bone Diamond. After many digressions, narrowly averted disasters, and silly set pieces à la Monty Python, Eddie survives a murder attempt, brings his nefarious governess to justice, and returns in triumph to the family digs at Awful End. In occasional small ink drawings, Roberts endows the entire cast with madly staring eyes and appropriately disheveled looks. Lemony Snicket fans in need of a happy ending might take to this very British farce as a change of pace. (glossary) (Fiction. 10-12)

Kirkus Reviews