Witch and Wizard (Witch and Wizard Series #1)

by James Patterson

Overview

YOUR BOOKS, MUSIC, AND ART—BANNED BY THE NEW ORDER!

Everything is about to change. The government has seized control of every aspect of society, and this is the astonishing testimonial of Wisty and Whit Allgood, a sister and brother who were torn from their family in the middle of the night, slammed into prison, and accused of being a witch and a wizard. Thousands of young people have been kidnapped; some have been accused; many others remain missing. Their fate is unknown, and the worst is feared—for the ruling regime will stop at nothing to suppress life and liberty, music and books, art and magic . . . and the pursuit of being a normal teenager.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316038348
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	10/31/2010
Series:	Witch and Wizard Series , #1
Pages:	314
Sales rank:	11,807
Product dimensions:	6.34(w) x 7.44(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

James Patterson is the author of the highly praised Maximum Ride novels, Witch & Wizard, the Daniel X series, and the bestselling detective series featuring Alex Cross and the Women's Murder Club. His novels have sold more than 180 million copies worldwide. In 2009 and 2010 he was nominated for the Children's Choice Award for Author of the Year. He lives in Florida.

Gabrielle Charbonnet has coauthored Sundays at Tiffany's with James Patterson. She lives in North Carolina.

Hometown:

Palm Beach, Florida

Date of Birth:

March 22, 1947

Place of Birth:

Newburgh, New York

Education:

B.A., Manhattan College, 1969; M.A., Vanderbilt University, 1971

Website:

http://www.jamespatterson.com

Read an Excerpt

Witch & Wizard

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By Patterson, James

Grand Central Publishing

Copyright © 2011 Patterson, James All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780446562430

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PROLOGUE

YOU’RE NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE

Wisty

IT’S OVERWHELMING. A city’s worth of angry faces staring at me like I’m a wicked criminal—which, I promise you, I’m not. The stadium is filled to capacity—past capacity. People are standing in the aisles, the stairwells, on the concrete ramparts, and a few extra thousand are camped out on the playing field. There are no football teams here today. They wouldn’t be able to get out of the locker-room tunnels if they tried.

This total abomination is being broadcast on TV and the Internet too. All the useless magazines are here, and the useless newspapers. Yep, I see cameramen in elevated roosts at intervals around the stadium.

There’s even one of those remote-controlled cameras that runs around on wires above the field. There it is—hovering just in front of the stage, bobbing slightly in the breeze.

So there are undoubtedly millions more eyes watching than I can see. But it’s the ones here in the stadium that are breaking my heart. To be confronted with tens, maybe even hundreds of thousands, of curious, uncaring, or at least indifferent, faces… talk about frightening.

And there are no moist eyes, never mind tears.

No words of protest.

No stomping feet.

No fists raised in solidarity.

No inkling that anybody’s even thinking of surging forward, breaking through the security cordon, and carrying my family to safety.

Clearly, this is not a good day for us Allgoods.

In fact, as the countdown ticker flashes on the giant video screens at either end of the stadium, it’s looking like this will be our last day.

It’s a point driven home by the very tall, bald man up in the tower they’ve erected midfield—he looks like a cross between a Supreme Court chief justice and Ming the Merciless. I know who he is. I’ve actually met him. He’s The One Who Is The One.

Directly behind his Oneness is a huge N.O. banner—THE NEW ORDER.

And then the crowd begins to chant, almost sing, “The One Who Is The One! The One Who Is The One!”

Imperiously, The One raises his hand, and his hooded lackeys on the stage push us forward, at least as far as the ropes around our necks will allow.

I see my brother, Whit, handsome and brave, looking down at the platform mechanism. Calculating if there’s any way to jam it, some means of keeping it from unlatching and dropping us to our neck-snapping deaths. Wondering if there’s a last-minute way out of this.

I see my mother crying quietly. Not for herself, of course, but for Whit and me.

I see my father, his tall frame stooped with resignation, smiling at me and my brother—trying to keep our spirits up, reminding us that there’s no point in being miserable in our last moments on this planet.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I’m supposed to be providing an introduction here, not the details of our public execution.

So let’s go back a bit….

Continues...

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Excerpted from Witch & Wizard by Patterson, James Copyright © 2011 by Patterson, James. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

Praise for Witch & Wizard:

#1 New York Times Bestseller"

Young Patterson fans will be thrilled to jump into this new adventure."—VOYA

"A fast, exciting fantasy adventure ... with wall-to-wall thrills and spills ... page-turning suspense, pace and invention, street smart irony and upbeat humour."—Books for Keeps

RAVES FOR THE PAGETURNERS!"

Fights and flights are non-stop in Maximum Ride. The writing is visual and cinematic—things that kids expect from their video games, TV cartoon shows and action movies."
—USA Today

"[Patterson] delivers an action-packed cross between Gertrude Chandler Warner's Boxcar Children and Marvel Comics' X-Men."—Booklist

"James Patterson is really getting this teen science-fiction genre down. The author of the MAXIMUM RIDE series, about bird children, is at it again with THE DANGEROUS DAYS OF DANIEL X, with some writing assistance from Michael Ledwidge. They could not have done better than Milo Ventimiglia as the narrator of this short novel about an alien boy, Daniel, who lives on Earth and hunts evil extraterrestrials who want to enslave the population and drain its resources. Clearly, kids will love this amazing alien gifted with mysterious powers."—-AudioFile Magazine on The Dangerous Days of Daniel X

From the Publisher

"Patterson is not just for adults anymore. With the Maximum Ride series he has created edgy, taut thrillers that teens won't be able to put down. The characters are easy to identify with and I can't wait to see what happens to Max and her family next!"

Cathy, Bookseller - Blue Willow Bookshop

RAVES FOR THE PAGETURNERS!

"Fights and flights are non-stop in Maximum Ride. The writing is visual and cinematic--things that kids expect from their video games, TV cartoon shows and action movies."

USA Today

After being arrested at home in the dead of night, high school age siblings Wisty and Whit enter a Kafkaesque nightmare of imprisonment, deprivation, and brutality. Officials in the New Order (N.O.) accuse the duo of being a witch and a wizard. Until their arrest, the siblings did not know that they had special powers. The New Order is run by a Hitler-type known as "The One Who Is the One." Along the way Wisty and Whit have the very bad fortune to also meet The One Who Judges, The One In Command, The One Who Imprisons, and so forth and so on. Although the sibling duo escape their horrible fate, brutality and sadism is alive and well in the New Order. During their journey they connect with Celia, Whit's girlfriend, who had gone missing without a trace. She now resurfaces as a spirit from Shadowland, described as "its own dimension of reality." Shadowland, which is dangerous for humans, is filled with "half-lights" and "lost ones." Portals connect the two worlds. Wisty and Whit tell the story in alternating chapters. Despite the shock and awe of this new dark world, they remain steadfast in their goal of reuniting with their parents. The dialogue and story line are fast paced and the tone is breezy at times, but much is predictable in this tale. The story succeeds in a formulaic way; it is suspenseful but does not feel fresh. Reviewer: Jeanne K. Pettenati, J.D.

Children's Literature - Jeanne K. Pettenati J.D.

Gr 5–9—Wisty and Whit Allgood have magical powers, but they don't know it. At least they don't know until they are arrested by the guards of the New Order, which has just come to power. Their parents have always been into herbs and plants and predictions; they don't send their kids to typical schools, and when the teens are allowed to take only one item each to jail with them, they send a drumstick and a book with no words that are visible to the naked eye. The kids start to get an inkling of what they can do when Wisty bursts into flames when she gets angry, and before long she is turning people into creatures and conjuring tornadoes, and lightning bolts shoot from her hands. The bulk of the book takes place when Whit and Wisty are locked up in a reformatory where they are bullied by the guards. The chapters are only one to three pages in length and alternate between the two main characters' points of view. The action doesn't really pick up until the last third of the book, when the siblings make their escape. Readers expecting something akin to Patterson's "Maximum Ride" series (Little, Brown) are bound to be disappointed, but the groundwork is set for subsequent volumes that might make wading through the first one worthwhile.—Jake Pettit, Thompson Valley High School, Loveland, CO

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