Abarat: The Abarat Trilogy, Book 1
Parents say
Based on 2 reviews
Kids say
Based on 11 reviews
Common Sense is a nonprofit organization. Your purchase helps us remain independent and ad-free.
Did we miss something on diversity?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.
Suggest an Update
A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this book.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that those with a taste for the creepy and bizarre this is a romp. For sensitive children, there's plenty here to induce nightmares. Either way, you may want to read and discuss the strange occurrences here together.
Community Reviews
A wonderful colourful adventure.
Report this review
Fantastic imagery
Report this review
What's the Story?
Clive Barker's second book for young adults and the first of a proposed series is Alice in Wonderland for the new millennium. Like Carroll's heroine, Candy Quackenbush finds herself following a strange creature into a stranger world though, this being the 21st century, she is escaping a drunken and abusive father in a town devoted to butchering chickens, rather than just a dull afternoon, and instead of a tea party on land she finds a poker game floating in the sea.
She soon discovers that this land is the Abarat, a chain of 25 islands, each existing in a different unchanging hour of the day (and one mysterious extra island), inhabited by a multiplicity of strange creatures, from John Mischief, who has seven brothers growing out of his horns, to Christopher Carrion, who wears a high translucent collar filled with nightmares swimming in blue fluid.
Is It Any Good?
The plot is mainly an excuse for an excursion through the fertile, bizarre, and gruesome imagination of author Clive Barker. This first book suggests an author obsessed: In addition to more than 400 pages of text (including a 25-page appendix), Barker has created over 100 vividly colorful illustrations. When the book first came out there was a free poster map of the world, and there is an interactive version on the Web site (www.harperchildren.com/), though why they didn't print the map on the endpapers is a mystery in an otherwise gorgeous and lavishly produced book.
This appeals to children who like to be fascinated, rather than emotionally invested. Though the story lacks the heart tight plotting of the best children's books, children with a taste for the wild and grotesque will by enthralled by this travelogue of the weird.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the thin plot. Is the descriptive adventure satisfying, or do you prefer stories with tighter plots? What would you hope to see in subsequent books in this series?
Book Details
- Author: Clive Barker
- Illustrator: Clive Barker
- Genre: Fantasy
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books
- Publication date: February 15, 2004
- Number of pages: 414
- Last updated: July 9, 2015
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
See how we rate