Dodger - by Terry Pratchett (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

New York Times Bestseller!

Beloved and bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett's Dodger, a Printz Honor Book, combines high comedy with deep wisdom in a tale of one remarkable boy's rise in a fantasy-infused Victorian London.

Seventeen-year-old Dodger is content as a sewer scavenger. But he enters a new world when he rescues a young girl from a beating, and her fate impacts some of the most powerful people in England.

From Dodger's encounter with the mad barber Sweeney Todd, to his meetings with the great writer Charles Dickens and the calculating politician Benjamin Disraeli, history and fantasy intertwine in a breathtaking account of adventure and mystery.

Creator of the popular Discworld fantasy series, Sir Terry also received a prestigious Printz Honor from the American Library Association for his novel Nation.

From the Back Cover

Dodger is a tosher--a sewer scavenger living in the squalor of Victorian London. Everyone who is nobody knows him. Anybody who is anybody doesn't. He used to know his own future; it involved a lot of brick-lined tunnels and plenty of filth. But when Dodger rescues a young girl from a beating, meets Charles Dickens, and encounters Sweeney Todd, things start to get really messy.

Now everyone who is anyone wants to get their hands on Dodger. . . .

Review Quotes

PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF TERRY PRATCHETT: "Exuberant and irresistible." - Washington Post

"Fun and fantastic and thoughtful." - Chicago Tribune

"Passionately wise, spectacularly hilarious, and surpassingly humane." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Moving and highly satisfactory." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Pratchett combines gut-busting humor and genuine poignancy." - School Library Journal (starred review)

"Thrilling, humorous, moving, and most wise." - Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) (starred review)

"Fresh, vibrant and full of energy, a triumph." - SFX (UK)

"A masterwork from a treasure and hero of a writer, and it will delight you." - Cory Doctorow, New York Times Bestselling author

"Ebullient, funny and delightful." - The Guardian

"Pratchett does a bang-up job of re-creating Old London, complete with pathos, humor, and danger, all narrated in Dodger's unique voice." - School Library Journal (starred review)

"Pratchett weaves fact and fiction seamlessly....Genius." - Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review)

"Compulsively readable." - Washington Post

"Masterful. Unexpected, drily funny and full of the pathos and wonder of life: Don't miss it." - Kirkus Reviews

"Superb." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Lovingly crafted and completely enjoyable. The temptation to quote sentences, whole paragraphs, and possibly entire chapters is almost irresistible." - Booklist (starred review)

"It's a glittering conjuring act, but there's real heart here, too." - Horn Book (starred review)

"Wonderful." - Daily Mail (London)

"Masterly and entertaining." (Children's Book of the Week) - Sunday Times (London)