The Fall of Fergal

Bibliovore, it's Tuesday.

It is?

Yes.

I could have sworn it was Monday.

No, it's Tuesday. You were supposed to post this yesterday.

Oooops. Blame the Dr. Who I've been watching practically nonstop. I defy anyone to take note of the day of the week when you can be thinking about Christopher Eccleston and/or David Tennant instead.

Book: The Fall of Fergal
Author: Phillip Ardagh
Published: 2002 (Great Britain)

This book starts with a death - and not any run-of-the-mill death, but a six-year-old falling out a hotel window and going splat! on the sidewalk below. Oh dear. Well, the title did warn you. From there, Ardagh doubles, triples, and quadruples back to tell the story of how this particular six-year-old came to be at this particular window and what happened to make him fall.

This is a morbid, silly, twisted, and totally nonsensical tale. So you know I loved it. Ardagh not only acknowledges but positively delights in the morbidity of his tale. Loaded up with convoluted wordplay, Dickensian melodrama, and Snicketesque narrator interaction, The Fall of Fergal and its two sequels (Heir of Mystery and The Rise of the House of McNally) are fast reads that should delight any kid who’s not overly concerned about a logical plot but does want to have lots of fun.