A fascinating book that follows thirteen year old Howard and his family as they try to understand why his father has been writing two thousand words a month for a stranger. Everything starts when Goon, a frighteningly large man plants himself in their kitchen saying that the last words weren't original. Howard and his sister Awful learn about how everything is not as it seems in their town as their investigation continues. Along the way they discover a group of siblings who's communication problems are causing issues for their town. In the end, the answer isn't what they expected and Howard's thoughts about his own family change. This book is a good one to recommend to a curious reader in Middle School, because the language is not difficult yet the story gets quite complicated. There are some moments of violence, but the heart of this wonderful book is really about family and understanding how your actions affect those around you. ( )

When I was growing up, and first getting into Diana Wynne Jones books, she wasn't nearly as popular in North America as she is now, and it was often quite challenging to find her novels. Even getting a list of all her books was pretty difficult; we often scanned the lists in the novels we found, and then went to find those books. Some took years to find (Castle in the Air, for one), and some we never could find at all, like Archer's Goon.

My mom found a copy, I think online, a couple of years ago, and lent it to me the last time I was down there. With all the build-up behind this, I was almost afraid to try reading it, honestly, but since they're coming up soon and I want to give back the books I've borrowed, I did this one first. Thankfully, it lived up to the billing.

This is the story of Howard Sykes and his family, who are visited by a very large man, the Goon, who is there on behalf of Archer and demanding two thousand words from his father, an author. Why Archer wants it is unclear at first, but Howard and his family find out over the course of the book all about Archer and his family, who have secretly been running his town and want to move on to the rest of the world. Of course, Howard and co. want to stop them.

The plot is actually very well put together, with the threads weaving in and out in surprisingly harmonious ways, as DWJ often does. I really quite like her standalone books of this sort; her style works very well at figuring out where the world will differ from ours and where the magic comes in without making it all seem too strange. The descriptions and the characterization find Jones at her best.

I do regret not finding this years ago, but it's good to still have this sort of book now. This is actually a pretty good place to start with her books in general, I think, if you're looking for a way in. I'd go for it, certainly. ( )

The book based upon the tv series - very good read for children

My favorite book by this author so far. ( )

It's OK, not one of my favorites. Nobody knows what's going on, then suddenly deus ex machina the answer appears (OK, the kid has to take action, but as soon as he does there are no questions left), and suddenly half the foes become allies, with no particular pattern to who stays an enemy and who comes over...The words thing at the end is weird too, since the words weren't what was affecting the rest of it. Hmmmph. ( )