Customer Reviews

Beastly Arms

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Beastly Arms is a highly engaging, very enjoyable read. Patrick Jennings has come up with a quirky, interesting protagonist: Nickel, an imaginative young city boy who photographs clouds. The writing shines: unique, well-observed details; vivid scenes; spare, yet rich and believable dialogue. Like photographs, the images are so rich and sensitive they live on in the memory. There's a subtle wit and wisdom to the book and an avoidance of cuteness or cliche that kids (and adults) will appreciate. Nickel's closest relationships-with his single mom, with his school friend and her parents, with his pet kangaroo rat, Miriam-are all well-drawn and sympathetic. When Nickel and his mother move into a mysterious building called The Beastly Arms, the story leads to an exciting, unexpected, and fantastic (in the best sense) conclusion.

I absolutely love this book, really couldn't put it down! Like "Faith and the Rocket Dogs" and "Faith and the Electric Cat", this book inspires further reseach while being completely intertaining. I wasn't a reader as a kid and at 39 I am really enjoying books written for a younger audience. Both for myself and to read aloud to my not yet reading kids. This book is as wildly imaginitive as Holes but with so much more researched detail. I think kids will learn so much from reading this book and want to know more about some things in the story that they may not be familial with. It is the story of a boy and his mom who move into a new building as a result of a rent increase and the things they learn about The Beastly Arms. For more you'll have to read the book.

The Beastly Arms by Patrick Jennings has well developed characters and an interesting plot, but given how short the book is (227 pages), I was surprised by its slow pace. I'm enjoyed reading it, but unlike some other books I read this summer (for example, Dragon Rider, by Cornelia Funke and Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance by Jennifer Armstrong), it wasn't a book that I wanted to read straight through without stopping.

The Beastly Arms tells the story of an 11-year-old photographer named Nickel who sees the world in a unique and interesting way. To his eye, everything looks like animals. His best friend looks like a spider monkey; a woman who sells pies looks like a walrus; and a cloud looks like a camel sitting on a dune. Nickel and his mother must move when their landlord raises their rent, so they set out to find an apartment. A brass sign on a building tucked away in the back of an alley catches his attention. The sign reads: The Beastly Arms.

The owner of the building, Mr. Beastly, initially tells Nickel that he has no vacant apartments, but when he sees Nickel's pet kangaroo rat poking out of his pocket, he abruptly changes his story and offers them an apartment at a very low rent. Nickel thinks there is something odd and mysterious about Mr. Beastly, and to his surprise, he cannot imagine what type of animal Mr. Beastly is.

Mr. Beastly does have a secret, and Nickel decides to find out what it is. In the end, he does, but if you want to discover Mr. Beastly's secret, you have to read the book.

I would recommend this book to my friends, but only if they have already read Dragon Rider.

The Beastly Arms is an engaging tale of a young boy in search of a secret. The story takes place in modern times in the city. The main character, Nickel, and his mom are striving to make ends meet. His mom works two jobs and their landlord just raised the rent. Despite his father's attempts to get them to move to the suberbs, Nickel and his mother start searching for a new place. Their search takes them to an unexpecting ally with a door at the end and a brass nameplate which reads The Beastly Arms. The door opens and Mr. Beastly immediately turns them away. Then he sees Miriam in Nickel's pocket, his pet rat. Nickel's gut tells him there is something interesting and mysterious about Mr. Beastly, so he convinces his mother to rent an apartment from him, dirt cheap. Nickel then begins to unravel the secret Mr. Beastly is hiding.

This was a wonderful book. Definitely a page turner, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I could not wait to find out what the secret was Mr. Beastly was hiding, and I was not disappointed when I found out. The author does a great job of playing up the characters and building suspense. I can picture The Beastly Arms in my head as if I had seen it myself. I would recommend this book to all ages.