Danger Guys [Turtleback]

Tony Abbott (Author)

Product Details

• Turtleback
• Publisher: Demco Media (May 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0606063064
• ISBN-13: 978-0606063067
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,580,636 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

To begin with, I was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and lived in a small house on top of a hill. Together, my mother, a school teacher, and my father, a returning World War II paratrooper pursuing his college studies, brought tons of books into our small house on Cliffview Road. I guess you could say that these books were my first introduction to the world of literature. My father was always writing, so the sound of the typewriter was like the background music of my early childhood.


When I was eight, we relocated, by car, to Connecticut where I finished elementary school and high school. I went to college at the University of Connecticut, majoring first in music (too hard), psychology (too many theories), and finally English (yes! lot and lots of books!). I graduated UConn with a bachelors degree in English Literature. After that, I traveled to Europe for quite a while, drank a lot of coffee, and wrote notebooks full of strange poetry. When I returned, I found work in a variety of bookstores and finally a library where I met my wife to be.


It was when I began reading bedtime stories to my children that the spark of writing I had had for so many years finally turned to children's books. After many failures, my first published book, Danger Guys, was written while taking a writing class with renowned children's author, Patricia Reilly Giff. That first book, and the series that it began, became the cornerstone of my writing career and has become something of a cult favorite, by virtue of its being difficult to find. Since then, I've written over seventy-five books for readers ages 6 to 14, including the cult favorit popular fantasy saga, The Secrets of Droon.


Over 8 million of my books have been sold worldwide, and my series and novels combined have been translated into Italian, Spanish, Korean, French, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, and Russian. Danger Guys was named a Children's Book-of-the-Month Club Main Selection, and the American Booksellers Association voted The Secrets of Droon among the "Top 10 List of Books to Read while Waiting for the Next Harry Potter." The series was also a Main Selection of the Children's Book-of-the-Month Club, and is on many school and library reading lists.


In 2007, my novel Firegirl won the Golden Kite Award for Fiction presented by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. It is the only award given by children's writers to children's writers, a peer award I remain honored at having received. It was also a selection of the Junior Library Guild.


In the Spring of 2008, my second novel for Little, Brown Books for Young Readers appeared. The Postcard is a comedy/mystery about a boy who finds a clue on an old postcard while cleaning his recently deceased grandmother's Florida house, and who has no choice but to follow the mystery wherever it leads. Among other things, The Postcard is my love song to Florida's Gulf Coast, where my grandparents lived, and to old Florida, its architecture, roadside attractions, and Wild-West origins. It is, not least, my homage to the great hardboiled tradition of Hammett and Chandler, translated to a Florida setting. The Postcard won the 2009 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Juvenile Mystery.

In 2009, The Haunting of Derek Stone, a series of four books for older readers, appeared from Scholastic Inc. Titles include: City of the Dead, Bayou Dogs, The Red House, and The Ghost Road.

My literary and cultural interests include the films of Preston Sturges, the Road pictures of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, and the Marx Brothers, and the writings of Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, P.G. Wodehouse, Jules Verne, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Seamus Heaney, Emily Dickinson, Ted Hughes, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, The Arabian Nights, Beowulf, James Thurber, Philip Roth, Ralph Ellison, and William Faulkner. I'm currently a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, the Yale Center for British Art, and other esteemed organizations. With my wonderful wife, two delightful and brilliant daughters, and the best dog imaginable, I live and work happily in Connecticut.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast paced fun for lads and dads, May 10, 2000

By 

A reader in Northern Virginia - See all my reviews

This review is from: Danger Guys (A Trophy Chapter Book) (Paperback)

Just call me Noodle! You might as well, since that's what my son now calls me. But then again, he's become Zeek, and together we're the DANGER GUYS! Mom doesn't understand yet, but hey, she hasn't read the first installment in Tony Abbott's hugely entertaining Danger Guys series. You see, one morning Noodle Newton and his best friend Zeek Pilinsky rush off to the grand opening of the new adventure store, Danger Guys. These kids revel in adventure, and they covet the physical manifestations of grand exploration. In other words, they're into the "gear" - leather jackets, army belts, backpacks, flashlights, ropes, mess kits, weather balloons - you get the idea -- and the Danger Guys store is brimming with all the right "stuff." But before the boys catch their breath, they've unwittingly stepped into a swashbuckling chain of events reminiscent of Indiana Jones at his best. Fortunately, Zeek and Noodle are resilient and resourceful, and they leverage their limited resources to foil the bad guys' nefarious plans. The action proceeds at a brisk pace, with crisp descriptions of surprising obstacles and unexpected challenges. There's just enough black-and-white art preceding each chapter to continuously draw the young readers in and to propel the story along. The author skillfully subjects the intrepid duo to seemingly insurmountable challenges, while avoiding needless gore and without scaring young readers. Danger Guys is the kind of light-hearted, rollicking romp that parents will enjoy reading, particularly to the extent that it makes their little folks crave more. My son can't wait to read the next installment, Danger Guys Blast Off. As for me, I'll simply agree with Noodle and Zeek - "it just doesn't get any better."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book to Read to your Class, January 28, 2000

By 

"angeloura" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Danger Guys (A Trophy Chapter Book) (Paperback)

I currently teach first grade. I was looking for a book that was something I could read to the class that had chapters. I found Danger Guys and was pleasantly surprised to see how well it worked as a read-out-loud book. There are lots of sound effects and action that keep first graders interested. They have begged me to read them the next books in the series, because they got very attached to the characters Zeek and Noodle. Over-all, its a very good book.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars 1st graders will miss the weaknesses of the book, December 14, 1999

By 

W. Fish (Midwest United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Danger Guys (A Trophy Chapter Book) (Paperback)

A good children's book should be, to some degree, rewarding and enjoyable to children and adult readers. This one wasn't. It reads like a story being made up as it's told with the pieces not well thought out. It's good practice for the beginning reader but there are many series of better quality.