Is Underground [Library Binding]

Joan Aiken (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1999

The Children Of London Are Vanishing

No one knows why, so Is Twite, younger sister of Dido Twite (from Dido and Pa and Nightbirds on Nantucket), sets out to discover the whereabouts of Arun, her cousin, and Davie, the king's only son -- both missing.

Is soon finds herself aboard a secret midnight train heading north to Playland, a place of fun and frolic and dancing every night, or so they say....

Instead of fun, Is is heading straight into horrible, horrible danger...and exciting, terrifying adventure!


From the Trade Paperback edition.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The latest addition to the cycle begun with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase is just the sort of serious and thrilling fare young readers crave, a rip-roaring adventure in which a handful of good-hearted folk are pitted against a truly menacing villain. The children of London are steadily vanishing, and no one knows why. Is Twite (younger sister of Dido Twite, from Dido and Pa and Nightbirds on Nantucket ) sets out to discover the whereabouts of two lost children, her cousin Arun and Davie, the King's only son. Soon Is finds herself aboard a secret midnight train heading north to Playland, which--according to one of the many urchins also en route--is "a reel prime place . . . no work to do unless you fancies workin', fun an' frolic an' dancin' every night." In reality, the children's destination is a ghastly, underground slave labor camp ruled by the sinister Gold Kingy. Is realizes that she has been sent to rescue the children trapped in Gold Kingy's mines. Though jam-packed with strange details, quirky snatches of dialect and odd bits of rhyme, the story fairly gallops along; its momentum is only increased by Aiken's keen sense for the absolute terror of life under a dictatorship. No heavy-handed political allegory, this is a story of zest and sparkle, sad and frightening and defiantly hopeful all at once. Ages 10-14.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

The irrepressibly inventive Aiken returns to the Dickensian alternate Britain of Dido and Pa (1986) with a heroic adventure starring Dido's sister, Is. Ravening wolves pursue Is's uncle to her cottage; before expiring, he begs her to find his missing son. The quest leads Is to a London mysteriously bereft of children, including King Richard's only son, and on a dangerous mission to a new kingdom north of London, to which she travels on a train full of children convinced that they're on their way to ``Playland''--a cruel hoax: these innocents are to be enslaved in mines from which their only escape will be death. Feisty Is cleverly evades this fate, finds relatives to take her in, and learns that another uncle--a reprobate with even less to recommend him than her father--is the industrialist king and evil mastermind behind a vicious society that is literally expending its children in the service of greed. With courage, ingenuity, and telepathic communication, Is contrives--in a breathtaking climax--to free the children as a tidal wave destroys the villain's stronghold. The intricate story, rich with suspense, incisively drawn characters, and imaginative detail, comes to a largely tragic close, despite Is's triumph. Dark, compelling, and thoughtful--with hints of another sequel. (Fiction. 10-14) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Library Binding
• Publisher: Bt Bound (October 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785762299
• ISBN-13: 978-0785762294
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,868,523 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joan Aiken (1924-2004) was the daughter of Pulitzer prize winning poet Conrad Aiken and started writing herself from the age of five. During her lifetime she published over one hundred books for children and adults, including the acclaimed Wolves of Willoughby Chase series. In the UK she received an MBE from the Queen for her services to Children's Literature.

This year sees the publication of a brand NEW story collection - The Monkey's Wedding - with previously unpublished material that shows Aiken on top form. This collection of funny, spooky, unexpected but classic Aiken stories has received wonderful reviews and will delight her readers. See below for details.

Her work continues to be adapted for film and television; she is established as a consummate storyteller,and recognized as one of the best loved authors of the twentieth century.

"The Wonderful World of Joan Aiken" is at www.joanaiken.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not her best, June 4, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Is Underground (Hardcover)

I am a fan of the 'Wolves' series, but they are beginning to vary a lot in quality.

The first three, "The Wolves of Willoughby Chase", "Black Hearts in Battersea" and "Nightbirds on Nantucket" are all highly recommended. Unfortunately, there are numerous potboilers, in which Dido Twite is stuck in some strange place--"The Cuckoo Tree" et al.

The real story continues in "Dido and Pa." As Aiken's characters grow older, she loses her touch with them; this is why her adult stuff is much less interesting. "Is Underground" is pretty variable. The set-up, with the soccer bit, lacks Aiken's usual wit, and the mind-speech and other stuff seems forced. But Is's relationship with her grandfather and aunt is good. Gold Kingy is a yawn, compared to other villains like the Slighcarps and Dido's parents.

To answer your question: Dido and Penny are full sisters; Is is their younger illegitimate half-sister.

Re: the dispairing notes in Aiken's writing. See "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" regarding Aiken's family history.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Dark Continuation (ending?) of Aiken's Alternative History, June 9, 1999

By 

rampageous_cuss (Under Billy Penn's Hat) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Is Underground (Paperback)

I believe 'Black Hearts in Battersea' is the first novel in Joan Aiken's series of novels set in an alternative British Empire in which the Stuarts never left the throne and are constantly threatened by agents of the Hanoverian faction. Presumably this is the last, though I won't say why! The title is perhaps a TAD confusing: Is is the name of the foster-sister of the redoubtable Dido, the latter the star of the superb novel 'Nightbirds on Nantucket'. 'Is Underground' is a LOT darker than the previous novels and takes the theme of child labour, which runs through all Aiken's juvenile novels, to an extreme.

Is returns to London following the adventures of the previous novel ('Dido and Pa'?) to discover that the city is almost devoid of children - a mysterious pied piper has lured them north to the secessionist county ruled by the mysterious "Gold Kingy". The heir to the throne has disappeared in an attempt to solve the riddle and Is is sent on a mission by the ailing king himself to unravel the mystery. She finds a secret railway, an underground city and a horrible policy of cruelty to children that is surprisingly inventive, given the variety of English ideas on the subject from 'Chitty Chitty Bang-Bang' to Dahl's 'The Witches'.

All in all a good deal darker and a great deal less humourous than the preceding stories.

3.0 out of 5 stars A new heroine, February 18, 2010

By 

Chrijeff (Scranton, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Is Underground (Paperback)

The ninth volume in Aiken's Wolves Chronicles, set in an alternate early-19th-century England where the Stuarts kept the throne, shifts the series focus to Is (short for Isabella) Twite, the recently-discovered half-sister of irrepressible Dido. Living with their much-older sister Penny in an old barn in the forest, Is unexpectedly meets an uncle she didn't know she had, who is searching for his vanished son Arun, and agrees to take over the quest. Arun, it seems, has run away to London--where Is discovers that he isn't the only missing youngster; indeed, it seems that half the children in the city have disappeared from their accustomed haunts, including the only son of good King Richard, who begs her to add the Prince to her to-find list. Is isn't quite sure what she's letting herself in for, but she's a loyal subject of the crown (like her sister Dido, who's off visiting friends in America), and she agrees. The trail leads her to the North Country, which has seceded from the rest of England--under, as she discovers to her great surprise, yet another Twite uncle. And the economy of the place is dependent upon the labor of child slaves, including the vanished ones from London. Now Is must find a way to free them--and herself--and hopefully bring down her tyrannical uncle as well.

Based upon factual conditions, this book isn't for over-sensitive readers, and it also includes not only a great tsunami that destroys most of the North Country's underground civilization and its adult inhabitants, but also the murder of a cat (admittedly not a sympathetic one) and a major adult character. Is is brave, clever, resourceful, and self-reliant, but she somehow doesn't seem quite as vivid as her big sister. For those who require continuity in their book series, it's a necessary read, but not the best that Aiken has ever turned out.