
Matthew Tobin Anderson (M. T. Anderson), (1968- ) is an author, primarily of picture books for children and novels for young adults. Anderson lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His picture books include Handel Who Knew What He Liked; Strange Mr. Satie; The Serpent Came to Gloucester; and Me, All Alone, at the End of the World. He has written such young adult books as Thirsty, Burger Wuss, Feed, The Game of Sunken Places, and Octavian Nothing. For middle grader readers, his novels include Whales on Stilts: M. T. Anderson's Thrilling Tales and its sequel, The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen. -Wikipedia
Young Octavian is being raised by a group of rational philosophers known only by numbers — but it is only after he opens a forbidden door that learns the hideous nature of their experiments, and his own chilling role them. Set in Revolutionary Boston, M. T. Anderson’s mesmerizing novel takes place at a time when Patriots battled to win liberty while African slaves were entreated to risk their lives for a freedom they would never claim. The first of two parts, this deeply provocative novel reimagines past as an eerie place that has startling resonance for readers today.
All Chris really wants is to be a normal kid, to hang out with his friends, avoid his parents, and get a date with Rebecca Schwartz. Unfortunately, Chris appears to be turning into a vampire. So while his hometown performs an ancient ritual that keeps Tch'muchgar, the Vampire Lord, locked in another world, Chris desperately tries to save himself from his own vampiric fate. He needs help, but whom can he trust? A savagely funny tale of terror, teen angst, suspense, and satire from celebrated FEED author M. T. Anderson.
Identity crises, consumerism, and star-crossed teenage love in a futuristic society where people connect to the Internet via feeds implanted in their brains.For Titus and his friends, it started out like any ordinary trip to the moon—a chance to party during spring break and play with some stupid low-grav at the Ricochet Lounge. But that was before the crazy hacker caused all their feeds to malfunction, sending them to the hospital to lie around with nothing inside their heads for days. And it was before Titus met Violet, a beautiful, brainy teenage girl who has decided to fight the feed and its omnipresent ability to categorize human thoughts and desires. Following in the footsteps of George Orwell, Anthony Burgess, and Kurt Vonnegut Jr., M. T. Anderson has created a not-so-brave new world—and a smart, savage satire that has captivated readers with its view of an imagined future that veers unnervingly close to the here and now.
by M.T. Anderson
Rating: 4.4 ⭐
In September 1941, Adolf Hitler's Wehrmacht surrounded Leningrad in what was to become one of the longest and most destructive sieges in Western history—almost three years of bombardment and starvation. Trapped between the Nazi invading force and the Soviet government itself was composer Dmitri Shostakovich, writing a symphony to rouse, rally, eulogize, and commemorate his fellow citizens: the Leningrad Symphony. This is the true story of a city under siege, the triumph of bravery and defiance in the face of terrifying odds. It is also a look at the power—and layered meaning—of music in beleaguered lives. Symphony for the City of the Dead is a masterwork thrillingly told and impeccably researched by National Book Award–winning author M. T. Anderson.
An Atlantis-like city from Celtic legend is the setting of this mythical graphic novel fantasy re-imagining the classic Breton folktale of love, loss, and rebirth, revealing the secrets that lie beneath the surface..Ys, city of wealth and wonder, has a history of dark secrets. Queen Malgven used magic to raise the great walls that keep Ys safe from the tumultuous sea. But after the queen's inexplicable death, her daughters drift apart. Rozenn, the heir to the throne, spends her time on the moors communing with wild animals, while Dahut, the youngest, enjoys the splendors of royal life and is eager to take part in palace intrigue.
A New York Times bestseller!Subverting convention, award-winning creators M. T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin pair up for an anarchic, outlandish, and deeply political saga of warring elf and goblin kingdoms.Uptight elfin historian Brangwain Spurge is on a mission: survive being catapulted across the mountains into goblin territory, deliver a priceless peace offering to their mysterious dark lord, and spy on the goblin kingdom — from which no elf has returned alive in more than a hundred years. Brangwain’s host, the goblin archivist Werfel, is delighted to show Brangwain around. They should be the best of friends, but a series of extraordinary double crosses, blunders, and cultural misunderstandings throws these two bumbling scholars into the middle of an international crisis that may spell death for them — and war for their nations. Witty mixed media illustrations show Brangwain’s furtive missives back to the elf kingdom, while Werfel’s determinedly unbiased narrative tells an entirely different story. A hilarious and biting social commentary that could only come from the likes of National Book Award winner M. T. Anderson and Newbery Honoree Eugene Yelchin, this tale is rife with thrilling action and visual humor . . . and a comic disparity that suggests the ultimate victor in a war is perhaps not who won the battles, but who gets to write the history.
From the award-winning and best-selling author of Feed comes a raucous and slyly funny adult fiction debut, based on a bizarre but true quest to steal the mystical corpse of a long-dead saint.The year is 1087, and a pox is sweeping through the Italian city of Bari. When a lowly monk is visited by Saint Nicholas in his dreams, he interprets the vision as a call to serve the sick. But his superiors, and the power brokers they serve, have different plans for the tender-hearted Brother Nicephorus.Enter Tyun, a charismatic treasure hunter renowned for “liberating” holy relics from their tombs. The seven-hundred-year-old bones of Saint Nicholas are rumored to weep a mysterious liquid that can heal the sick, Tyun says. For the humble price of a small fortune, he will steal the bones and deliver them to Bari, curing the plague and restoring glory to the fallen city. And Nicephorus, the “dreamer,” will be his guide.What follows is a heist for the ages, as Nicephorus is swept away on strange tides, and alongside even stranger bedfellows, to commit sacrilegious theft. Based on real historical accounts, Nicked is a wildly imaginative, genre-defying, and delightfully queer adventure – a swashbuckling saga, a medieval novel noir, a meditation on the miraculous, and a monastic meet-cute, filled with wide-eyed wonder at the world that awaits beyond our own borders.
When the vuvv first landed, it came as a surprise to aspiring artist Adam and the rest of planet Earth - but not necessarily an unwelcome one. Can it really be called an invasion when the vuvv generously offered free advanced technology and cures for every illness imaginable? As it turns out, yes. With his parents' jobs replaced by alien tech and no money for food, clean water, or the vuvv's miraculous medicine, Adam and his girlfriend, Chloe, have to get creative to survive. And since the vuvv crave anything they deem "classic" Earth culture (doo-wop music, still-life paintings of fruit, true love), recording 1950s-style dates for the vuvv to watch in a pay-per-minute format seems like a brilliant idea. But it's hard for Adam and Chloe to sell true love when they hate each other more with every passing episode. Soon enough, Adam must decide how far he's willing to go - and what he's willing to sacrifice - to give the vuvv what they want.
"A novel of the first rank, the kind of monumental work Italo Calvino called 'encyclopedic' in the way it sweeps up history into a comprehensible and deeply textured pattern." -- The New York Times Book ReviewFearing a death sentence, Octavian and his tutor, Dr. Trefusis, escape through rising tides and pouring rain to find shelter in British-occupied Boston. Sundered from all he knows -- the College of Lucidity, the rebel cause -- Octavian hopes to find safe harbor. Instead, he is soon to learn of Lord Dunmore's proclamation offering freedom to slaves who join the counterrevolutionary forces.In Volume II of his unparalleled masterwork, M. T. Anderson recounts Octavian's experiences as the Revolutionary War explodes around him, thrusting him into intense battles and tantalizing him with elusive visions of liberty. Ultimately, this astonishing narrative escalates to a startling, deeply satisfying climax, while reexamining our national origins in a singularly provocative light.
A magical adventure about a boy and his dog—or a dog and her boy—and a forest of wonders hidden in plain sight.Clay has had his fill of home life. A global plague has brought the world to a screeching halt, and with little to look forward to but a summer of video-calling friends, vying with annoying sisters for the family computer, and tuning out his parents’ financial worries, he’s only too happy to retreat to the woods. From the moment the elegant little dog with the ornate collar appears like an apparition among the trees, Clay sees something uncanny in her. With this mysterious Elphinore as guide, he’ll glimpse ancient secrets folded all but invisibly into the forest. Each day the dog leads Clay down paths he never knew existed, deeper into the unknown. But they aren’t alone in their surreal adventures. There are traps and terrors in the woods, too, and if Clay isn’t careful, he might stray off the path and lose his way forever.
3 Hours and 3 MinutesLily Gefelty is just an average twelve-year-old girl. But her dad–a normal-enough seeming guy–just so happens to work for an evil genius who plans to unleash an army of extremely cranky, stilt-walking, laser-beam-eyed whales upon the world. Lucky for Lily, her two best friends are anything but average. Both of them are famous for their adventures. Jasper Dash, Boy Technonaut, invents gadgets; Katie Mulligan spends her spare time fighting off zombies and were-goats. Surely they'll know what to do. And if they don't? then it will be up to Lily–average, everyday Lily–to come up with a plan.With this crazy comic ride of a novel, M. T. Anderson launches a riotous and wonderfully weird new series for listeners who like their thrilling tales with tongue firmly in cheek.
When Brian and Gregory receive an invitation to stay at a distant relative's strange manse . . . well, they should know better than to go, since this is a middle-grade adventure novel. But they go anyway. Why not? Once there, they stumble upon The Game of Sunken Places, a board game that mirrors a greater game in which they have suddenly become players. Soon the boys are dealing with attitudinal trolls, warring kingdoms, and some very starchy britches. Luckily, they have wit, deadpan observation, and a keen sense of adventure on their side.
In his first graphic novel, National Book Award winner M. T. Anderson turns to Arthurian lore, with captivating art by Andrea Offermann bringing the classic legend to life.Eager for glory and heedless of others, Sir Yvain sets out from King Arthur’s court and defeats a local lord in battle, unknowingly intertwining his future with the lives of two compelling women: Lady Laudine, the beautiful widow of the fallen lord, and her sly maid Lunette. In a stunning visual interpretation of a 12th century epic poem by Chrétien de Troyes, readers are — at first glance — transported into a classic Arthurian romance complete with errant knights, plundering giants, and fire-breathing dragons. A closer look, however, reveals a world rich with unspoken emotion. Striking, evocative art by Andrea Offermann sheds light upon the inner lives of medieval women and the consequences Yvain’s oblivious actions have upon Laudine and Lunette. Renowned author M. T. Anderson embraces a new form with a sophisticated graphic novel that challenges Yvain’s role as hero, delves into the honesty and anguish of love, and asks just how fundamentally the true self can really change.
Anthony is a wuss - until the day he finds his girlfriend, Diana, in Turner's arms! Anthony vows revenge and devises The Plan which involves an anarchist, a condiment trolley, and a 1985 Oldsmobile named Margot. But when these ingredients are finally put together, will he be satisfied?Hoping to lose his loser image, Anthony plans revenge on a bully which results in a war between two competing fast food restaurants, Burger Queen and O'Dermott's.
The journey through the rift becomes even rockier as the survivors are forced to take to the water, crossing a vast lake on improvised boats.But halfway across, they discover something is tracking them from deep beneath surface, a colossal monster that's stranger--and larger--than anything they've encountered yet.New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award winner M.T. Anderson (Feed) helms this heart-pounding voyage in the epic survival series begun by Scott Westerfeld (Uglies).Bonus: Play the action-packed HORIZON game for free on your browser, tablet, or phone. Each book in the series unlocks exclusive rewards. Do you have what it takes to survive? www.scholastic.com/horizon
In serious need of a vacation after their last laser-beam-filled exploit, Lily, Jasper, and Katie have dashed off in their Gyroscopic Sky Suite for a restful sojourn at the Moose Tongue Lodge and Resort, a stunning spot filled with roaring fires, Cocoa Splurges, and many fine displays of taxidermy. But in a bizarre turn of events, a number of other children’s book heroes also happen to be unwinding at the vintage mountain retreat, including the dim but well-built Manley Boys, the boy-crazy Cutesy Dell Twins, and Eddie Wax from the little-known classic Stumpy Rides to Glory. And then there are the adorable mystery-solving Hooper Quints, who, along with a wealthy heiress’s priceless diamond necklace and numerous mounted animal heads, have suddenly gone missing. Meaningless coincidence? Or could it all be part of a nefarious plot involving duct tape, some Bavarian folk pants, and a slew of counterfeit dinner coupons? Tough to say, but one thing’s for sure: Katie, Lily, and Jasper are the only swell youngsters around who can solve this spine-tingling mystery
6 Hours and 57 MinutesIt is a land of wonders!It is a land of mystery.It is a land that time forgot (or chose specifically not to remember).Cut off from the civilized world for untold years, this land is called:It is into the mist-shrouded heart of this forbidden, mountainous realm that our plucky and intrepid heroes, Jasper Dash: Boy Technonaut and his friends Lily Gefelty and Katie Mulligan, must journey to unravel a terrible mystery.Come along on a tale of grand adventure that includes in its pages: Lost cities! Tentacles! Monks! Dinosaurs! Gangsters! Cheap suits! Eye doctors! And, of course, the fabled CURSE OF THE JAGUAR!
From the celebrated picture-book team of M. T. Anderson and Kevin Hawkes comes a wistful, wondrous ode to the natural pleasures of peace and solitude.The boy lives alone at the End of the World, hunting treasure with old maps, finding fossils, whistling tunes, playing ball by the drop. It's a peaceful, contemplative life, and the boy is content. Until, that is, a self-styled Professional Visionary arrives and puts up a CONSTANTINE SHIMMER'S GALVANO-MAGICAL END OF THE WORLD TOURS. FUN ALL THE TIME! Soon men with machines come to pave a clearing for the inn and theme park, and the touring children seem nice, but still. . . . M. T. Anderson's lyric homage to simplicity and self-reliance is brought to life in arresting detail by the masterful artwork of Kevin Hawkes, creating a fantastical yet evocative world sure to resonate with everyone who enters it.
George Frideric Handel was not your everyday eighteenth-century composer. And in a manner befitting its subject, this witty, rigorously researched, and accessible biography captures Handel's essential spirit — from a child who smuggled a clavichord into the attic to make music against his father's orders to a young man who imported forty-five pounds of mountain snow to chill wine for a gala. LOS ANGELES TIMES Book Prize winner M. T. Anderson depicts not only Handel's triumphs but also his struggles, chronicling the illness, ill fortune, and despair that led to his greatest achievement, the Messiah. With impeccable detail and a wink at the reader, Kevin Hawkes illustrates this singular story of Handel and the music through which he lives on.
An award-winning author and illustrator present a tribute to the beauty and mystery of the ocean.It came from the sea, from the lonely sea,It came from the glittering sea.In a small Massachusetts fishing village in August of 1817, dozens of citizens claimed to have seen an enormous sea serpent swimming off the coast. Terrified at first, the people of Gloucester eventually became quite accustomed to their new neighbor. Adventure seekers came from miles around to study the serpent and aggressively hunt it down, but the creature eluded capture. The Gloucester sea serpent was then, and remains now, a complete mystery. Reviving the rhythms and tone of a traditional sea chanty, M.T. Anderson recounts this exhilarating sea adventure through the eyes of a little boy who secretly hopes for the serpent's survival. The author's captivating verse is paired with Bagram Ibatoulline's luminous paintings, created in the spirit of nineteenth-century New England maritime artists.
From bestselling and National Book Award-winning author M.T. Anderson, a return to the world of THE GAME OF SUNKEN PLACESSomething very strange is happening in Vermont. It's not The Game of Sunken Places - Brian and Gregory have been through that before, and there's not supposed to be another Game until they say there's a Game. But still . . . when they go to visit a relative in the Vermont woods, they find many things are . . . off. Like, people aren't where they're supposed to be. And houses are everywhere. In fact, the houses seem to be taking over.
Take twenty top kids’ authors and illustrators. Give them free rein to take turns creating a zany progressive story. What could possibly happen next?It all starts with a train rushing through the night. . . . Well, actually, it starts when Jon Scieszka, former National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, writes a cliff-hanger episode and passes it on to the next member of a cast of celebrated writers and illustrators, who continues the story and passes it on. And what happens between episodes one and twenty-seven? Think werewolves and mad scientists, a talking pig, plenty of explosions, a blue Star Wars lunchbox, two meatballs, a whole army of villains and varmints, and one just plain bad egg. Not to mention our heroes, eleven-year-old twins Nancy and Joe, raised in a circus, who must find the pieces of a Top-Secret Robot in order to rescue their parents before . . . tick, tick, tick!
It's time for Lily, Katie, and Jasper to head home from their exciting Delaware adventure, but the Awful Autarch's spies and goons are everywhere, and it's clear that *they* have other plans for our three intrepid heroes. Chock full of ups, downs, twists, turns, and even a band of sentient lobsters fighting on the side of Good, this fourth installment of the Pals in Peril series is every bit as wild, wacky, and wonderfully outrageous as the first three.
In Paris, at the turn of the twentieth century, when artists were experimenting with new ways of seeing things, Erik Satie had something new to say about music. Most people didn't understand his pieces; critics called his music surreal. But Erik Satie didn't care. He wanted to make music that followed no rules but its own. Satie's life was strange and wonderful, frenetic and lonely all at the same time. He was friends with Picasso, and with wizards and puppeteers; he scraped himself with a stone instead of bathing, and he once threw his acrobat girlfriend out a window. Now award-winning author M. T. Anderson tells the story of the irreverent French composer in a biography that is witty, accessible, and endlessly surprising, while Petra Mathers' fanciful illustrations capture all the vibrancy that was Erik Satie's topsy-turvy world.Illustrations by Petra Mathers.
Our intrepid heroes are home from their Delaware crime-stopping excitement, only to discover that Lily’s mom has become possessed by a menacing zombie who wants to take over the world! (Or, at least, the world of stage and screen.) Thank goodness Lily’s friends Katie, Jasper, and foxy Blue-Hen-State monk Drgnan Pghlik are around—accompanied by Jasper’s Astounding High-Pressure Holy Water Extruder Gun, of course—to help save the day. But not before some truly scary things happen, things involving stuff like killer tarantulas, web-footed teen vampire boys, bad weather (it’s a horror novel, remember?), and, well…the rest is just too terrifying for words!
In the sixth and final Pals in Peril adventure, Jasper Dash is off into the universe to search for his long lost father! In this action-packed conclusion to the celebrated Pals in Peril series, Jasper Dash soars to unprecedented heights--as in, intergalactic, out-of-this-world dimensions--in order to locate the father he's never known. And if Jasper's previous adventures are any indication, this is going to be one stellar expedition!
Murder! Mystery! Rebellion! From bestselling and National Book Award-winning author M.T. Anderson, a third visit to the world of THE GAME OF SUNKEN PLACES.The land of New Norumbega is an unusual one--an empire of gut and bone, a kingdom of blood and mucus. At its dark, dry heart is a ruling class that doesn't care about much besides itself . . . and a ruler who is (literally) a one-eyed stump of flesh.Brian and Gregory have come to New Norumbega for a reason--to get the Norumbegans to help them thwart an alien attack back home on earth. But instead, the two boys find themselves caught up in both a robot rebellion and a murder mystery after one of the Norumbegan leaders is sent to sleep . . . permanently.In New Norumbega, it's very hard to know who to trust. There are assassins around every corner, and secrets pave every conversation. Brian and Gregory will be lucky to make it out alive, never sure if they are meant to catch the murderer . . . or be the killer's next victim.
From National Book Award and Printz Honor winner M.T. Anderson comes the amazing conclusion to his Norumbegan Quartet!Brian and Gregory have seen it all. They've played a strange, twisty game and won, and then created their own...sort of. They've gone to investigate intergalactic suburban sprawl that was infringing on the Vermont forests, and landed in the empire of New Norumbega inside the huge body of an alien. They've escaped certain death, walked right into it, and wreaked small amounts of havoc of their own. And finally, they're going to make sense of all their travels and adventures...if they possibly can! Part fantasy, part mystery, part quest, part Monty Python, the Game of Sunken Places #4 brings to a close the incredible, strange, funny journey of Brian and Gregory, as only the masterful M. T. Anderson could.
Two fake psychics, one real haunted house—what could go wrong? A short story from Guys Thriller , edited by Jon Scieszka.
When the SHTF (Stuff Hits the Fan), will you be prepared for it?If you don't have a bug out bag ready, you're going to waste valuable time gathering resources when you should be on the road. Having a bug out bag ready will allow you to get on the road ahead of the sweaty masses and avoid the mass exodus of people and the associated traffic jams that could put your life at risk.This book lays out everything you need to have in your bug out bag to ensure survival. Even if you have a bag ready, you may be woefully unprepared for the worst the world has to offer.