The League of Seven

Gr 4–6—The Septemberist Society is a secret society that remembers the past and watches for signs that the Mangleborn might escape from underground prisons the Ancient League built for them. Septemberists exist because "people didn't want to know there were really monsters in the world" as they wait for a new League of Seven to be born to fight the ever-lurking evil in this steampunk world. Archie, born to Septemberist parents, is thrust into the middle of a massive Mangleborn uprising after his parents are attacked by tentacled, buglike manglespawn. Our reluctant hero now has his quest assignment: to save his parents, and in doing so, prevent the darkness that lives beneath the swamps of Florida from taking over the world. Every reluctant hero needs trusty sidekicks—Archie has Mr. Rivets, his Tik-Tok machine-man servant; Fergus, a boy working with Edison on "lektricity"; and Hachi, a First Nations girl who has dedicated her life to being a warrior. Together, they must battle Manglespawn monsters, armies of insect men, and Edison's assassinbot. And if they succeed? Well, as Archie would say, that would be so brass. This steampunk love-letter set in an alternative 1870s America, packs in quite a lot of action, if sometimes at the expense of character development. So many steampunk elements have been worked into book that readers may experience sensory overload. The first installment in a planned trilogy.—Meg Allison, The Moretown School, VT