The Very Dangerous Sisters of Indigo McCloud

Gr 4-7–The title says it all. Indigo McCloud, a boy whose hair turned grey after his mother’s untimely death, lives in the quirky town of Blunt with very dangerous sisters. His older sister Peaches, blonde-haired and blue-eyed, is a juvenile terrorist, assisted by sisters Root, Berry, and Tsunami (“Su”). Her ruthless demands, combined with her gaslighting of adult authorities and her maniacal retributions, strike fear into children. Those who cross her, like schoolmate Lucy Jones, end up dumped into glue, plastered with breadcrumbs, and attacked by passing geese. In subsequent chapters, Peaches’s personalized attacks are aimed at Mandy and Oswald Tripes, chestnut-haired rivals in a school fundraising competition. Indigo, an expert in traveling and rappelling from city buildings, works with his literal-minded, intelligence-providing friend Polly to save Peaches’s targets. Picture Blunt as something out of Roald Dahl’s imagination, with a plastic Christmas tree factory belching smoke and a town celebration of “Ingratitude Day” harkening back to a 12th-century failed siege, during which citizens hurl insults at each other. While there is a ridiculous quality to Blunt, Peaches’s unadulterated violence and hatred are highly menacing. The book’s pacing keeps readers on tenterhooks, seeing Indigo’s underdog efforts against Peaches as an epic battle of good versus evil. Spoiler alert—Peaches is not redeemable, and readers may be slightly disappointed at the quick wrap up with no guarantee against her future escapades.