Demonkeeper, by Royce Buckingham
Nat is a lonely young man. His mentor has recently died and his only companions are Flappy, Nikolai, and Pernicious, three small entities who help him guard his creaky houseful of smart aleck demons. Nat is unsure of his ability to control his demons and despairs of ever completely mastering the Demon Keeper's Journal; a book written by generations of Keepers and full of the knowledge necessary to keep the world safe. Unfortunately it's written in many more languages than the boy knows and he needs that information now. So nobody can blame Nat when he pushes responsibility aside and accepts a date with Sandy, the bookish junior assistant librarian; a shy young woman determined to learn adventurousness. But Nat's distraction leads to the unthinkable - the most dangerous demon under his keeping gets loose to terrorize Seattle. And even worse, the treacherous Thin Man knows that the Keeper is dead and is set to destroy the apprentice, Nat, and become an evil ruler of demons.
Demonkeeper is a fun adventure that will appeal to boys who like a little supernatural weirdness. The demons created by the author are imaginative, such as Goop, a green slime who likes to hide in his master's nostril, or Wedge, who's a destructive mobile crack in the earth happy to consume whatever, or whoever, his master allows. The author is a Washingtonian, and inserts details about Seattle locations that are fun to spot and add texture to the story.
Royce Buckingham will be appearing at the King County Library System Foundation's 2010 Literary Lions Gala.
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