The main character, ten-year-old Peter Nimble, was reminiscent of Neil Gaiman’s Bod Owens – two loving, smart boys, born into horrifying circumstances that will either make them heroes or destroy them. The enthusiastic and confident cadence of the book and the focus on children, largely separate from and uncared for by adults, evoked J.M. Auxier possesses an expert understanding of how to engage children and to guide them through a winding and complex tale with constantly changing scenery. There were a few mysteries in the book that I felt were a little too solvable as an adult, but rather than being disappointed, my daughter was thrilled and proud to figure them out before the book disclosed them. When a villain tells Peter Nimble that he’s “just a child,” this young girl proclaims, “There’s no such thing as just a child.” This belief in the intelligence and capability of children propels the book forward and endears the narrator and the story itself to the reader. Peter Nimble and his Fantastic Eyes is so much fun to read aloud that, for the first time in ten years of reading to her, my daughter jumped in to take over the reading – specifically to give voice to a ten-year-old heroine.
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