The Twelve-Fingered Boy

From the Series The Twelve-Fingered Boy Trilogy

  • Interest Level: Grade 9 - Grade 12
  • Reading Level: Grade 7

Fifteen-year-old Shreve Cannon doesn’t mind juvie. He’s got a good business dealing contraband candy, and three meals a day are more than his drunk mother managed to provide. In juvie, the rules never change and everyone is the same. In juvie, Shreve has life figured out. Then the new fish shows up.

Jack’s a quiet kid. Small. Cries himself to sleep too. He’s no standard-issue titty-baby, though. There’s his hands—more specifically his fingers, all twelve of ‘em. And when he gets angry, something weird happens. The air wavers. You feel a slight pressure in your chest. And then…well, best take cover.

Jack isn’t the only new face in juvie. There’s Mr. Quincrux. Quincrux has an unusual interest in Jack and Shreve, and it quickly becomes clear that innocent bystanders aren’t going to get in his way. So Jack and Shreve bust out.

On the lam, they quickly discover that Jack has abilities—hell, superpowers—that might just give them a fighting chance against Quincrux, if they can stay alive long enough to figure them out.

Format Your Price Add
978-1-4677-7086-6
$23.99
Available at all major wholesalers and distributors. Save 25% off list price on hardcovers and ebooks when you buy direct! Digital purchases will be accessed on Lerner Digital Bookshelf. An account will be created for you after purchase.
Interest Level Grade 9 - Grade 12
Reading Level Grade 7
Genre Young Adult
Copyright 2013
Publisher Lerner Publishing Group
Imprint Carolrhoda Lab ®
Language English
Number of Pages 280
Publication Date 2014-08-01
Reading Counts! Level 3.7
Text Type Fiction—Science Fiction/Fantasy
BISACS YAF045000, YAF001000, YAF019020
Dewey [Fic]
Dimensions 5.25 x 7.5
Lexile 650
ATOS Reading Level 4.1
Accelerated Reader® Quiz 156825
Accelerated Reader® Points 8.0
Features Author/Illustrator biography, Awards, Reviewed, and Starred Reviews

Author: John Hornor Jacobs

John Hornor Jacobs is the author of several critically acclaimed novels, including The Twelve-Fingered Boy

and The Shibboleth. He lives in Arkansas with his family.

Awards

  • YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, Winner, 2015
  • Children's Book Committee at Bank Street College Best Children's Book of the Year, Winner, 2014

Reviews

The Horn Book Magazine

“Readers will enjoy this trilogy debut, a wild and riveting tale full of allusions to fairy tales, movies, and comic book heroes…Polydactyl heroes are rare in children’s literature, and so are novels like this that make the fantastical utterly believable.” —The Horn Book Magazine

School Library Journal

“Shreve is an admirable, wise protagonist…. Fans of Alexander Gordon Smith’s ‘Escape from Furnace’ series (Farrar) will enjoy the fast-paced paranormal twists this novel offers, and the ending will leave them wanting more.” —School Library Journal

Booklist

“Jacobs’ storytelling has the effortless velocity of early Dean Koontz, and his prose is textured with hard-boiled grit… An expertly spiced stew of attitude, humor, horror, and grief.” —starred, Booklist

Publishers Weekly

“It’s a little bit Shawshank Redemption, a little bit X-Men, as adult author Jacobs (This Dark Earth) launches a promising trilogy about superhuman teens… [T]he premise is sound, Shreve’s hard-edged narrative voice is strong, and Jacobs skillfully builds tension and mystery throughout.” —Publishers Weekly

Brenna Yovanoff

“A fast-paced, ferocious nightmare of a story—gritty, magical, and surprisingly tender.” –Brenna Yovanoff, New York Times Bestselling author of The Replacement

Andrew Smith

“John Hornor Jacobs’s The Twelve-Fingered Boy is a thrill ride. With candy. And polydactyl, reluctantly heroic kids who go up against all odds in a world of uncontrollable superpowers and unrelenting bad guys. Exciting, suspenseful, creepy, and fun—The Twelve-Fingered Boy is a terrific, fast-paced read!” —Andrew Smith, award-winning author of The Marbury Lens and Stick

Jonathan Maberry

“John Hornor Jacobs conjures dark magic with The Twelve-Fingered Boy. A powerful new voice whispering out of the dark. A brilliant first YA novel!” —Jonathan Maberry, author of the acclaimed Rot and Ruin, New York Times bestselling author of The King of Plagues and Patient Zero