Lady Friday (Keys to the Kingdom Series #5) by Garth Nix

From Barnes & Noble

Could it be worse? Four of the seven Trustees have been defeated and stripped of their keys; Suzy Blue and Fred Gold Numbers have been captured by the Piper, whose New Nithling brigades control most of the Great Maze. Meanwhile, Superior Saturday is raising havoc wherever she can, turning off elevators and blocking the front door. In the midst of this depressing chaos, Arthur must weigh a suspicious offer from Lady Friday. No doubt about it: The race to find the secret of the Middle House is on!

From the Publisher

Four of the seven trustees have been defeated and their Keys taken, but for Arthur Penhaligon, the week is still getting worse. His friends have been captured by the Piper, and the New Nithling army still controls most of the Great Maze. Meanwhile, Superior Saturday is causing trouble wherever she can, including turning off all the elevators in the House and blocking the Front Door to prevent escape.

Amidst all this trouble, Arthur must weigh an offer from Lady Friday that is either a cunning trap for the Rightful Heir, or a golden opportunity he must seize before Superior Saturday or the Piper beats him to it. The race to find the secret of the Middle House is on--and Arthur is in the thick of it.

Children's Literature

After having defeated Sir Thursday, Arthur Penhaligon, reluctant Rightful Heir to all the Houses of the Architect, is barely given time to sleep—and none to return to his family on Earth—when he is literally cast into the fray against his next opponent. Lady Friday is a bit quirkier than former enemies: it seems she has developed a taste for the memory-laden souls of Earthlings. While Arthur's old friend Leaf single-handedly faces these horrors, our hero must first search for the next bit of the Will. This endeavor has Nix's imagination working at full speed. His Denizen Paper Pushers and their canal fueled by words is an amusing conceit. And it is a relief to learn that the new Will extract is both civilized and rational. As for the Pied Piper and his children . . . . Well, readers already hooked on the series will have to plow into Book Five to find out more. And they most certainly will, because Arthur is an attractive hero. He is honest and faithful, and as he grows into his otherworldly role, one can only cheer him on in hopes that he will somehow manage to retain his sympathetic mortal nature.

VOYA

Young Arthur Penhaligon has bested four of the renegade trustees of the Will left by the great Architect, the missing creator of both the House and the secondary universes that are dependent on the House. Now, though, in this fifth installment of the wonderful and extremely complex Keys to the Kingdom series, he must defeat both the wicked Lady Friday and the mysterious Piper if he is to have any hope of gaining his due as Rightful Heir. Lady Friday, the fifth trustee, claims that she is prepared to abdicate and insists that she has left her segment of the Will up for grabs. As Arthur, aided by his friends Suzy and Fred, journeys through the dangerous Middle House in an attempt to beat the Piper and also Superior Saturday to the fifth part of the Will, he must deal with both Lady Friday's treachery and a variety of dangerous Denizens of the House. Meanwhile his friend Leaf, having been captured by Lady Friday, must defeat her plan to "experience" the memories of thousands of human beings, stolen from the current world, leaving them as little more than empty husks. Although Nix's latest volume might not stand well on its own, it continues the enormous inventiveness that has been the hallmark of the series. Eccentric characters, wonderfully literalized metaphors, and difficult moral decisions abound here, and the book should further delight Nix's many fans.

Cheri DobbsCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information. - School Library Journal

Gr 6-9
Arthur Penhaligon is having a bad week. Of course he is now "Lord Arthur, Rightful Heir to the Architect, Commander of the Army of the Architect, and a whole lot of other stuff" since defeating Sir Thursday, but his job certainly isn't any easier. Lady Friday has supposedly abandoned her claim to the Middle House, and she has challenged Arthur, the Piper, and Superior Saturday to find the Fifth Key and gain control of the Middle. Meanwhile, Arthur's friend Leaf has been captured by Lady Friday and is being used to lure Arthur into her trap. She has become obsessed with "Experiencing" mortal memories and is bent on taking as many humans as she can. As with other books in the series, this story is replete with characters that are good, bad, and ambiguous. The plot is complex, and readers need to read the four previous books to have any sense of what is going on in this one. As always, Nix's writing is witty and the plays on words are entertaining. The author gives just enough new information to keep the series' fans coming back for more, but he doesn't answer many questions.

Product Details

• ISBN: 0439436583
  
• ISBN-13: 9780439436588
• Format: Paperback, 304pp
• Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
• Pub. Date: May 2008
• Edition Description: Reprint
• Sales Rank: 10,488
• Age Range: 9 to 12
• Series: Keys to the Kingdom Series, #5