Wednesday Weeks and the dungeon of fire by Denis Knight and Cristy Burne

Denis Knight (science fiction and fantasy author and computer programmer) and Cristy Burne (children's author and science communicator) have done it again. Wednesday Weeks and the dungeon of fire is the third Wednesday Weeks book and these stories, rather than running out of steam (as sometimes happens with series) seem to be getting, if it were even possible, better and better. 

The stories are told with the immediacy of the first person; the narrator being Wednesday Weeks. The interaction between the characters is delightful.  The wit is snap-crackle sharp; the characters' relationships are skilfully drawn. Who would think that readers could relate to a talking skull called Bruce but he's a wise-cracking old thing whose survival we care about as much as Wednesday, Alfie and Grandpa. Our four heroes save the nine realms from the evil Gorgomoth's Third Age of Never-Ending Darkness and bring their regular, normal Science teacher, Mrs Glock, the year sixes and the school inspector Rixon from the Board of Education through world's of heart stopping adventure and danger safely back to class. They travel through realms of unfriendly cats, live volcanoes and more trying to beat Gorgomoth the goblin king to the long lost Stone of Power. 

Along the way many obstacles are ingeniously overcome. It is the lessons learnt in school Science/STEM lessons that are applied to saving their lives from hair raising, terrifying situations. At the end of the book are some pages of activities related to the solutions that our heroes had to come up with to save themselves. Concepts of magnetism, energy transformation and gravity and balance and solving of  logic puzzles and hidden messages that the children have learnt at school combined with a few magic spells (which Wednesday is controlling a little better) are employed to rescue all from dire danger.

Dialogue between the characters is on pitch, hilarious, informal and smart as a whip. The book could be opened at any page and read to the delight of the year 5, 6 or 7 age group in particular. It's clever, energetic, sassy and very well written. Not only is it about magic and adventure, it is also about true friendship. 

Wednesday Weeks and the dungeon of fire is a funny, beautiful book, part of a funny, clever series. 

Highly recommended for Middle Years readers.

Themes: STEM, School, Friendship, Magic, Adventure.

Wendy Jeffrey