Keys To The Kingdom: Mister Monday

I've read the entire series before, but my memory really isn't great so I only remember little bits and pieces. I've often thought about the series in the years since finishing it and thought it was time for a reread.

I'd forgotten just how good these books are. Mister Monday is a strong start to the series. It introduces the House and gives an idea for it's workings in a way that makes you feel like there's more to learn, but you're not lost.

Arthur is a great hero. For starters, he has asthma which is pretty unique. It certainly causes problems throughout the story, but it doesn't make it seem as if asthma is Arthur's Achilles heel or something. I also like the fact that he wants to help these people and this world he's only just learned about, but he doesn't want to be a hero. He doesn't want to be the heir or fight the Morrow Days or be turned into a denizen. He wants to stay human and live his normal human life.

The Nutshell: If you enjoy middle grade adventure stories, I highly recommend the Keys to Kingdom series.

Reader reviewed by phoenixm5

An amazing series!  I really didn't think I'd like it, but after much confusion I decided to read the first book cover-to-cover.  I'm glad I did.  By the end of the first book, I was hooked.  The entire story is much more elaborate than expected and every book is an exciting adventure into a completely different reality.  The end of Lord Sunday is quite unexpected, yet fulfilling at the same time.  Still, I was disappointed to see it end after spending so much time with the characters.

Reader reviewed by 3holidaybabies

My husband bought me this book....great now I am stuck on another series...I must say while I enjoy the books waiting on the next one in a series is a pain!
This is about a boy names Author (Think King Author). He has a near death experianced and is thrown into another world (realm). He meets one of the Piper's kids Suzy Blue who not only becomes a friend but also a very valuable friend at that!
Auther begins his quest to find the 1st part of the 7 wills. This is full of action and is a great adventure, young future si fi'ers should like this one!

Reader reviewed by EshInoBi

In my opinion, Mister Monday wasn't very good at the start. It was very exciting in the end, but every good book really needs to have a satisfying start, or else readers will drop the book. I decided to give it a chance, and didn't drop the book. This book is about Arthur Penhaligon, a 12-year-old boy. At the start of the book, he is dying of asthma. You can say that's an interesting start, but it wasn't for me. When he sees two dog-faced people while he is "dying", that still didn't interest me. Even when they handed him a long minute hand, like one from a clock. Not even when he wakes up and still has the key, which helps him to breathe. To me, it sounded like a mystery book. It got more interesting. Don't worry. There's more coming. Where Arthur lives (Earth), is a Secondary Realm. There is this place, the House, created by the Architect. The House is divided into seven parts:The Lower House, The Far Reaches, The Border Sea, The Great Maze, The Middle House, The Upper House, and The Incomparable Gardens. When the Architect made the house, she also made the Will. The Will was also separated into seven parts, and the Will chose Arthur to be the Heir of the Kingdom. Now, that's interesting. Each of those seven parts were wrongly ruled by the Morrow Days. In this book, Arthur uses the minute hand he had to fight with Mister Monday. Mister Monday fights with the hour hand, which is slower, but stronger. Arthur's is faster, but nowhere near as strong. Who will win? This book was an exciting, thrilling, and fast read!

Reader reviewed by Stephanie

12-year-old asthmatic Arthur Penhaligon was supposed to die that Monday. Thats why the unfulfilled Willcreated by the Architect, broken by insubordinatesmanaged to infiltrate the body of Mister Mondays butler and convince his master to hand half of his clock-hand-shaped key to Arthur. Mister Monday does so, believing that he will be able to quickly retrieve the key back after Arthur dies and thus fulfilling the Will.

However, once Arthur accepts the key, he is mysteriously tied to it as the rightful heir to the Will. The key heals him and gives him powers, but throws him into a frightening strop with Mister Monday, who infiltrates the world as we know it with a deadly plague and scary dog-faced Nithlings. In order to save the human race and discover the answers to his many questions, Arthur enters a House that only he can see.

This brings him to another world, one whose main object is to keep records of everything that is happening in our universe. There, he befriends Suzy Blue and the Will, who is in the shape of a frog in this world. Monday and his cronies are determined to take the key back from Arthur, though, and so Arthur must endure many trying episodes on his journey to claim the other half of the key from Mister Monday.

MISTER MONDAY begins a series that looks to be extremely interesting. Fans of high fantasy or science fiction will appreciate this book.