About the Author

E.J. Patten was born Arizona and grew up with a love of stories, thanks to his parents’ ownership of a video store. He received a BA in Media Arts and an MBA from Brigham Young University, and he lives with his wife and three children on a small hill overlooking a large lake in a Utah town.

Reviews

""Return to Exile" marks the beginning of a remarkable new series. I loved the characters, and its originality and intensity kept me ripping through the pages. A stunning book." --James Dashner, "New York Times" best selling author of "The Maze Runner" and "The Scorch Trials"

"A complex tale brimming with imagination." --Brandon Mull, "New York Times" best selling author of the Fablehaven and Beyonders series

Gr 5-8-Sky, 12, and his family (uber-cheerleader Hannah, home-improvement-challenged Dad, botanically talented Mom) have been on the move forever. The only constant in his life has been his Uncle Phineas, who has provided games and puzzles, plus books and stories about all kinds of strange monsters that no one else has ever heard of, like evil Echoes and thumbless Gnomons. His family's return to the creepy town of Exile is marked with Phineas's disappearance and Sky's continuing dreams of an inner monster named Errand that causes him to behave badly. Complications abound, characters are not who (or what) they seem, and telling the bad guys from the good guys is at times impossible. There is plenty of humor (mostly snarky comments and horrifically bad puns), more than a little violence, but some quieter, more emotional moments as well. By the end, most of the loose ends are neatly tied up, but there are broad hints of more mayhem to come. Middle-schoolers who like untying fiendishly complicated plots will say, "bring it on."-Mara Alpert, Los Angeles Public Library (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.