Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes

Written by Jonathan Auxier

Narrated by Michael Page

Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes is the utterly beguiling tale of a ten-year-old blind orphan who has been schooled in a life of thievery. One fateful afternoon, he steals a box from a mysterious traveling haberdasher—a box that contains three pairs of magical eyes. When he tries the first pair, he is instantly transported to a hidden island where he is presented with a special quest: to travel to the dangerous Vanished Kingdom and rescue a people in need. Along with his loyal sidekick—a knight who has been turned into an unfortunate combination of horse and cat—and the magic eyes, he embarks on an unforgettable, swashbuckling adventure to discover his true destiny.
“Jonathan Auxier’s strange and inventive debut, Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, is a beautiful adventure told in a dashing and assured voice. It’s Little Nemo in Slumberland meets Oliver Twist. I enjoyed it tremendously.” —Audrey Niffenegger, author of the bestseller The Time Traveler’s Wife

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Jan 10, 2012
• ISBN: 9781455869619

Jonathan Auxier

Jonathan Auxier is the New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed author of Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, The Night Gardener, Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard, and Sweep. He lives with his family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. For more information, visit thescop.com.

Reviews for Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes

[Kirsten Wagner · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My 8 & 11year old kids loved this book. It’s has a very descriptive and captivating tale. It gets slightly dark but my kids are not bothered by it. Worth a listen!

[Mico Stander · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Dark as Rould Dahl, Adventurous as the Wingfeather Saga and funny like the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Manor. A fun listen brilliantly performed.

[Hardy Bin Mohamad · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Best dark children's book I have ever read. Fantastic book.

[Rebekah Bussell Sammons · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love this book
Please make more books like this

[Katina Burgan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love it so much ??? so so so fun ?

[Abby Hollis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love the plotline of the story it is a little intense at times but I still love it ?

[Mark · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great story, would recommend for ages 11 and up as it was a bit gory. Ravens pecking out babies' eyes etc. Fantastic reading with excellent voices.

[maggie headrick · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My favorite part is the eyes ? and I love ❤️ the bird ? called Simon. I loved that Peter was called prince ? noname.Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️??‍♂️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️??‍♂️??‍♂️??‍♂️??‍♂️??‍♂️??‍♂️??‍♂️??‍♂️??‍♂️??‍♂️??‍♂️??‍♂️??‍♂️??‍♂️??‍♂️??‍♂️??‍♂️????‍♂️??????????????????????????????????????????????????hhhhhhhhhhyyh ???????????????????????????????????????⛏??⚙️?????♐️♋️❤️‍?❤️‍??☮️??☦️☦️☦️♊️♊️♏️♏️?????j

[Jenny McGoldrick · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

“Amazing book! The engaging plot and fascinating characters keep you on the edge of your seat! Throughout the book you learn to use your imagination without seeing the characters, to feel the settings around you without being there. I highly recommend this book, it is definitely a page turner!”

[Natalie · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is sooo good! I love it so much and it’s my favorite book ever!The author is a master storyteller. This book ? matches reality and fantasy . When my mother read it to me as a kid , I had to look on scribe to see if they had the book ? , they did ! This book on a scale of one to ten , ten being awesome and incredible and one being terrible and horrific, I rate it the ten

[Farmer Courtney Sullivan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great book definitely worth it I love when he says ha I beat you blindfolded

[Misty Dosio · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It is a great book. You should definitely read it and give it a good rating probably one of the best audiobooks I’ve ever heard

[April · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was probably my second favorite audiobook. Keep up the good work

[Paul English · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

FANTASTIC (wink wink) audio reader and Jonathan Auxier never disappoints. I have nothing negative to say about it

[Marcos Leon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is one of my favorite books to listen to. It’s full of Adventure and theft. It’s very interested and will also teach you a lot of fun things.This book is a great road trips and is good for 6 years and up, but it also is a bit dark.

[Britany Sproul · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Such a good book I loved this book so much.

[YaYa · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very touching and vivid. Great adventure, good friendship, family love and true spirit. Enjoyed it a lot!

[Simon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very good book! I recommend this to older children and young adults. Young kids would not be invested enough to understand.

[Liz Krulick · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Peter Nimble is a remarkable children’s adventure story filled with action, suspense, plot twists and clever moral lessons along the way.

[mollygroff · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very interesting book and very fun! I love this book!

[rata_4 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Peter Nimble and his fantastic eyes – this book was recommended to me by a year 8 student who absolutely loved it. I had a go at reading it and found it a bit to fantastical for me. I struggled to get to the part where Peter put in the Gold eyes and was transported to another place. From here he was to go on a quest with a sidekick who was some sort of mutated cat or horse. I gave up here at chapter 7. with 24 chapters to go.

[cay250 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes is the utterly beguiling tale of a ten-year-old blind orphan who has been schooled in a life of thievery. One fateful afternoon, he steals a box from a mysterious traveling haberdasher—a box that contains three pairs of magical eyes. When he tries the first pair, he is instantly transported to a hidden island where he is presented with a special quest: to travel to the dangerous Vanished Kingdom and rescue a people in need. Along with his loyal sidekick—a knight who has been turned into an unfortunate combination of horse and cat—and the magic eyes, he embarks on an unforgettable, swashbuckling adventure to discover his true destiny.

[krau0098 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I got an ARC of this book through NetGalley(dot)com; it just sounded like such a fun novel I had to give it a read. It ended up being a great novel; very well written and creative with some wonderful adventure and wonderful characters.Peter Nimble was found blind floating down the river as an infant. It's a miracle he survived; although he is blind. He's been raised by a horrible man who has made him thieve for a living and Peter Nimble is probably the best thief in the land. His life changes though when he meets a traveling medicine man who asks him to guard a precious box. Well of course Peter has to steal the box and what he finds inside it astounds him; he finds three pairs of eyes. When he puts one of the pairs of eyes in his sockets he is whisked away on an adventure greater than he ever could have imagined.This novel is set in Victorian times and is very much a historical fantasy of types with a good dose of adventure. Peter Nimble is a character that is easy to relate to and fun to read about. He is a thief but he manages to comes across as noble and very moral. His sidekick throughout the novel, a knight made up of a mesh of animals is similarly fun to read about.Peter embarks on a wonderful adventure through crazy lands. Besides his sidekick, he only has those magical pairs of eyes that he doesn't know the affect of. The book is well-written with occasional humorous asides by the narrator. The start of each chapter is beautifully illustrated.Any middle grade, or older readers, who love fantasy adventure and love a quirky story will love this book. The world created is incredibly creative as is the premise of the stories; the characters are easy to relate to and fun to read about.The story ends well, although it is stated that Peter has many other wonderful adventures, which I hope we get to read about in the future!Overall an excellent middle grade read. A creative world, interesting plot, and wonderful characters make this a book that is fun to read and hard to put down. Fans of adventure fantasy in a historical setting will find a lot to enjoy here. The beautiful illustrations throughout the story only add to its charm. Definitely a fun and enjoyable read and highly recommended.

[jjmcgaffey · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It's pretty good for a children's book - but for someone like me, who looks behind the scenes, there's an awful lot of holes in it. For instance, how long has Professor Cake been watching Peter - and letting him be abused? For a greater good, sort of, but ugh. His misreadings of who's on which side...are almost reasonable, except that the author shows his hand just a little too much pushing Peter into one action or another. It's fairy tale style - which means, the characters have little depth and do things because the story demands it not because they're reasonable for that character. Oh, and the FORESHADOWING of Peter's later adventures got annoying a couple times - auctorial inserts about "this is where this thing (that you all know about, of course, since you know the adventures Peter Nimble will have) happened for the first time". Overall...not bad, but not one that will draw me back.

[helengress · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One more cautionary tale- trust no adults- unless they treat you like a person!. A blind thief is set on a magical quest to save a princess. sounds very cliched -but it is well rendered.

[gr8ind8n · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

eh. The first third was exciting, the middle third was didn't grab my attention as much, and the last third was pretty good. One of the characters finds out a secret, which in many adventure books happens at the very end, but I enjoyed that the character finds it out partway through and the knowledge of the secret affects choices/plot etc. People who like fantasy, will appreciate this book if they need time filler while they wait for the next awesome one to be released. The writing was pretty good, I just thought there were too many epic complications before we actually got to the end.audiobook was excellent.

[retvolunteer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed the plot line, but some of the elements strained credulity as I thought about them. For instance, these children were imprisoned or in child labor since infants and yet they could read and write? But I enjoyed the story even though I knew where it was going most of the time.

[picardyrose · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I knew who the good guy was, and it jumped POV a few convenient times, but it was a pretty good story.

[mlleehreen · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

PETER NIMBLE AND HIS FANTASTIC EYES is really, really clever. It’s full of wordplay and ironic asides that will appeal to the same audience as the Lemony Snicket books. It’s not as good as Lemony Snicket, but it’s pretty good.

What PETER NIMBLE lacks is heart. It doesn’t have an emotional core to give its fantastical imagery life and sparkle. As a result, when Jonathan Auxier’s wit falls flat, the book feels empty and dull.

Here’s an example of how witty Auxier can be. After describing how Peter was set adrift on the sea as an infant, his eyes pecked out by crows, and subsequently rescued and nursed by a mother cat, Auxier observes, “Until this point, you have been witness to Peter’s rather typical infancy – probably not unlike your own. But it was only a matter of time before he distinguished himself from the teething masses.” Such dry irony! And “teething masses”! That’s a good pun!

For contrast, here’s an example of how annoying the book can be. Peter acquires his “fantastic eyes” – a box of six eyes, three pairs. Because he’s blind with empty eye-sockets, he can slot in a pair of eyes, use them, take them out and then switch them up for a different pair. Pretty cool, right? The guy who made the eyes – who MADE them, and knows exactly what they do -- explains how to use one pair, but refuses to explain the other two, offering this instruction instead: “Do not try the remaining pairs until the moment is right – you will know when that is.”

Obviously it’s a plot device that aims to prolong the mystery of the eyes. But it makes no sense. Why would he send Peter into mortal peril while ignorant of how to use his most potent weapons? Is he playing some sort of sick game, or a secret enemy, or a jerk? Seems that way, but nope. It’s an arbitrary decision on his part.

The problem is, there are a lot of plot elements in the book like that one. Where Auxier has decided to make people act in a certain way because it’s clever or pushes the story in a direction he prefers. But they all add up, and the end result is that there’s no story immersion at all, because the world has no integrity.

As a result, I finished PETER NIMBLE AND HIS FANTASTIC EYES feeling pretty tepid about the book, despite its fecund imagination and abundant wit. But others may feel differently.

[molliekay · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What a great adventure story! If you liked The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente, you find this equally as enjoyable. Boys will be more drawn to this one, as it has a male main character.