The Alarming Career of Sir Richard Blackstone

By Lisa Doan

Twelve-year-old Henry Hewitt has been living by his wits on the streets of London, dodging his parents, who are determined to sell him as an apprentice. Searching for a way out of the city, Henry lands a position in Hampshire as an assistant to Sir Richard Blackstone, an aristocratic scientist who performs unorthodox experiments in his country manor. The manor house is comfortable, and the cook is delighted to feed Henry as much as he can eat. Sir Richard is also kind, and Henry knows he has finally found a place where he belongs.

But everything changes when one of Sir Richard’s experiments accidentally transforms a normal-sized tarantula into a colossal beast that escapes and roams the neighborhood. After a man goes missing and Sir Richard is accused of witchcraft, it is left to young Henry to find an antidote for the oversized arachnid. Things are not as they seem, and in saving Sir Richard from the gallows, Henry also unravels a mystery about his own identity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sky Pony Press
• Release date: Feb 7, 2017
• ISBN: 9781510711235

Lisa Doan

Lisa Doan holds a master’s degree in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, sits on the board of the Brandywine Valley Writers Group, and is an IPPY gold winner for juvenile fiction. Lisa’s jobs have included Master Scuba Diving Instructor, Wall Street headhunter, owner/chef of a restaurant, set medic for a reality T.V. show, deputy prothonotary of a county court, and author of middle grade novels. She can assure you that writing middle grade novels like Chadwick's Epic Revenge and The Pennypackers Go on Vacation is the most fun. (You’d think it’d be scuba instructor, but no!) Lisa is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Ireland, has traveled throughout Africa, Asia and Central America, and lived on a Caribbean island. She has backpacked alone from Morocco to Kenya and her top tip on crossing the Sahara Desert is: TURN BACK - YOU HAVE MADE A LARGE MISTAKE. She lives in West Chester, PA.