The Amber Amulet

By Craig Silvey

“Silvey is a master of wit and words”—School Library Journal

Meet twelve-year-old Liam McKenzie, who patrols his suburban neighborhood as the Masked Avenger—a superhero with powers so potent not even he can fully comprehend their extent.

Along with his sidekick, Richie the Powerbeagle, he protects the people of Franklin Street from chaos, mayhem, evil, and low tire pressure on their cars.

But when he attempts to rescue a damsel in distress from sadness, instead, he finds a powerful, unlikely friendship.

This perfect jewel of a book by Printz Honor Award-winning Craig Silvey will hold all readers in its irresistible power.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sky Pony
• Release date: Jan 2, 2018
• ISBN: 9781510721906

Craig Silvey

Craig Silvey is an Australian novelist and musician. His previous works include Rhubarb, The World According to Warren, and Jasper Jones for which he won a Printz Honor Award (U.S.) and the Indie Book of the Year Award 2009 (Australia). Silvey is also the singer/songwriter for the indie/pop/rock band The Nancy Sikes!. He lives in Fremantle, Australia.

Book preview

HE MASKED AVENGER CAN make things happen.

Though at twelve he is considered young for a Justice Fighter, he has already proved himself highly effective in the pursuit of peace. His developing powers are so potent, so vast, that not even he can fully comprehend their extent. He has a number of astonishing abilities. For example, on certain occasions, he can summon a wall of clouds and make the sky roar. Then he’ll point upward and say zap! and sometimes a white vein of electricity will crackle loose and stab the earth. Other times he can sweep his arms and say whoosh! and the air will swoon at his command. When his powers are unfocused, he can only manage to shuffle dead leaves, but other times he can bend the spines of trees and make citizens huddle into their own arms. Soon, when he gains full control of his faculties, he’ll be able to lash his enemies with gales and incinerate them with lightning.

The Masked Avenger derives his powers by harnessing the dormant energy that lies within objects that citizens overlook. He believes in energy. He’s convinced the world is positively and negatively charged, that it’s imbued with the properties of Good and Evil.

Energy is ubiquitous. It’s present in sunlight, gravity, electricity, heat, food, movement. It’s even inside the bodies of citizens, urgent and ready for release. But the world is also teeming with trapped energy, potential energy, buried beneath our feet and waiting to be unlocked. And nobody suspects, nobody understands its significance.

Except the Masked Avenger.

Only he knows that there’s a secret ultra-concentrated energy in certain gemstones and minerals, and that they emit specific powers according to their molecular composition. These powers, when expertly applied, can be directly transferred into the body, resulting in superhuman capabilities.

Only the Masked Avenger has learned to access the energy inside these gems and minerals and, as long as he is in contact with them, he alone is privy to their extraordinary power.

As such, his forest-green supersuit features a vital piece of equipment: his Amazing Powerbelt. It is a leather band of perfectly balanced geological items that neatly circumnavigates his waist. It features quartz for Balance and Reason; jasper for Intensity and Alertness; and a single tiger’s eye for unparalleled Speed and Agility. It also has one dollar eighty worth of coins, the constituent nickel of which affords him a priceless amount of Strength and Endurance. Adhered is a small lump of granite for Poise and Determination. And, most importantly, four rough buttons of amethyst for Truth and

Reviews for The Amber Amulet

[vivl_6 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Over all quite sweet, with some of the lovely writing I've seen in Craig's earlier works, but this is more of a long-ish short story than anything and very much for younger readers. Love the illustrations, but I felt as though the placement of them needed to be better thought out. It was quite distracting to be halfway through a sentence and have a diagram on the next double page spread. The diagrams/illustrations need a good look/read through, but I wanted to at least finish a paragraph before giving my time to them. Even better might have been if there was an illustration tailored to sit at the end of each chapter, but then there might have been some nice ones left out.I'll keep waiting for the next Craig Silvey for older readers.

[heatherlinc · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a sweet story about a lonely, young boy, who at night becomes 'The Masked Avenger' patrolling Franklin Street and protecting its citizens. Twelve-year-old Liam is a loveable character with a big heart who tries to save an unhappy woman at the end of the street. With only 86 pages, "The Amber Amulet" is beautifully presented and will charm young and old alike with its whimsical tale and touching illustrations. Congratulations to Craig Silvey on another literary gem.