Media Release -- School is out for summer, and for the Tackleford mystery team, that means lazy days, balmy evenings, and... creeping existential dread that threatens the whole city. With half the team gallivanting off to exotic locales (like Aunty Kath's in Margate), can Linton, Jack, and Lottie solve this season's most dire case?
The Case of the Unwelcome Visitor, the sixth book in John Allison's award-winning Bad Machinery series, pits our young heroes against the terrors of the unfamiliar and unknown. Lottie's mum and sister have both fallen in love (thanks to the internet), Linton is determined to save his father from the soul-sucking responsibility of a promotion, and why is Jack working at the local paper with team nemesis (and hot-shot reporter) Erin Winters? Isn't print meant to be dead?
Could the link between these tangled threads be The Night Creeper, who prowls Tackleford's streets and leaves people in the hospital with a blank stare and a terrible smile on their face?
BAD MACHINERY VOLUME 6
(W/A/C/CA) John Allison
AGE RANGE: 10 and up
GENRE: Humor, Mystery
PRICE: $19.99
144 PAGES
Accolades for BAD MACHINERY
British Comic Awards—Best Comic (2012)
Cybils Awards finalist—Graphic Novels: Young Adult (2013)
Publishers Weekly's Best Children's Books of 2013
YALSA's Great Graphic Novels for Teens (2014, 2015—TOP TEN, 2016, 2017—nomination)
Cybils Awards finalist—Graphic Novels for Elementary & Middle Grades (2014)
Texas Library Association's Maverick Graphic Novel List, Grade 9–12 (2015)
Parents' Choice Awards, Recommended Seal, Fiction (2016)
Praise for BAD MACHINERY
"The Case of the Unwelcome Visitor offers a delicately balanced blend of the natural and supernatural, and Allison keeps a light, refreshing tone via humor, even as the mystery deepens [...] By spreading the focus across his large stable of characters, Allison has not only kept this sixth volume in the series from seizing up and stalling, he's got it running smoothly on all gears." Foreword Reviews
"[...] Allison seamlessly blends realistic teenagers, full of both silliness and angst, and fantastic events [...] The result is a charmingly odd story that will appeal to both teens and adults." Booklist
"The unique storyline, smart dialogue and eye-catching art make this book (and series) easy to fall for." Parents' Choice Foundation
"A good, humorous addition to school and public libraries' graphic novel collections." School Library Journal
"Allison is a triple threat: he plots deftly, draws confidently, and writes dead-on adolescent dialogue. [...] Dark, fast-paced, and riotously funny entertainment." Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"Important advice: if you've never read Bad Machinery, get started now. Right now. Seriously." SKTCHD Off Panel
"[...] my new favorite series. [...] They make me laugh a lot. (Think Calvin and Hobbes, The Office, and True Meaning of Smekday.)" Everead
