Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Story Telling!
Review: This is BEAUTIFULLY written. Great imagination, plot and characters! Anyone into fantasy should read this fabulous book. I can't wait 'till the next one comes out.
Rating: 
Summary: Parents and Older Young Adults
Review: I enjoyed this book thoroughly although I felt that there were areas that my younger son didn't quite understand. The older (13-but a very mature reader), was wrapped up in the tale from beginning to end and enjoyed the journey very much. I highly recommend for the older Young Adult reader and Parents as well.
Rating:
Summary: Pleasant Surprise!
Review: This book is fantastic! I love Clive Barker's ability to come up with completely new fantasy ideas and explore them in a well paced, captivating way. Get this book. It is a great fairy tale for older kids and adults!
Rating: 
Summary: What the heck???
Review: As a so-called Young Adult [though older than the Harry Potter crowd] I think they REALLY missed the boat on this one. The art is interesting, but really out of place in the age range, and the writing is bad. It is a weird idea to put the Pinhead man up as a writer for kids in the first place. Not that kids don't like horror, but this is like Charles Addams without the talent. This book is ...not all that interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic from Conception to Design
Review: I'd be the first to agree with some other comments that this book is not really for young kiddies, more teens, but man is it fantastic. This is the first in a planned four part series that that follows a young girl named Candy Quackenbush as she stumbles into another world, and soon learns how she is the center of this bizarre, detailed, and richly imagined universe.Filled with characters that could only be spawned from the mind of horror master Clive Barker he weaves a suspensful and magical tale that by the end is nothing more than a delicious prologue before the feast.It should also be mentioned that the book is printed on high gloss paper because it's filled with gorgeous and sometimes haunting watercolors that illustrate the tale. For adult fans of Harry Potter who haven't found anything to compare, this could be the answer. It also reminded me of a "Wizard of Oz" for the new millenium. I loved every creative imaginative second of it
Rating:
Summary: Realized world, wonderfully portrayed
Review: It seems a whole lot of authors who have written in other genres, mainly for adults, have taken to this 'genre,' which Rowling, and CS Lewis before her, had already pioneered: books that seem aimed at children but are really for all ages. Chabon's Summerland is another such title.But this one does it brilliantly. Barker doesn't rely on borrowed mythology, cobbled together. He has created a world, complete with unique illustrations. This man has an incredible imagination and can render the narrative drive of the story in a strong, consistent voice that sweeps you away. I've not read anything by Barker before. I may just try to see what else he's done. I just sort of associated him with the Dungeons and Dragons kind of crowd. I look so very forward to the sequels to this book.
Rating:
Summary: This book is awesome.
Review: When I first got this book I knew it would be great. I haven't read any of his other books, but several people I know have and they loved them. This book is one of the best stories I've ever read! I must warn you though, that if you are planning to give this book to someone under the age of 12, I wouldn't reccomend it. Some of the pictures are quite disturbing (though exquisitely drawn) and some of the language may not be easily understood by children. Unlike everyone else who has reviewed this excellent story, I am not an adult. I am 13 years old. I highly reccomend this to teens who are looking for a fun and interesting adventure story. When I completed this story, I was actually sad that it ended! I can't wait for the next books to be released!! Trust me. You will LOVE this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Great book...but not exactly geared for children
Review: I loved this book and, as other reviewers have said, am very pleased that Barker is starting to write like his old self again. However, his target audience for this book is way too young. Not merely because of content, but because of word usage. The vocabulary used is above most high school students, never mind younger children. I loved the book, but cringed when someone was stabbed in the leg with a dagger complete with blood spray. I just think that he could have either cleaned it up for children, or made it targeted for an adult.
Rating:
Summary: Pleasant surprise!
Review: After the disappointing last book of Mr Barker, Cold Hart Canyon, I was pleasantly surprised with this his latest book, Abarat. It is a return to his story telling best and even though it is touted as a children's book I found myself thoroughly engrossed. Adults may find a more sanitised story than one would expect from this author but that takes nothing away from the unfolding adventure. Abarat is the first of four books and you are left after the first book longing for the following three. Characters from the Abarat archipelego have the potential to be as memorable as anything from Narnia, Wonderland, Hogwarts or the Shire. Open your mind and enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: O woe is me! O woe is me! I used to have a Hamster Tree!
Review: Clive Barker. I am beginning to wonder if there's anything he CAN'T do. In my mind, Barker has elevated himself throughout the years to the title of "Renaissance Man." He writes. He illustrates. He collaborates. He directs and produces for both stage and screen. So when's the album due? *wink* Seriously, the man has talent. There can be no argument in that area. On the other hand, his artistic endeavors are most definitely not for everyone. "Love him or leave him," I've always said. But his foray into children's literature just may be the departure from the norm that allows folks with weaker constitutions to appreciate his vivid and unending imagination. His first children's book, The Thief Of Always, was truly brilliant. A great little adventure of your standard, bored child wishing and wanting for more in his dreary, hum-drum life... and then receiving it. Abarat is very much set in the same vein as his first, but it encompasses a greater expanse of both the "why" and the "where." There is more to our protagonist's hatred of home than mere boredom. There's a dysfunctional family complete with beatings doled out from an unemployed/alcoholic father; a rigid and unsympathetic school teacher with a penchant for squashing imagination and originality; and a small town financially doomed by its sole source of industry - a slaughterhouse for poultry. Well... you really can't blame a girl for desperately wanting out at any cost! And, unlike The Thief Of Always, when the opportunity for escape arrives, it's not confined to a single house, but rather an entire chain of islands in a magical sea where it seems that just about anything is possible and all the rules no longer apply. You have just been handed your "Carte Blanche de Fantaisie" from Clive to open up your head and expect anything and everything from here on out. While reading Abarat, I couldn't help but imagine our heroine as some strange, modern melding of Alice and Dorothy sprinkled with a dash of Potter. I also enjoyed the fact that some of the names of his characters are actual people/pets in the author's life. (ie. Malingo is the name of his parrot, he has collaborated with the artist Diamanda Galas, etc.) Do be warned, though, this book is a tad too dark for younger children. I would say from the age of ten and on would be an appropriate audience. A few of Barker's illustrations, although beautifully macabre in their simplicity, would alone be enough to give wee ones nightmares. The same could be said of some passages of text as there are scenes of violence. It is limited to an occasional sword-play, dragon-bite, falling-to-one's-death moment, but nonetheless could be inappropriate for certain children. Never forget that this is, after all, a Clive Barker book. *grin* The story isn't too overly involved with subplots. He's kept it simple for younger minds to follow. The illustrations he's included add to the overall wonder of this book. You really can't go wrong with Abarat. My only complaint is that the second book is not yet available. *sigh* Oh well... hopefully the old adage is true: Good things come to those who wait.
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