Beast Quest

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Beast Quest
Beast quest1.jpg
Cover of Ferno the Fire Dragon, the debut novel in the series.

Multiple Series
Author"Adam Blade", a pseudonym for various ghostwriters
IllustratorDavid Wyatt, Steve Sims.
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Genre Children's fantasy
Publisher Orchard Books
Published2007–present
Media typePrint (hardback and paperback)
E-book

Beast Quest is a best-selling series of children's fantasy/adventure novels produced by Working Partners Ltd and written by several authors all using the house name Adam Blade. [1]

Contents

An editorial team at Working Partners first creates the storyline for each book and "then approach[es] a number of writers whose experience and style we think might suit the project and ask them to write a sample – usually the first three chapters of the book". The editorial team picks the sample with the voice that we think works best for the project." [2] The main series had achieved 150 books published by start 2024. 20 million copies of the books have been sold to date. [3] [4]

The series is published by Orchard Books in the UK and by Scholastic Corporation in the US and is aimed largely at boys aged 7 and over. [5] [6] The novels have been described as "clearly and simply written, [striking] the right balance between adventure and story telling" and a "great series to get kiddies, who normally wouldn't be, interested in reading." [7] The books take place in a world called Avantia, and focus on a young boy named Tom and his friend Elenna as they attempt to restore peace to the land by stopping beasts from causing destruction. [8] [9] Kathryn Flett, writing in London's The Observer , has called the books "almost certainly a work of publishing (if not quite literary) genius... Narnia meets Pokémon via Potter ." [9] The books are among the most-borrowed from UK lending libraries. [10] [11] There is also a companion science fiction series called Sea Quest. [12]

There is also a 2015 mobile video game based on the book, and a 2018 version for Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PS4 (Maximum Games). A new mobile version was released in May 2020 by Animoca. [13]

See also

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References

  1. Stroud, Clover (12 January 2014). "Rainbow Magic: loathed by parents, loved by children". The Daily Telegraph . London. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  2. "How We Work". Working Partners. Archived from the original on 11 November 2013. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
  3. "Coolabi".
  4. "Coolabi Group unleashes brand new 'Beast Quest' mobile game". coolabi. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  5. "Nicholas Clee on the library charts". The Times . London. 4 February 2012. p. 19. ProQuest document ID 919738907.
  6. "Beast Quest: Creta the Winged Terror". Booktrust . Retrieved 23 June 2013.
  7. Mountford, Janet (15 March 2008). "Vedra And Krimon Twin Beasts of Avantia". The Sentinel . Stoke-on-Trent. p. 6. ProQuest document ID 426828385.
  8. "Ferno The Fire Dragon Beast Quest 1 by Adam Blade - review". The Guardian . 21 July 2011. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  9. 1 2 Flett, Kathryn (6 December 2009). "Dragons, wizards and a mother in search of a glass of red... At last, a boys' own bedtime story they actually want to read". The Observer . London. p. 5. ProQuest document ID 250388970.
  10. Flood, Alison (8 February 2013). "Woman of Steel: US writer in most-borrowed list for 30 years". The Guardian . London. p. 18. ProQuest document ID 1285161231.
  11. Evans, Sophie (8 March 2013). "Kids get dead excited about author's new horror story". Hull Daily Mail . Hull. p. 20. ProQuest document ID 1315222469.
  12. Williams, Charlotte (24 August 2012). "Orchard to launch Sea Quest in 2013". The Bookseller : 7.
  13. Hutchins, Robert. "Coolabi teams with Animoca Brands for new Beast Quest mobile game". Licensing.biz.