Author | Matthew J. Kirby |
---|---|
Cover artist | Brian Despain |
Language | English |
Genre | Historical fiction Children's fiction |
Publisher | Scholastic |
Publication date | October 1, 2010 [1] |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (hardcover) and Audiobook |
Pages | 400 [2] |
ISBN | 0-545-20337-6 |
The Clockwork Three is a 2010 novel by American author Matthew J. Kirby. Set in a fictional coastal city in the late nineteenth century, it follows three children: Giuseppe, Hannah, and Frederick who work to solve each other's problems.
The idea for The Clockwork Three came to Kirby when he read a story of a boy named Joseph in a newspaper from 1873. [3] Joseph got kidnapped from Italy and had to play a fiddle in English streets to earn money for his master, until he eventually escaped. [3]
One day, Giuseppe finds a green violin floating in the harbor and he tries it out. He finds that it gives a very beautiful sound, and he is thrown money from people everywhere in the streets. He gets an idea to use his green violin to buy a boat ticket back to Italy, where he had been taken from. For once, Giuseppe has hope in getting back to his family. Frederick is going around in search of a chest plate for his clockwork man. While wandering the streets, Frederick catches a glimpse of Mrs. Treeless, the woman in charge of an orphanage.
Frederick had been in before becoming apprenticed to Master Branch, which reminds him of the awful memories he had at the orphanage. He also bumps into Giuseppe, but Giuseppe runs along with his violin. Later, he finds a coal chute, perfect for the chest plate, and sneaks it out of a coal yard. While he sneaks out, he lies about his father being one of the workers at the mine. He goes back to Master Branch's shop, where Frederick is an apprentice, and once he decides that Master Branch is asleep, he goes to the basement of the shop to work on his clockwork man. Hannah discovers that a man named Mister Stroop supposedly left the treasure in the suites at the top of the hotel. She later sees a map that hints it may be near a pond in the park. She runs to look for it when she desperately needs money for her sick father's medicine. There she meets Giuseppe, and the two look for the treasure but it is not there, though she receives some herbal medicine from a woman who lives in the park. Hannah's father draws for her where the treasure is hidden in the hotel, having worked for Stroop's hotel in the past.
The next day the three children all meet for the first time and Frederick shows the other two his automaton. The three agree to help each other out with their problems. Giuseppe mentions that he saw a clockwork head—Frederick's only missing piece—in a museum. The three sneak into the museum so Frederick can inspect the head, but they are interrupted by guards and forced to flee. Frederick escapes with the stolen head, which was made by Albertus Magnus. Hannah also accidentally took a small piece of clay belonging to a golem and inserts it into the Clockwork Man thus bringing the Clockwork Man to life. This, coupled with the Magnus head, gives it near-human intelligence.
Hannah discovers that Mister Stroop's treasure is his will, witnessed by the hotel's owner, Mister Twine. She and Frederick talk to him, but Hannah refuses to take the money because it would cause the park to be destroyed. Mister Twine promotes her to the chief of maids and gives her quite a bit of money for new dresses, a portion of which she gives to Giuseppe for his ticket. A law was passed that the padrones no longer had legal control over their buskers. Enraged, Stefano tries to kill Giuseppe, but he is saved by Yakov, who shoots Stephano in the head with his gun. Madame Pomeroy asks Giuseppe to travel with her to play his green violin for kings and queens, and thus, Giuseppe accepts. Frederick eventually becomes a journeyman, and Hannah's father's health improves. The story ends with an epilogue in which Frederick has created a clockwork bird and shows it to Hannah. It begins to hum a tune that Giuseppe played on his violin, and Hannah's father's toes begin to tap, showing that his leg still works.
Publishers Weekly gave The Clockwork Three a starred review, saying "debut novelist Kirby has assembled all the ingredients for a rousing adventure, which he delivers with rich, transporting prose." [4] The website Kidsreads also gave the book a positive review, saying "With plenty of steampunk elements and more than a few hints of violence, The Clockwork Three is, in many ways, as dark and menacing as its hard-edged setting." [5] Another review came from Deseret News , praising the imagery. [6] Kirkus Reviews was more mixed, calling it "an interesting concept" but thought the ending was too obvious and the children became less interesting as the story went along. [7]
"Fourth World" is a metaseries of connected comic book titles written and drawn by Jack Kirby and published by DC Comics from 1970 to 1973. Although they were not marketed under this title until the August–September 1971 issues of New Gods and Forever People, the terms Fourth World and Jack Kirby's Fourth World have gained usage in the years since. Kirby created the Fourth World concept in the 1970s. The series is a science-fiction based mythology that revolves around ancient space deities known as the New Gods. The New Gods are similar to the gods of Earth lore.
Hannah and Her Sisters is a 1986 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. It tells the intertwined stories of an extended family over two years that begins and ends with a family Thanksgiving dinner. Allen also stars in the film, along with Mia Farrow as Hannah, Michael Caine as her husband, and Barbara Hershey and Dianne Wiest as her sisters. Alongside them, the film features Carrie Fisher, Lloyd Nolan, Maureen O'Sullivan, Max von Sydow, Daniel Stern, John Turturro, Lewis Black (debut), and Julie Kavner.
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is a 1985 literary historical fantasy novel by German writer Patrick Süskind. The novel explores the sense of smell and its relationship with the emotional meanings that scents may have.
Giuseppe Tartini was an Italian composer and violinist of the Baroque era born in Pirano in the Republic of Venice. Tartini was a prolific composer, composing over a hundred pieces for the violin, the majority of them violin concertos. He is best remembered for his Violin Sonata in G Minor.
Mister Miracle is the name of three fictional superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics.
Big Barda is an antihero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. She first appeared in Mister Miracle #4, and was created by Jack Kirby. She was raised as a member of the New Gods, but left to become a hero.
"The Girl in the Fireplace" is the fourth episode of the second series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 6 May 2006. Written by Steven Moffat and directed by Euros Lyn, the episode is inspired by Audrey Niffenegger's novel The Time Traveler's Wife.
Funky Flashman is a fictional character, an entrepreneur in the DC Universe. Created by Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the pages of Mister Miracle during the early 1970s. He is popularly considered a satiric caricature of Stan Lee, Kirby's former artistic collaborator at Marvel Comics with whom he had a falling-out. Flashman's attempts to rip off Mister Miracle reflect Kirby's view that Lee exploited his work at Marvel in the 1960s.
Il viaggio a Reims, ossia L'albergo del giglio d'oro is an operatic dramma giocoso, originally performed in three acts, by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Balocchi, based in part on the 1807 novel Corinne ou l'Italie by Germaine de Staël.
Coyote Ragtime Show is a Japanese anime television series directed by Takuya Nonaka and produced by ufotable, which first aired in Japan on July 3, 2006. The storyline consists of the adventures of a group of space-faring fugitives in search of a treasure.
Sharpe's Revenge is a British television drama, the 12th of a series that follows the career of Richard Sharpe, a British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. The adaptation is based on the 1989 novel of the same name by Bernard Cornwell.
Rachel Barton Pine is an American violinist. She debuted with the Chicago Symphony at age 10, and was the first American and youngest ever gold medal winner of the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition. The Washington Post wrote that she "displays a power and confidence that puts her in the top echelon."
Clockwork, or All Wound Up is an illustrated short children's book by Philip Pullman, first published in the United Kingdom in 1996 by Doubleday, and in the United States by Arthur A. Levine Books in 1998. The Doubleday edition was illustrated by Peter Bailey and the Arthur A. Levine Books edition was illustrated by Leonid Gore. It was shortlisted for both the Whitbread Children's Book Award and for a Carnegie Medal in 1997.
The Guv'nor is a 1935 British comedy film starring George Arliss, Gene Gerrard and Viola Keats, and directed by Milton Rosmer. Arliss in the title role is a tramp who rides a series of misunderstandings and becomes the president of a bank. It was a remake of the 1934 French film Rothchild. The film was re-released in England in 1944 and 1949. It was released in the US as Mr. Hobo.
Matthew J. Kirby is an American author of middle grade and young adult children's books.
Peter Stretch was among the most prominent early American clockmakers and among the first makers of scientific instruments in America.
Isabella Mattocks was a British actress and singer.
Eleanor Mosley was an English milliner and a member in the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers. Mosley successfully ran her own millinery business as a single woman in eighteenth-century London.