65. Mort by Martin Chatterton

Mort by Martin Chatterton
Published March 2012 Random House

From the publisher:
Time flies when you're having fun . . . Even when you're Mortimer DeVere, the 10,000-year-old boy. But when unexpected and unwelcome visitors arrive on Mort's home turf, the spooky Unk Island, he and his sister Agnetha will have their hands full dealing with some of the stranger hobbies they've tried to keep secret from one another and the outside world. Today may just turn out to be one of the most eventful days in Mort's very long life!

I had read a review somewhere that said throughout his 10,000 years, Mort had encountered many famous people, Leonardo da Vinci, HG Wells, Enid Blyton and Ghengis Khan to name a few.  That makes sense I thought, 10,000 years is a long time to live and you're bound to cross paths with a few big names.  This however is not the case.  Mort didn't meet these people during the course of his life, he cloned them!  He and his sister Agnetha have cloned famous dead people.  Mort has stuck to scientific types like Leo (Da Vinci) and Oppenheimer, while Agnetha has 'collected' authors like Agatha Christie, Enid Blyton and William Shakespeare.



Agnetha keeps her collection in their own specifically designed environments, Roald Dahl even has an exact copy of the garden shed in which he used to write, the only thing they don't know is that they are enclosed by an electrified fence. 

Mort uses his collection of scientists to help with is own inventions.  With the exception of Ghengis Khan who lives his life with an electrified collar so that he doesn't step out of line.
If all of this doesn't sound crazy enough, then there's also a sabre tooth tiger called Smiley!

So...imagine the chaos that ensues when the truant officers come to the island, and in attempt to scare them off, Mort causes Ghengis to lose his collar, Smiley gets loose, and Goldilocks has escaped...oh and she is also a vampire!

This book was a real surprise, a pleasant one.  It was so crazy that I couldn't wait to see what would happen next.  By the way the book ended I think it would be fair to say that this isn't the last we will see of Mort.

Who will like this book: Boys age 9+
Read it if you like: books that will surprise you and make you laugh