Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody

 By: Patrick Ness

Location: FIC NES

Genre: Humour

The second book in the absurdly funny Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody series by multi-award-winning author Patrick Ness.
When Daniel arrives at the school bus stop sporting a salmon-coloured hat, Zeke is shocked. Don’t only birds wear hats? As if this isn’t strange enough, the school suddenly has a new student – a fish of all things – and a mysterious new Guidance Counsellor. Meanwhile, Zeke’s friends seem to have ditched him, and even his old nemesis won't give him the time of day. So when somebody melts his house with the Death Ray of Death – twice – Zeke has had enough. Just who is sabotaging his life – and why?

Review by marianne

Once again, Ness gives us all important things to consider, stuff that many school kids have to face daily: hurt feelings, confusion, powerlessness, loneliness, unwritten rules, and dubious advice from a school counsellor. Though trying to overcome primal urges, as Miel the hawk has to when he encounters Penny the flounder, probably isn’t something usually faced at school. Ness does it all with great humour: there are laughs on nearly every page.

The plot touches on prejudice and bigotry, even as it includes something as extreme as the Death Ray of Death which, when it melts his house, sees Zeke having a meltdown. He does get the wrong end of the stick more than once, but his mother has wise words: “Sometimes life isn’t fair. All we have control over is how we act. Other people do whatever they do, and as long as they don’t convince us we need to be different than who we are, then that’s our little victory.” A quirky cast and a crazy plot: let’s hope Ness has more of this up his literary sleeve.