I received a copy of this book through a Goodreads give-away and was so excited to get to it.

The the physical book is beautiful; the cover is lovely and the illustrations throughout the book are charming and compliment the feel of the book nicely.

I think the premise of the book is great, and while the Dickensian world filled with Groundlings, Humans and other magical creatures was interesting, the overall execution of the characterization and pacing fell a little bit short for me.

My main issue being the main character, Arthur. While I felt sympathy for him, that is pretty much the only feeling which he inspired. I understand why he is so scared of everything, and that his upbringing meant that he had basically no life experience. However, Arthur barely makes any decisions on his own and mostly just does what other characters tell him to, which i found annoying as this continued to happen throughout the book.

I Also felt that some parts of the book were much longer than they needed to be, i think the first part could have been much shorter and achieved what it needed to. Maybe the point of the first section being so long was to feel the monotony of the house routine, but as a reader i just felt bored and could have done without it. Then the last fifty pages seemed to fly too quickly through everything to the resolution.

Love it! Very whimsical story with amazing and brave characters!

Arthur is a young fox groundling at Ms. Carbunkle's Home for Wayward and Misbegotten Creatures. It is a dreary place where the young half-human, half-animal children slave away. Arthur and his new friend Trinket make their escape one day and travel out into the world. Trinket is off to find her only relative, an uncle. Arthur is off to Lumentown to see if he can find out anything about his history. All he has is an address and hope. In Lumentown Arthur makes new friends, gets into trouble and uncovers a plot. Miss Carbunkle plans to steal the music of the world. So it is up to Arthur and his friends to stop her.

This was a charming book. Unfortunately, the audiobook I was listening to skipped a lot and I missed a few chapters. This is a story about finding your home and your family even if it is not your blood family. It is also a story about society and how it treats the poor and unseen among us.

I thought this was really delightful. First of all, Mira Bartok's illustrations are so lovely, and so perfect for the book and I find it amazing when an author writes and illustrates their own books. This follows Number 13-a fox groundling who is stuck in a wayward home for misbegotten creatures as he finds his name, his hope, and friendship. It is full of adventure and journeys and discovery, and it feels very much like my favorite books when I was younger. It talks a lot about how some people invite hatred into their lives because of bitterness, and how you have to choose hope. I hope there will be more of these, because I found it just really a really enjoyable read.

Loved this little story! Very enjoyable!

this book had no reason being so thick and having 400+ pages. the plot is so simple it could have been over in 200 pages. setting that aside, it was a cute story with a lovable protagonist.

Really a 3.5 for creativity, but short of a 4 star book due to some wandering plot and execution. I wanted to love this book, which is a neat mixture of Charles Dickens, Roald Dahl, and Wind in the Willows with a dollop of steam punk on top, but it took itself a little too seriously and stayed too dark for too long. Arthur learns who he is a little late in the game and what his purpose it, and some bad guys turn out to be good guys and some good guys show up just at the point of convenience in ways that aren't well enough explained.
The presentation of this book, with its limited illustrations, medium size, and stunning cover was wonderful, but while it will appeal to numerous adults and critics, I have a hard time picturing the child who will have to will to stick it out. This author is one to watch though.