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The Shadow Collector's Apprentice
Fans of Holly Horvath and Kate DiCamillo will love this warm, eccentric, and enchanting middle-grade novel.
Peculiar things are going on in the town of Medley over the summer of 1963, but it's hard for twelve-year-old Cully Pennyacre to figure out what it all means. His father has disappeared mysteriously, people don't seem like themselves, and his apprenticeship at Batty's Attic antique store gets stranger each day. The owner has a disturbing hobby of collecting people's shadows with a weird projectorlike machine and foul-smelling chemicals. He claims the process is harmless, but it leaves his victims listless and passive. Odd happenings become the norm as Cully, Batty's granddaughter Isabel, and Cully's best friend band together to get to the bottom of a secret black market in human shadows.
Peculiar things are going on in the town of Medley over the summer of 1963, but it's hard for twelve-year-old Cully Pennyacre to figure out what it all means. His father has disappeared mysteriously, people don't seem like themselves, and his apprenticeship at Batty's Attic antique store gets stranger each day. The owner has a disturbing hobby of collecting people's shadows with a weird projectorlike machine and foul-smelling chemicals. He claims the process is harmless, but it leaves his victims listless and passive. Odd happenings become the norm as Cully, Batty's granddaughter Isabel, and Cully's best friend band together to get to the bottom of a secret black market in human shadows.
200 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
March 19, 2019
I came across this book in a catalogue when I was looking for B.A. Shapiro's The Collector's Apprentice. The blurb reminded me of F.E. Higgins's The Black Book of Secrets, a novel that I adored a few years back. What larks, I thought: I'll give this a try.
Well, this isn't another The Black Book of Secrets -- it lacks the sustained weirdness -- but it's interesting enough in its own right.
Young Cully Pennyacre, just turned 12, whose mother died years ago and whose dad has recently gone AWOL, gets a part-time vacation job in an antiques store, and soon discovers the owner is at the heart of a racket stealing people's shadows for use as invisibility cloaks by the intelligence services. With the help of his pals and the three aunts who've been raising him, Cully thwarts the bad guys, makes new and unexpected friends, and gets his dad back.
I don't usually, when reading a YA or (as in this instance) middle-grade novel, find myself wishing it had been written for grownups, but in the case of The Shadow Collector’s Apprentice I did. I loved the premise of the book, even though it has its precursors (remember Peter Pan becoming detached from his shadow), but felt that it warranted a, I dunno, denser treatment. I kept wondering what someone like Ray Bradbury might have done with all these elements -- small town, shadow thieves, kids growing into their identities, dubious shenanigans, slightly eccentric aunts, a touch of romance. This isn't to say that Amy Gordon should have written that other, hypothetical book -- she's a successful writer for this age group, and to judge by this novel deservedly so. It's just that this particular reader would have been better suited by it.
The Shadow Collector’s Apprentice is certainly worth attention, because it does some interesting things with its premise, and I imagine readers in its target audience will love it -- I know I would have at that age. But it made me yearn for something more.
Well, this isn't another The Black Book of Secrets -- it lacks the sustained weirdness -- but it's interesting enough in its own right.
Young Cully Pennyacre, just turned 12, whose mother died years ago and whose dad has recently gone AWOL, gets a part-time vacation job in an antiques store, and soon discovers the owner is at the heart of a racket stealing people's shadows for use as invisibility cloaks by the intelligence services. With the help of his pals and the three aunts who've been raising him, Cully thwarts the bad guys, makes new and unexpected friends, and gets his dad back.
I don't usually, when reading a YA or (as in this instance) middle-grade novel, find myself wishing it had been written for grownups, but in the case of The Shadow Collector’s Apprentice I did. I loved the premise of the book, even though it has its precursors (remember Peter Pan becoming detached from his shadow), but felt that it warranted a, I dunno, denser treatment. I kept wondering what someone like Ray Bradbury might have done with all these elements -- small town, shadow thieves, kids growing into their identities, dubious shenanigans, slightly eccentric aunts, a touch of romance. This isn't to say that Amy Gordon should have written that other, hypothetical book -- she's a successful writer for this age group, and to judge by this novel deservedly so. It's just that this particular reader would have been better suited by it.
The Shadow Collector’s Apprentice is certainly worth attention, because it does some interesting things with its premise, and I imagine readers in its target audience will love it -- I know I would have at that age. But it made me yearn for something more.
May 26, 2014
Cully Pennyacre lives on an apple farm on the outskirts of a small town with his three eccentric aunts. His mother passed away when he was a child. His father is gone—Cully isn't sure where. All his aunts will say is that he “went to seek his fortune.”
At the beginning of summer in 1963, things are looking up for Cully. He's just turned twelve years old, for one thing, and for another, he's been offered a job as an apprentice at Batty's Attic antique store. Cully is looking forward to making some money so he can help his aunts pay the bills and keep the farm afloat.
Something is strange about Batty, though—strange and a little creepy. He has a contraption in the back room of the store that he uses for what he calls a “harmless hobby”: collecting people's shadows. When customers come into the shop, Batty lures them into the back room and uses his specialized process to harvest their shadows. Cully doesn't believe Batty is really able to steal shadows...until he starts noticing that the cheerful people following Batty to his lair always seem to come out looking hunched and haunted.
Cully doesn't trust Batty after what he's witnessed, and he doesn't want to set foot in his shop ever again, but if Batty is really hurting people Cully knows he needs to be stopped. Reluctantly he befriends Batty's granddaughter Isabel, an overdramatic girly-girl who dresses only in pink and doesn't fit in with anyone at school. Together they just might be able to save the town from Batty's evil intentions. And along the way, Cully might find out the truth of where his father went and why he left.
Find more of my book recommendations for grades 6-12 at www.read-or-die.com.
At the beginning of summer in 1963, things are looking up for Cully. He's just turned twelve years old, for one thing, and for another, he's been offered a job as an apprentice at Batty's Attic antique store. Cully is looking forward to making some money so he can help his aunts pay the bills and keep the farm afloat.
Something is strange about Batty, though—strange and a little creepy. He has a contraption in the back room of the store that he uses for what he calls a “harmless hobby”: collecting people's shadows. When customers come into the shop, Batty lures them into the back room and uses his specialized process to harvest their shadows. Cully doesn't believe Batty is really able to steal shadows...until he starts noticing that the cheerful people following Batty to his lair always seem to come out looking hunched and haunted.
Cully doesn't trust Batty after what he's witnessed, and he doesn't want to set foot in his shop ever again, but if Batty is really hurting people Cully knows he needs to be stopped. Reluctantly he befriends Batty's granddaughter Isabel, an overdramatic girly-girl who dresses only in pink and doesn't fit in with anyone at school. Together they just might be able to save the town from Batty's evil intentions. And along the way, Cully might find out the truth of where his father went and why he left.
Find more of my book recommendations for grades 6-12 at www.read-or-die.com.
January 18, 2021
A book for middle grade - I enjoyed it ... interested to see if this age would still enjoy it
December 6, 2025
This was a very interesting book! It follows a kid who is an apprentice to the man who collect shadow. When he collect shadows he ends up taking a part of that person soul.
August 4, 2012
It’s the summer of 1963 in the small, rural town of Medley. Twelve-year-old Cully Pennyacre has lived with his three eccentric aunts for the past 6 months, ever since Cully’s dad, Jack, ran off to seek his fortune. The aunts (Miggs, Opal and Inca) are none too happy that their brother ran off just when finances for their struggling apple orchard business are about all dried up and some drastic action must occur to save all their acres.
Cully feels the financial pressure so he starts working at Batty’s Attic, a local antique store, run by Jim Bates, a.k.a. Batty. On his first day, Cully learns that Batty’s unusual hobby is to collect the shadows of everyone he meets with a camera-like apparatus and unique chemicals that make one’s shadow appear frozen on the wall. Then the shadow is scraped off the wall and folded up like cloth. However, Cully quickly notices that once Batty has collected someone’s shadow, that person’s personality takes a drastic turn for the worse. Somehow all of one’s negative character traits become magnified. Luckily for Cully, his shadow would not separate from the wall so he hasn’t changed.
Cully has his best friend Sam to turn to for help, as well as Batty’s granddaughter, Isabel Ballou. Together they want to figure out what really happens to the shadows Batty collects. What’s Batty really up to and why is willing to pay people so much money for their antiques in order to get them into his store so he can collect their shadows?
This story has interesting, quirky characters to attract your attention and the mystery of the shadows only deepens as the suspense builds. Along the way, the plot thickens with some Cold War spying and apple cider being used as a fuel for cars.
Cully feels the financial pressure so he starts working at Batty’s Attic, a local antique store, run by Jim Bates, a.k.a. Batty. On his first day, Cully learns that Batty’s unusual hobby is to collect the shadows of everyone he meets with a camera-like apparatus and unique chemicals that make one’s shadow appear frozen on the wall. Then the shadow is scraped off the wall and folded up like cloth. However, Cully quickly notices that once Batty has collected someone’s shadow, that person’s personality takes a drastic turn for the worse. Somehow all of one’s negative character traits become magnified. Luckily for Cully, his shadow would not separate from the wall so he hasn’t changed.
Cully has his best friend Sam to turn to for help, as well as Batty’s granddaughter, Isabel Ballou. Together they want to figure out what really happens to the shadows Batty collects. What’s Batty really up to and why is willing to pay people so much money for their antiques in order to get them into his store so he can collect their shadows?
This story has interesting, quirky characters to attract your attention and the mystery of the shadows only deepens as the suspense builds. Along the way, the plot thickens with some Cold War spying and apple cider being used as a fuel for cars.
March 22, 2014
The Shadow Collector's Apprentice by Amy Gordon is a mixture of story and magic. Several times I had thought of Harry Potter, though the stories are not at all the same. The mystery began just as I looked at the cover: a shadowy head projected against a wall. What is that?
In the 1960's, Cully Pennyacre finds himself in the guardianship of three unusual aunts on a small apple farm in Medley. Though he loves his aunts, Miggs, Opal, and Inca, he would much rather be with his father, who seems to not be himself and has wondered off around the world.
The apple farm is experiencing a cash flow problem, so Cully decides to take an apprentice job at a local Antique shop: Batty's Attic. But the owner, Batty, arouses Cully's suspicions immediately when he [Batty] asks Cully if he would allow him to "collect his shadow", a hobby of his. Cully then sees his shadow stuck to the wall, and Batty tries to pull it off, but the shadow will not separate. Slowly, Cully learns that Batty is collecting shadows illegally without proper consent.
Being the 1960's, the cold war is going on with Russia, and spying is the norm. These shadows are used to create spy capes that make the wearer invisible, an essential quality for spies. The problem is that taking a person's shadow makes all the evil and mean qualities come out stronger in that person.
Cully learns that his dad was a spy and worked with shadows before he had changed so much. Had his shadow been collected? Is that what changed him? Cully works with Isabel, Batty's granddaughter, to try to find his father, help the farm, and figure out why Batty is stealing people's shadows.
I loved the unusual characters in this book. I would like to have know more about Cully's aunts and his father. This was a fun read.
In the 1960's, Cully Pennyacre finds himself in the guardianship of three unusual aunts on a small apple farm in Medley. Though he loves his aunts, Miggs, Opal, and Inca, he would much rather be with his father, who seems to not be himself and has wondered off around the world.
The apple farm is experiencing a cash flow problem, so Cully decides to take an apprentice job at a local Antique shop: Batty's Attic. But the owner, Batty, arouses Cully's suspicions immediately when he [Batty] asks Cully if he would allow him to "collect his shadow", a hobby of his. Cully then sees his shadow stuck to the wall, and Batty tries to pull it off, but the shadow will not separate. Slowly, Cully learns that Batty is collecting shadows illegally without proper consent.
Being the 1960's, the cold war is going on with Russia, and spying is the norm. These shadows are used to create spy capes that make the wearer invisible, an essential quality for spies. The problem is that taking a person's shadow makes all the evil and mean qualities come out stronger in that person.
Cully learns that his dad was a spy and worked with shadows before he had changed so much. Had his shadow been collected? Is that what changed him? Cully works with Isabel, Batty's granddaughter, to try to find his father, help the farm, and figure out why Batty is stealing people's shadows.
I loved the unusual characters in this book. I would like to have know more about Cully's aunts and his father. This was a fun read.
July 29, 2013
Cully lives with his three aunts on their apple farm. His dad has been missing/run away for several months now. Cully gets a job at Batty's Antiques and finds out that Batty is doing more than buying old stuff. His hobby is collecting shadows. He has a special machine that can steal your shadow and save it. What does he do with the shadows? He makes invisibility cloaks for spy agencies. It is the height of the Cold War after all and there are spies everywhere. Taking shadows isn't the innocent process it seems at first. People change when they no longer have a shadow; they are no longer themselves. Cully finds out that Batty has taken his father's shadow and will do anything to get it back. With the help of his aunts, his friend Sam and Batty's granddaughter Isabell, Cully sets out to rescue the shadows and put an end to Batty's business.
This was a nice change of pace from your average book. I like the concept of shadow collecting and how Amy Gordon really thought out the shadow process. Younger shadows are darker and have more staying ability, shadows can be sewn together to make cloaks, children's shadows can not be separated, and that your shadow contains the darkest part of you and without the shadow that part goes back into you. This is all very intriguing and she does a great job on the mystery of the shadows and Cully's determination to get his father back. I like how unique all the characters are and how they all seem to have their own story to tell. I especially liked Isabell's journey in the book. She goes from being a know-it-all who no one likes to becoming part of the family; I really liked how this affected her shadow. Wonderful, intriguing story.
This was a nice change of pace from your average book. I like the concept of shadow collecting and how Amy Gordon really thought out the shadow process. Younger shadows are darker and have more staying ability, shadows can be sewn together to make cloaks, children's shadows can not be separated, and that your shadow contains the darkest part of you and without the shadow that part goes back into you. This is all very intriguing and she does a great job on the mystery of the shadows and Cully's determination to get his father back. I like how unique all the characters are and how they all seem to have their own story to tell. I especially liked Isabell's journey in the book. She goes from being a know-it-all who no one likes to becoming part of the family; I really liked how this affected her shadow. Wonderful, intriguing story.
June 29, 2013
I've read so many books this year that JUST fall short of 5-star levels that I'm starting to think it's just me and maybe I should just cut the poor books some slack. I thought this book was very good--genuinely scary at times, but leavened by humor; you develop feelings about (almost) all of the characters and care what happens to them...and the concept is actually ORIGINAL, for crying out loud!
I really can't pinpoint what keeps this from tipping over into 5-star status. Is it the way Scooter is forgiven his faux-Britishism and attempt to use the beautiful and effervescent Inca because he gives up shadow trading? Is it the way Colley fails to intervene in the shadow-takings even after he realizes what's going on? Is it Colley's unexplained blanket popularity (esp w 12 year old girls)? Is it the way some people's crimes while having no shadow are forgiven, while others aren't? (The scene with Batty at the end is honestly heart-wrenching, and Bobo's pervasive evil is never explained). Is it because I couldn't figure out what the perfect metaphor for shadow-taking in today's society was? I don't know. While it was a solid book, which I enjoyed and was able to read fairly quickly, it didn't have that extra "oomph" I was looking for. Four it is.
I really can't pinpoint what keeps this from tipping over into 5-star status. Is it the way Scooter is forgiven his faux-Britishism and attempt to use the beautiful and effervescent Inca because he gives up shadow trading? Is it the way Colley fails to intervene in the shadow-takings even after he realizes what's going on? Is it Colley's unexplained blanket popularity (esp w 12 year old girls)? Is it the way some people's crimes while having no shadow are forgiven, while others aren't? (The scene with Batty at the end is honestly heart-wrenching, and Bobo's pervasive evil is never explained). Is it because I couldn't figure out what the perfect metaphor for shadow-taking in today's society was? I don't know. While it was a solid book, which I enjoyed and was able to read fairly quickly, it didn't have that extra "oomph" I was looking for. Four it is.
April 13, 2012
In 1963, 12-year-old Cully takes a job as an apprentice in an antique store to help his aunts pay the bills on their apple farm. What he discovers is a sinister operation that strips people of their shadows. Cully notices that after people are separated from their shadows, their personalities change--usually for the worse. Cully wants to quit, but Batty, the owner, keeps him baited with a pocketwatch that his father pawned just before disappearing to make his fortune in the world. Along with Batty's unpopular granddaughter, Isabel, Cully discovers Batty's sinister use for the shadows, and how his father is involved. Gordon has created an almost fairy-tale mysticism around shadows--what they "really" are and what they can tell about a person. At times this alter-world feels contrived to "explain" everyday occurances. I enjoyed the gentle feel of the setting, but the revelation about the secretive purpose of shadows was too jarring for me. I also thought the ending fell into place a little too neatly. Kids who enjoy a little magic and intrigue sprinkled into a conventional setting will enjoy this story.
May 26, 2013
I loved this for the deeper themes that might not be evident at first. The themes of family, devotion, and value of others comes creeping in as the shadow mystery also appears and disappears, excuse the metaphor. I see a blend of the Sorcerer's assistant, Harry Potter, and elements of Narnia all wrapped up in one. The building of the relationship between Isabel and Cully is endearing and contagious, and yet, I never sensed Cully was above Isabella, while he did have admirers that followed him around disdainful of Isabel. I love the back and forth, give and take, that Amy Gordon provides in this Young Adult novel. There is a peacefulness and calmness that comes with this story. I wanted to rate it five, but I want more information about thew stories behind Cully's aunts, his mother, and there is some limited info provided, but enough to want you to keep reading. Kudos to Amy Gordon, I finished this in 2 days as it truly is a heart-warming page turner.
July 25, 2013
Cully has turned twelve, school's out for summer, and the local antiquities & oddities shop is hiring a young apprentice, the perfect opportunity for Cully to help his aunts with their mounting debt. Cully lives with his three aunts on the family farm. His grandparents and mother have passed and his father has gone off on a bizarrely timed quest to seek his fame ad fortune. Cully acutely misses his dad but his life is peopled with a host of remarkable characters in the small town of Medley. However, some of the people Cully has known his whole life have begun to act differently lately and not for the better. Cully begins to suspect it has something to with Mr. "Batty" Bates' rather unusual hobby and sets out to discover just what is going on and why it might be related to his father's sudden disappearance.
Original and quirky with memorable characters.
Original and quirky with memorable characters.
June 25, 2012
The book started off really interesting with mystery and fantasy mixed together. I'm not entirely sure why the book was set during the cold war since it really could have been set during any time period and still worked. Maybe the author felt that spies wouldn't be interested in invisibility today since they have all kinds of special gadgets - who knows. Once the major mystery was more or less solved, though, and the author needed to wrap it up, the book dissolved into a "love conquers all" type of feeling and everything worked out splendidly for the good guys and poorly for the bad guys. I would recommend this to voracious middle-school readers who enjoy fantasy that doesn't have to do with kings or queens.
December 11, 2012
With his father missing in the summer of 1963 and the aunts with whom he is living struggling financially, twelve-year-old Cully Pennyacre takes a job at the local antique store to help out. There's something odd about the shop's owner, Batty, and his disturbing habit of collecting the shadows of others. Cully realizes that these shadows may be connected in some way with his own father's disappearance. Middle grade readers with a taste for odd characters and the doings in small towns will certainly enjoy this well-written story. The only parts that didn't work were how a character such as the school bully is introduced but only followed briefly and the inclusion of notes or journaling from various characters. Some seemed effective in moving the book forward while others did not.
May 25, 2014
Although set in the summer of 1963 I did not feel like this one is a historical fiction. I would set the genre as fantasy. Maybe I have been trying to read too many books quickly but this one just did not hold my attention as much as some of my other reads. In this story Cully goes to work for Batty, the antique dealer. Batty collects shadows of people and once your shadow is stolen you are not quite yourself any longer. Cully's dad has gone off and he lives with his 3 aunts on a farm. Meanwhile the daughter of the antique dealer is trying to get the aunts to sell off part of the farm. Cully becomes friends with Isabel, the granddaughter of the antique dealer. They sleuth out what the problem is and try to find a solution. Read to find out what happens.
March 27, 2012
A tween boy decides that in order to help out his quirky aunts, he needs to get a job. So, he goes into town and gets a job at the local antique dealer's shop. The old man has an unusual hobby--he collects people's shadows. But as the boy observes the hobby, he's not happy about what he sees--the people whose shadows have been collected loses their short-term memory and become very bad-tempered. Then he finds out that there are even more sinister reasons for the shadow collecting and he knows he has to do something about it. I liked the relationships between the boy and the old man's granddaughter and the quirky aunts were fun.
February 11, 2015
The story is about twelve-year-old Cully Pennyacre who is living with his three aunts on a farm after his father disappeared. In that summer of 1963, Cully takes a job as an apprentice at Batty's Attic antique store and things just keep getting stranger. The owner has a hobby that involves collecting people's shadows with a weird contraption. The shadows are later sold to make invisibility cloaks. Every person who loses his shadow begins to behave differently. Cully soon learns what is happening and knows he has to take action to help all the people who live in his town. I think the mystery and magic would appeal to middle-grade kids.
June 26, 2014
This was one of the few 2014 WAW nominees I didn't read before voting on the list. But I definitely enjoyed this fantasy. It is all about Cully who goes to work for Batty's Antiques as an apprentice. While there, he finds out Batty is collecting people's shadows and selling them to be made into cloaks so spies can be invisible. But when people lose their shadows, they become the worst version of themselves and that is happening to a lot of people in Medley. I would have voted yes for this, and now I am making Battle of the Books questions and quotes from it.
August 5, 2014
This book is about a boy who's mother died and father left to go do something so he was left with his three aunts.when there money is running low he gets a job with a bad man but,he doesn't know this man is bad. The man collects shadows with a weird contraption that takes shadows and makes their bad qualities exaggerated which leaves no rom for their good qualities. At the end of the book his dad comes home and he teams up with some people to take the man down. My favorite part was when he saw his dad for the first time in years.
September 9, 2014
3.5 stars. 2014-5 MT Nominee. I really enjoy Amy Gordon's books; they remind me a little bit of Sharon Creech or Ingrid Law. The down-home style is enjoyable to read, and the characters are well developed. This one is not my favorite...mostly because I lost interest in the technical aspects of shadow collecting and reimigrating. I understand the importance of attempting to make the story plausible, but I was lost. I probably would have been okay without all of the explanation. A cute read nonetheless.
March 14, 2012
To try and help out during a family financial crisis, twelve year old Cully takes a part time job helping out in the town’s antique store. He soon finds out there is more to the job than he wanted and his father may never get home to help the family out. What would happen if you lost your shadow, and how would you get it back are just a few answers that Cully answer in order to save their family’s home and apple orchard
November 13, 2014
William Allen White middle grades 2014-2015
First line: For the hundredth time, I'm wondering why Jack ran off.
An interesting idea of a book (shadow collecting). The author tried several things (journal entries from Cully's aunts and a 1963 setting) in this book that I don't think came together in a way that made the book really soar.
First line: For the hundredth time, I'm wondering why Jack ran off.
An interesting idea of a book (shadow collecting). The author tried several things (journal entries from Cully's aunts and a 1963 setting) in this book that I don't think came together in a way that made the book really soar.
January 4, 2015
A little juvenile for most of my students, but a good read for someone at or a little below grade level. A lot of ideas here-shadow collecting, spies, alternative fuels, father/son relationships. A little unfocused at times, but still an enjoyable plot that many kids, boys and girls, could enjoy.
April 12, 2012
Really enjoyed the setting and characters.
July 1, 2012
Not a great book, but pretty good. An enjoyable read.
August 4, 2012
Very good juvenile chapter book.
December 22, 2012
YA Lit meets a little mystery and a little sci-fi. Interesting ideas which I'd never heard of before.
January 18, 2013
Really liked the premise of collecting shadows for the spy world, but a large part of the story's middle just dragged. The best part was the the last 20 pages.
September 7, 2013
Made you want to keep reading it, but children could easily get confused.
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January 8, 2014Written by one of my daughter's middle school teachers, which colors my reading of this middle grade novel. I'm going to give it to one of my 6th grade voracious reader guys to get his take.
May 14, 2014
It was interesting. Kinda spookey and definitely fantasy. I liked the characters.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews