Eddie Dickens trilogy

Eleven-year-old Eddie Dickens's life becomes one long adventure after his parents are stricken with a strange disease and he is sent to stay with Mad Uncle Jack and Even Madder Aunt Maud at their home, Awful End.

Twelve-year-old Eddie Dickens survives encounters with an escape artist in a runaway hearse's coffin, a hot air balloon bearing the escape artist's lovely assistant, a gas explosion, and a jewel thief on the run.

When eleven-year-old Eddie Dickens's ill parents become "a bit crinkly round the edges," he is taken by his great-uncle and great-aunt, Mad Uncle Jack and Mad Aunt Maude, and embarks on adventures that involve strolling actors, St. Horrid's Home for Grateful Orphans, and a carnival float shaped like a giant cow.