Slade, Arthur

In Victorian London, fourteen-year-old Modo, a shape-changing hunchback, becomes a secret agent for the Permanent Association, which strives to protect the world from the evil machinations of the Clockwork Guild.

Many of Newton Starker's ancestors, including his mother, have been killed by lightning strikes, so when he enrolls at the eccentric Jerry Potts Academy of Higher Learning and Survival in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, he tries to be a model student so that he can avoid the same fate.

For Percy, the loss of his father and the suicide of his best friend build to a head during the last week before high school graudation.

Slade's steampunk adventure weaves shapeshifting, anarchist politics and the social and scientific realities of Victorian England into a cohesive and compelling adventure.