Humphries looked out of the window of his chauffeured car, saw the smiling children, and sighed. Even for someone well accustomed to bad press, this had been a particularly awful week. It had been four days since he had been photographed by a well-placed paparazzo stealing chocolate from the hospital bedside of a sick child and only two days since he had been pelted with eggs and flour when the photograph appeared on the front page of every newspaper in the country. The beginning of the end for Cecil Humphries began on an uncharacteristically warm, sunny day in Liverpool. It was only fitting, therefore, that the person who would ruin his career and leave him a quivering wreck in a padded cell for the rest of his life would be a twelve-year-old boy. The more he tried to improve his image, the more it backfired on him, which only intensified his hatred of anybody under the age of eighteen, if that were at all possible. Unfortunately for him, the public was far more perceptive than he gave them credit for, and kissing a couple of babies’ heads (then wiping his mouth afterward) had resulted only in a series of frustrating headlines, including: He knew, however, that the public was rather fond of them, for some reason he couldn’t fathom, and so he had reluctantly accepted the position, sure that it would boost his flagging popularity and take him one step closer toward his ultimate goal: to take the job of his old school friend Prime Minister Edward Banks. He hated them, which was rather unfortunate given that he was in charge of the well-being of every child in Britain. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title.Ĭecil Humphries, the government minister for education, despised most things, amongst them:īut at the top of this list was children.

It seems that age twelve is a special time for the human brain, which is capable of remarkable feats-as also evidenced by Chris’s peers Ernest and Mortimer Genver, who, at the direction of their vengeful and manipulative mother, are testing the boundaries of the human mind.īut all this experimentation has consequences, and Chris soon finds himself forced to face them-or his new life will be over before it can begin. When Christopher begins at his new school, he is astounded at what he can do.

But a mysterious visit from the Ministry of Education indicates that Chris might have some potential after all: He is invited to attend the prestigious Myers Holt Academy. His teachers discount him as a liar and a thief, and his mom doesn’t have the energy to deal with him. No one has any confidence in twelve-year-old Christopher Lane.

Delve into the extraordinary abilities of the twelve-year-old mind in this thrilling start to a middle-grade series that expands the possibilities of power.

The ability by mm vaughan