Lord Sunday

Lord Sunday by Garth Nix, 2010 Scholastic Books

     After seemingly falling to his death, Arthur Penhalion manages to escape into the Secondary Realms using the Improbable Stair. Under attack by giant insects Arthur cannot concentrate to use the key to protect himself or escape the bugs.
     Suzy Turquoise Blue, meanwhile, is being held by Superior Saturday's minion but manages to escape into Sunday's Incomparable Gardens where she tries to seek out the seventh part of the Will. Arthur's friend Leaf is back on Earth dealing with the results of nuclear strike (how the government dealt with Friday's Sleepers) when Sunday's Dusk attempts to bring her into the house for ransom. The plan fails when the Front door is under attack and Leaf remains as guardian.
    The house is at risk of collapse from Nothing and it appears Sunday, the last trustee, has little or no plan to save the House and its surrounding realms. Arthur attempts to unite the Architect's children against the Nothing which threatens total destruction: if the House falls all of existence will fall with it.
     Can Arthur unite all seen parts of the Will and save the House with all it entails? Or will the Piper, the Mariner, and the Old One stand in his way? In the conclusion to The Keys to the Kingdom Arthur Penhalion decides whether his journey has been worth the efforts or if he will give up the power and opportunity presented in the House to return to a world which has completely changed since he was swept away. Middle Grade readers will find the end of this epic satisfying, if somewhat predictable.

Superior Saturday

Superior Saturday by Garth Nix, 2008 Scholastic Books

     When Arthur returns from his grapple with Lady Friday he discovers Saturday has unleashed the human army on his hometown. With five keys in his possession Arthur is over halfway to  being an immortal Denizen of the House. He leaves Leaf in the human world to sort out his home and hurries back into the Lower House where Nothing is on the verge of destroying everything.
     Arthur goes into the Great Coal Mine where he is partially protected by the sorcery around the Old One. The Old One provides cryptic direction, but Arthur doesn't fully understand it. He makes his way into the Citadel hoping to strike at Saturday before she has a chance to summon the sorcery she has been amassing in preparation for the Will's escape and the appearance of the Rightful Heir.
     Saturday has plans to reach Sunday's realm in the Incomparable Gardens and hopes to slow the growth by destroying the Lower House with Nothing. The Will, in the form of Dame Primus, urges Arthur to return with the final two keys before there is nothing left of the Lower and Middle House. The young man, along with several old friends, travels into the Upper House where Saturday has begun her assault on the Incomparable Gardens.
     The tale ends on a cliffhanger as the battle rages between portions of the Upper House. Saturday and Sunday, their portions of the Will, and their Keys are the last obstacle between Arthur and his place as Rightful Heir. Back at home Leaf calls to Arthur as all appears lost. The story is written for middle grade readers, though those who enjoyed the preceding books will enjoy this penultimate book of the series.

Lady Friday

Lady Friday by Garth Nix, 2007 Scholastic Books

   The fifth Trustee of the House sends an invitation for Arthur, along with the other potential heirs, to take her place as leader of the Middle House. Meanwhile Lady Friday is on Earth in the hospital where Leaf and the rest of Arthur's friends and family are recovering from the toxic mind-control mold which takes over their town.
     Lady Friday, as a denizen of the house, cannot feel emotions. Instead Friday kidnapped at least a thousand humans and transported them to another world where she drained their emotions, Lady Friday drinks the emotions as a way to feel some of the human's feelings.
     Friday arranges a challenge which allows Arthur, the Piper, and Superior Saturday to battle for stewardship. Whoever reaches the fifth key first wins. Suzy Turquoise Blue and Fred Gold Numbers have been kidnapped by the Piper, when Friday sends the invitation they hijack its transport and meet Arthur at the bottom of Friday's terraced mountain .
     At the top of the mountain in Friday's Scriptorium lies a trap for the heir, the Piper is first and his minion is swallowed in the trap of Nothing. Arthur finds the Will and it exerts restraint on the rest and counters Lady Friday's rampant lust for emotion. Arthur uses the Keys to repair the hole of Nothing in the House, though it brings him closer to becoming a Denizen of the House. In discovering the trap Arthur manages to save his friend Leaf, but his mother is not among the people who return. When Suzy Turquoise Blue shows Arthur a letter from the Upper House it confirms his task is not complete.
     Arthur still doesn't want to inherit the House, but with his mother missing, the Keys give him the power to fight back. Readers of all ages can enjoy the fantasy of the House and Nix's action-adventure, the story is aimed at Middle School readers.

Sir Thursday

Sir Thursday by Garth Nix, 2006 Scholastic Books

     Returning from the Border Sea with Leaf, Arthur doesn't make it through the door. It appears something has been slowly taking over his life on Earth. While Leaf attempts to banish the Nithling creature and allow Arthur back home, he is drafted for his required 100 years into Sir Thursday's Glorious Army of the Architect.
     Dame Primus reveals Mister Monday and Grim Tuesday have been assassinated then Arthur is spirited away to a chessboard-like portion of the House where the Army battles the Piper to possession of the Fourth Key. Mistaken for one of the Piper's children, Arthur has his memory wiped and only begins to recall portions of his life months later.
     On Earth Leaf tries to find the Nithling impersonating Arthur. She discovers the hospital they were taken from to the Border Sea has been infected with a fungoid which allows the creature to read and control the minds and bodies of those infected. The hospital believes the fungus to be a biological weapon and sets up a quarantine.
     When Leaf is infected she manages to call Arthur's friend Suzy Q Turquoise for help, just before she is overtaken. Suzy escapes the House to aid Leaf, and returns to find Arthur. Arthur, with his memory slowly returning, is glad to see Suzy and it is with her aid he manages his final battle for the Will.
     Memory and identity play a significant role in Sir Thursday. Thursday is governed by the sin of wrath and finds wiping the Piper's Children's memories hinders their allegiance to the Piper. Arthur is less and less hesitant to become the Heir as he loses and regains his identity, and fights for justice. Adventure pervades Arthur's fourth foray into the House and he again finds his friends are his greatest asset. Readers of all ages can access the language and content of Sir Thursday.

Drowned Wedensday

Drowned Wednesday by Garth Nix, 2005 Scholastic Books

      Arthur hasn't been home very long when he receives an invitation to join Wednesday’s trustee in the House. When his room begins to fill with water Arthur is confused, and then his friend Leaf gets sucked into the House’s realms with him. Arthur is afraid for his friend, but she manages to take care of herself.

     Leaf is picked up by the Flying Mantis and Arthur is picked up by the Moth. Arthur has been marked by the pirate Feverfew leading to the Moth's destruction and Arthur is only allowed to stay aboard the ship when he reveals the Mariner's Medallion (a gift from one of the Architect's sons) and helps the Moth escape Feverfew.
     Arthur convinces the captain of the Moth of his identity and is taken to meet Wednesday who promises to relinquish the key once the third part of the Will is released. Wednesday's Dawn helps Arthur find Leaf, but before he can rescue his friend Arthur must complete his mission.
     With the help of the Raised Rats, brought into the House by the Pied Piper, he finds the Will in a worldlet within Wednesday's stomach. Old friends return for the final stand as Arthur battles for the inheritance he has never really wanted.
     Though he's never been overly enthusiastic about being the Heir to the House, Arthur begins to take his duties seriously. He works toward obtaining the goal that is set out for him and makes it his own as he progresses through the Will's plan to reunite the keys. Arthur is still his own person at the end of the day and brings his own flair to the role set for him, teens young and old will find his story relate-able if somewhat fantastic. 

Grim Tuesday

Grim Tuesday by Garth Nix, 2004 Scholastic Books

   Just as Arthur Penhaligon returns home, the phone Dame Primus gave to him in Mister Monday begins to ring. Dame Primus herself is on the line telling Arthur six months have passed in the House since he left and Tuesday has found a loophole that allows him to take over the lands Arthur has wrested from Monday. Arthur must return to the House straightaway to reclaim his inheritance, but before she may explain how the line goes dead.
     Arthur manages to get into the Far Reaches, Tuesday's domain, where he is mistaken for an indentured worker. He and Japeth, a former Thesaurus, fall behind when their press-gang moves to another region and are picked up by Suzy Turquoise Blue, Arthur's friend from his first adventures through the House. Suzy has brought tools to help them break into Tuesday's tower and rescue the second part of the Architect's will and the Second Key.
     Suzy and Arthur make it into Tuesday's tower through the glass pyramid which protects it and find the Mariner, the second son of the Architect and the Old One. The Mariner is held in Tuesday's service through blackmail and helps Arthur retrieve the Will. But when the Will revokes Tuesday's power, he demands the Key instigating a competition between Arthur and himself over which the Mariner presides as judge.
     The competition is to create something unique and original: Tuesday creates a magnificent tree and Arthur creates a xylophone and plays his own tune. The tune proves to be more creative than Tuesday's replication of a secondary realm sculpture. Arthur is declared winner and rushes off to repair damages to the Far Reaches.
     At the buttress between the Far Reaches and the Nothing Arthur finds an upper house denizen, who is believed to be Superior Saturday's servant Dusk, meddling in Arthur's newly claimed lands. A fight ensues which Arthur wins and the shadow of Trustee interference blooms over Arthur's time in the House. When he returns, Dame Primus has united parts one and two of the Will and names Arthur Lord of the Far Reaches, then takes over stewardship so that he may return home.
      Arthur makes the decision to slow the process of becoming a denizen  so that he may return to his family. Dame Primus reverses the effects of the first Key and Arthur is admitted to the hospital when he does arrive home. He awakens to an invitation from Drowned Wednesday under his hospital room pillow.
     Tuesday is greedy, his entire lifestyle revolves around more and more until the world he is to care for is falling around his ears. Like the other Trustees in the Keys to the Kingdom, this flaw is his downfall making him unworthy for his position and allowing him to misuse his power. For Arthur, defeating Tuesday is only one more step toward achieving his inheritance from the Architect. Grim Tuesday is followed by Drowned Wednesday in the Keys to the Kingdom Series and is good reading material for readers as young as fifth grade.

Mister Monday

Mister Monday by Garth Nix, 2003 Scholastic Books

     Arthur Penhaligon is a normal, everyday boy who suffers from asthma on Earth. One day while running for gym class he has an asthma attack and collapses on the ground. His friends Ed and Leaf, a brother and sister duo, stop to help him use his inhaler before hurrying to get the school nurse. When they've gone, Arthur watches two men appear in thin air and debate whether or not to give him the "key". Sneezer finally convinces Mister Monday to hand the key over explaining that once Arthur dies the key will revert to Monday and he can continue his work.
     They give a minute-hand shaped piece of metal, presumably the key, to Arthur and disappear in a flash of light leaving behind a small book. He picks up the book and as Leaf and Ed come back with help Arthur passes out.
     When he wakes up in the hospital Ed and Leaf tell Arthur about a strange old man pushing a young man in a wheelchair and several strange dog faced people. They are searching for the key, which has magically reappeared in Arthur's pocket, but can't find it. Leaf and Ed leave, promising to visit Arthur again.
     Arthur goes home a week later, but his friends have yet to come and see him. He uses the key to open the book, titled "A Complete Atlas of the House and Immediate Environs" and learns that the strange building he passed on his way home (a new construction that wasn't there before) is called the House and is a realm outside of human Earth. Further reading reveals that the House has an entrance called "Monday's Postern". When the Fetchers (the strange dog like creatures Ed saw) come to Arthur's home the Key animates a ceramic Komodo dragon to save him.
     The next morning, Monday, Arthur learns the reason behind Ed and Leaf's absence--their entire family is under observation for a virus that, according to Leaf, has the same smell as the Fetchers. No one else notices the smell, but Arthur believes her when things start to get weird at school. He hides in the library when Fetchers appear along with Monday's Noon. Noon is much stronger than the Fetchers and resists their weaknesses; when he tries to attack Arthur Noon sets fire to the Library and Arthur barely escapes with his life. Noon vanishes at one o'clock, but the Fetchers have taken the Atlas and Arthur must find salt to vanquish them and get the book back.
     The smoke from the library fire starts to spell out a message telling Arthur to enter the House and he does. He uses the Key to open the door and discovers the House is the organization around which the universe is structured. Its purpose it simply to record and observe what happens through eternity. While adventuring through the House Arthur is in perfect health--allowing his adventures. He meets Suzy Turquoise Blue who was a child brought to the House by one of the immortal Denizens of the House: the Piper. She accompanies Arthur and helps him realize that he is the Rightful Heir of the Architect of the World; he must save the House and enact the Architect's original intention. In order to do this Arthur has to kill Mister Monday and take the second half of the first Key (the hour hand to match his minute-hand Key).
     On the path to retrieve the Key, Arthur learns how the House was created, then fell into disrepair and how the Architect handed over the Keys to the Morrow Days. The Architect and her consort, the Old One, created the universe, but the Old One betrayed the Architect and was imprisoned. Many years later the Architect left the House giving the Keys to the Morrow Days: Mister Monday, Grim Tuesday, Drowned Wednesday, Sir Thursday, Lady Friday, Superior Saturday, and Lord Sunday. But each of the Trustees embody one of the seven deadly sins and, instead of simply observing the universe, the Morrow Days began to interfere causing the House to disintegrate into chaos. The first part of the Will explains all of this when she follows Arthur on his adventures in the form of a frog.
     When Arthur defeats Monday and obtains the rest of the Key the Will manifests itself as Dame Primus. She is not pleased when Arthur heals Monday rather than simply killing him, but takes over government when Arthur returns home. The book ends Tuesday, just after midnight when Dame Primus calls Arthur on his House emergency phone.
     This first book in the Keys to the Kingdom Series sets up the House and conditions of Arthur's quest through it. The fantasy element of the House relies on its hodgepodge of different worlds and eras--steam and electronic technology right next to medieval weaponry and Victorian culture. Possibility is everywhere as Arthur is tries to find his place in the new world. The story is easily enjoyed by young readers, and while there is violence throughout the tale, it isn't as prevalent as n other stories for young adults.