The Last Apprentice - McKellan's Revenge (Part 1)

Author: Joseph Delaney
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: The Last Apprentice was first published by Random House Children's Books in the UK in July 2004. The second book in the series was released in the UK in 2005, the third in July 2006, and the fourth is planned for release in July 2007. The Last Apprentice received immediate attention and praise from readers, the media, and other sectors. It was not only beloved by children but also praised by adults. In 2005, when the book was sold in the UK, it sold 150,000 copies in just six months. In the US, the book was even more successful, debuting at number six on the Amazon Best Sellers list in 2005 and now selling over 300,000 copies. When the second book was officially released in the US, its first printing of 100,000 copies sold out quickly, and it jumped to the top of the Amazon Best Sellers list. The book has now been published in nearly twenty countries, including France, Germany, Greece, Denmark, the Netherlands, Israel, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Sweden, Thailand, Romania, Russia, and more, with total global sales exceeding 5 million copies. Alongside its impressive sales figures, the book has also won numerous international awards. In the UK, it won the 2006 Hampshire Book Award, was ranked among the top five in the 2006 Manchester Book Award, the 2006 Warwickshire Young People's Book Award, and various other awards such as the Lancashire Children's Book of the Year, the Lincolnshire Young People's Book Award, and the Doncaster Book Award. The first book was also named one of the top six children's books of 2005 by Amazon and received the "100 Books to Read and Share" award from the New York Public Library. It was also honored by the American Library Association (ALA) with the "Best Books for Young People" award.
The protagonist of The Last Apprentice is a boy named Tom, who is a year older than Harry Potter. When he turns 12 and is about to enter his 13th year, the demon hunter Skulk takes him as his apprentice, and the story unfolds from there. In the book, the representatives of the forces of good are primarily the boy Tom and his master Skulk, while the forces of evil are mainly the witch McKenna. When Tom is still a novice, McKenna's granddaughter Bonny Lizzie convinces her beautiful niece Alice to manipulate Tom into freeing McKenna, who had been imprisoned in Skulk's dungeon. This marks the beginning of McKenna's revenge and the battle between Tom and McKenna, the forces of good and evil. McKenna and Lizzie are the most terrifying witches in the history of their village. Wherever they go, people dare not go out at night. To satisfy her needs for practice, McKenna captures children from the village and drains their blood. To prevent this from happening, Tom risks his life to pursue McKenna. With immense courage and the experience he learned from his teacher Skulk in dealing with witches, Tom sends McKenna back to the river she fears the most.