Download high-resolution image

The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels

Author Beth Lincoln On Tour

Illustrated by Claire Powell On Tour

Best Seller

Hardcover

$17.99 US

Penguin Young Readers | Dutton Books for Young Readers

5.81"W x 8.56"H x 1.1"D (14.8 x 21.7 x 2.8 cm) | 16 oz (459 g) | 12 per carton

On sale Feb 07, 2023 | 352 Pages | 9780593533239

Age 8-12 years | Grades 6-8

Reading Level: Lexile 810L | Fountas & Pinnell X

Sales rights: US,CAN,OpnMkt(no EU)

Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies

See Additional Formats

Children's Books > Children's Middle Grade Books > Children's Middle Grade Mystery

View on Edelweiss

#1 New York Times bestseller!

“Knives Out feel by way of Lemony Snicket…This archly told, never muddled debut whodunit reveals a roster of distinct characters, a labyrinthine setting and plot, and a mystery that is as clever as its heroine.” – Publishers Weekly, starred review

“The suspenseful denouement is positively writhing with twists.” —Booklist, starred review

On the day they are born, every Swift child is brought before the sacred Family Dictionary. They are given a name, and a definition. A definition it is assumed they will grow up to match.
Meet Shenanigan Swift: Little sister. Risk-taker. Mischief-maker.

Shenanigan is getting ready for the big Swift Family Reunion and plotting her next great scheme: hunting for Grand-Uncle Vile’s long-lost treasure. She’s excited to finally meet her arriving relatives—until one of them gives Arch-Aunt Schadenfreude a deadly shove down the stairs.

So what if everyone thinks she’ll never be more than a troublemaker, just because of her name? Shenanigan knows she can become whatever she wants, even a detective. And she’s determined to follow the twisty clues and catch the killer.

Deliciously suspenseful and delightfully clever, The Swifts is a remarkable debut that is both brilliantly contemporary and instantly classic. A celebration of words and individuality, it's packed with games, wordplay, and lots and lots of mischief as Shenanigan sets out to save her family and define herself in a world where definitions are so important.

Cover may vary.

Back in the old tights-and-doublets days of the Swift family, every child had been named either Mary or John. It got terribly confusing at dinnertime when someone asked a John to pass the potatoes and ten hands shot out at once, and so Mary Swift XXXV had begun the tradition of naming her children using the Family Dictionary. The idea stuck, and the Swifts prospered. People often overlook a Mary or a John, but they seldom forget a person named Meretricious or Flinch.

Shenanigan couldn’t remember the day she was born, but she could picture it very well: the hospital room, the nurses, her mother, tired and smiling as Shenanigan’s father fussed over her pillows. She pictured herself too, wrapped up like a little peanut with a shock of disobedient hair already erupting out of her head. She pictured the Dictionary—and this part was easier, because she was looking at it—an ancient, leather-bound monster of a book, bursting its bindings with pages of calfskin and parchment and paper, with entries in crisp modern fonts, wonky typewritten letters, and handscrawled script with longS’s that looked like F’s.

The Dictionary would have been brought in, set on the bed (Shenanigan pictured the nurses’ noses wrinkling in distaste), and opened at random by Shenanigan’s mother. Her eyes would have been closed. She would have run her finger down the page and stopped on the word and definition that would become her child’s name.

Shenanigan could picture this so well because every Swift’s first day began in exactly the same way. .

SELECTION | 2024
ALA Notable Children's Book
SELECTION
Chicago Public Library Best Books
SELECTION
Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Books
SELECTION
New York Public Library Best Books for Kids
SELECTION
Publishers Weekly Best Children's Book of the Year
SELECTION
Shelf Awareness - Best Children’s & Teen Books of the Year
LONGLIST
Branford Boase Award
AWARD
New York Times Bestseller

★ “Lincoln’s love of lexicon shines. A delightful pick for sharp readers enamored of gothic sensibilities and clever prose.” —Shelf Awareness, starred review

★ “A Gothic novel of corrosive values… Lincoln’s manor-set murder mystery maintains a Knives Out feel by way of Lemony Snicket… But crackling puns outpace the body count as this archly told, never muddled debut whodunit reveals a roster of distinct characters, a labyrinthine setting and plot, and a mystery that is as clever as its heroine.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

★ “Taking the classic manor house whodunit for a wild ride, Lincoln mixes hidden rooms and agendas, a sprawling family with unusual naming practices, gender identity discoveries, high comedy and low punning, murder, and more, then stirs briskly. While clues, suspects, and terrific set pieces pile up, the author not only pitches her young investigators into situations both life-threatening and comical, but pulls in a large supporting cast—memorable for more than just their monikers—for perceptive explorations of family ties, pressures, and responsibilities.” —Booklist, starred review

★ “An absolutely delightful debut with heartwarming character growth and a clever, genre-savvy country-house mystery.... The narrative voice includes jokes and viewpoints that will be appreciated by sophisticated younger readers as well as those who are older than Shenanigan; overall, the humor and action are spot-on for middle-grade audiences.” —Kirkus, starred review

“Lincoln whips up a witty confection of highly colorful characters, dynamic wordplay, and a plot dense with action, suspense, double-dealing, innovative murder weapons, and a well-orchestrated eleventh-hour reveal.” —The Horn Book Magazine

“The Swifts celebrates the wonders of wordplay and the complexity of identity while serving up a compelling murder mystery and a twisty treasure hunt.” —BookPage

Beth Lincoln is the award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Swifts series, which was inspired by her love of etymology, the gleeful gothic, and classic murder mysteries. Her debut novel, The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels was the winner of the Barnes & Noble Children’s & YA Book Award and the Nero Book Award for Children’s Fiction.

Raised in a former Victorian railway station in the North of England, Beth’s childhood fears included porcelain dolls, the Durham panther, and wardrobes that looked at her funny. She grew neither tall nor wise, and never learned to play an instrument—but she did write stories, a bad habit that has persisted to this day. When she isn’t writing, Beth is woodcarving, or making a mess of her flat, or talking the nearest ear off about unexplained occurrences. Her favorite things include ghosts, crisps, and weird old words like bumbershoot and zounderkite.

She lives in Newcastle upon Tyne with her partner and hopefully, by the time you are reading this, a dog. View titles by Beth Lincoln

Claire Powell View titles by Claire Powell

Available for sale exclusive:

• Canada

• Guam

• Minor Outl.Ins.

• North Mariana

• Philippines

• Puerto Rico

• Samoa,American

• US Virgin Is.

• USA

Available for sale non-exclusive:

• Afghanistan

• Aland Islands

• Albania

• Algeria

• Angola

• Anguilla

• Antarctica

• Argentina

• Armenia

• Aruba

• Azerbaijan

• Bahrain

• Belarus

• Benin

• Bhutan

• Bolivia

• Bonaire, Saba

• Bosnia Herzeg.

• Bouvet Island

• Brazil

• Burkina Faso

• Burundi

• Cambodia

• Cape Verde

• Centr.Afr.Rep.

• Chad

• Chile

• China

• Colombia

• Comoro Is.

• Congo

• Cook Islands

• Costa Rica

• Cuba

• Curacao

• Dem. Rep. Congo

• Djibouti

• Dominican Rep.

• Ecuador

• Egypt

• El Salvador

• Equatorial Gui.

• Eritrea

• Ethiopia

• French Guinea

• Gabon

• Georgia

• Guadeloupe

• Guatemala

• Guinea Republic

• Guinea-Bissau

• Haiti

• Heard/McDon.Isl

• Honduras

• Hong Kong

• Indonesia

• Iran

• Israel

• Ivory Coast

• Japan

• Kazakhstan

• Kyrgyzstan

• Laos

• Lebanon

• Liberia

• Libya

• Macau

• Macedonia

• Madagascar

• Maldives

• Mali

• Marshall island

• Martinique

• Mauritania

• Mayotte

• Mexico

• Micronesia

• Moldavia

• Mongolia

• Montenegro

• Morocco

• Nepal

• New Caledonia

• Nicaragua

• Niger

• Niue

• Norfolk Island

• North Korea

• Oman

• Palau

• Palestinian Ter

• Panama

• Paraguay

• Peru

• Qatar

• Reunion Island

• Russian Fed.

• Saint Martin

• SaoTome Princip

• Saudi Arabia

• Senegal

• Serbia

• Sint Maarten

• South Korea

• South Sudan

• St Barthelemy

• St.Pier,Miquel.

• Sth Terr. Franc

• Suriname

• Svalbard

• Syria

• Tadschikistan

• Taiwan

• Thailand

• Timor-Leste

• Togo

• Tokelau Islands

• Tunisia

• Turkmenistan

• Ukraine

• Unit.Arab Emir.

• Uruguay

• Uzbekistan

• Venezuela

• Vietnam

• Wallis,Futuna

• West Saharan

Not available for sale:

• Andorra

• Antigua/Barbuda

• Australia

• Austria

• Bahamas

• Bangladesh

• Barbados

• Belgium

• Belize

• Bermuda

• Botswana

• Brit.Ind.Oc.Ter

• Brit.Virgin Is.

• Brunei

• Bulgaria

• Cameroon

• Cayman Islands

• Christmas Islnd

• Cocos Islands

• Croatia

• Cyprus

• Czech Republic

• Denmark

• Dominica

• Estonia

• Falkland Islnds

• Faroe Islands

• Fiji

• Finland

• France

• Fren.Polynesia

• Gambia

• Germany

• Ghana

• Gibraltar

• Greece

• Greenland

• Grenada

• Guernsey

• Guyana

• Hungary

• Iceland

• India

• Iraq

• Ireland

• Isle of Man

• Italy

• Jamaica

• Jersey

• Jordan

• Kenya

• Kiribati

• Kuwait

• Latvia

• Lesotho

• Liechtenstein

• Lithuania

• Luxembourg

• Malawi

• Malaysia

• Malta

• Mauritius

• Monaco

• Montserrat

• Mozambique

• Myanmar

• Namibia

• Nauru

• Netherlands

• New Zealand

• Nigeria

• Norway

• Pakistan

• PapuaNewGuinea

• Pitcairn Islnds

• Poland

• Portugal

• Romania

• Rwanda

• S. Sandwich Ins

• San Marino

• Seychelles

• Sierra Leone

• Singapore

• Slovakia

• Slovenia

• Solomon Islands

• Somalia

• South Africa

• Spain

• Sri Lanka

• St. Helena

• St. Lucia

• St. Vincent

• St.Chr.,Nevis

• Sudan

• Swaziland

• Sweden

• Switzerland

• Tanzania

• Tonga

• Trinidad,Tobago

• Turkey

• Turks&Caicos Is

• Tuvalu

• Uganda

• United Kingdom

• Vanuatu

• Vatican City

• Western Samoa

• Yemen

• Zambia

• Zimbabwe

Discussion Guide for The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels

Provides questions, discussion topics, suggested reading lists, introductions and/or author Q&As, which are intended to enhance reading groups’ experiences.

(Please note: the guide displayed here is the most recently uploaded version; while unlikely, any page citation discrepancies between the guide and book is likely due to pagination differences between a book’s different formats.)

About

Excerpt

Awards

SELECTION | 2024
ALA Notable Children's Book
SELECTION
Chicago Public Library Best Books
SELECTION
Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Books
SELECTION
New York Public Library Best Books for Kids
SELECTION
Publishers Weekly Best Children's Book of the Year
SELECTION
Shelf Awareness - Best Children’s & Teen Books of the Year
LONGLIST
Branford Boase Award
AWARD
New York Times Bestseller

Praise

Author