10% off all books and free delivery over £50
Buy from our bookstore and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice to buy more books. *15% of eBooks.

Langdimania

"This zany fantasy adventure takes readers on a rollercoaster ride through the wild imagination of its 12-year-old hero"

View All Editions (1)

£8.99 £8.09

In Stock. Same day dispatch on orders before 3pm.

Add To Wishlist
Write A Review Read An Extract

LoveReading Says

LoveReading Says

Boasting a distinctive slick, quick, comic voice, Lach’s Langdimania debut lets readers loose in the imagination of a twelve-year-old boy. Having something of a madcap road-trip vibe, it melds imaginative flights of fancy, fantasy, and the realities of junior high life with psychedelic invention. Think The Wizard of Oz meets modern pre-teen movies.

While searching a Manhattan toy store for the perfect present for his last pre-teen birthday, Army (full name Abraham Armstrong Allen) selects a blue plastic ball (AKA a Thingamajig) from a basket. According to the sign, it “could do anything” and, thanks to Army’s wild imagination, it pretty much can.

He tells his school peers that the Thingamajig “keeps all of reality in motion” and decides it’s a “Langdim finder” — short for language and dimension. From this, Army comes up with the idea that it can transport him to other dimensions, in which he can understand the inhabitants’ languages.

And from this, he fantasises about being king of Langdimania. Thusly, ideas escalate in Army’s mind, and it’s not long before the whole school wants in on his imperial role-playing game.

As might be expected, things don’t end there, and Army winds up slipping between two worlds, on a quest to save The Girl, while also hoping to bag the Scarecrow role in the school production of (appropriately enough) The Wizard of Oz. It’s fast, it’s funny, and feels akin to watching a pre-teen movie driven by childhood adventures and pre-teen thought processes.

Langdimania is available to buy here at £8.99.

Joanne Owen
Reviewed by Joanne Owen
Joanne Owen’s lifelong love of reading and writing began when she was growing up in Pembrokeshire, and very much wished that witches (and Mrs Pepperpot) were real.
More reviews by Joanne Owen
Debut Books of the Month

About Langdimania

If you listened to music in the nineties and early noughties and haven’t heard of Lach (pronounced “Latch”) then a quick online search will have you wondering how on earth this can be. Now the Edinburgh resident and bona fide music legend has written his first novel, a genre-busting fantasy adventure for young adults with two heroes – one boy one girl – at its heart.

Read the full description

Find This Book In

Primary Genre Young Adult Fiction
Other Genres:
Recommendations:

About

Author

Collections Featuring This Book

You Might Also Like...

Traitors' Nest

Frances Hardinge

Hardback

In Stock

£15.29 £16.99

Crown of Midnight

Sarah J. Maas

Paperback

In Stock

£9.89 £10.99

The Christmas Pig

J.K. Rowling

Hardback

In Stock

£18.00 £20.00

The Dark Artifices Box Set

Cassandra Clare

Paperback

In Stock

£26.97 £29.97

Frequently asked questions