I recently finished a children's fantasy novel by Garth Nix.
Arthur Penhaligon is a twelve year old boy and an asthmatic. He is the youngest child in a large family.
Upon his first day at a new school he finds that Monday's are when the kids participate in a run around the school grounds.
Arthur recently got out of the hospital from an asthma attack, but doesn't want to seem foolish in front of new classmates so he runs anyway.
Shortly into the run he has an attack of which he falls to the ground unable to breathe. Here is when Arthur's life takes a dramatic, fantasy spun turn.
He is given a key in the form of a second hand to a clock. This key has power and eventually Arthur is swept away into another world.
Knowing there is a horrible plague back home on planet earth or what the author calls, "the second realm" he is driven to do all that "the Will" commands of him.
The Preface is: There was a will, it was broken into seven pieces and left unfulfilled. There were seven trustees who wanted to prevent the will from being fulfilled. The Trustees are Mister Monday, Grim Tuesday, Drowned Wednesday, Sir Thursday, Lady Friday, Superior Saturday and Lord Sunday.
This first book in the series, Keys to the Kingdom is only about Mister Monday.
Mister Monday is the trustee of the Lower House where Arthur finds himself. Arthur must defeat this trustee with the help of a twelve year old girl named Suzy Blue and the first piece of the Will which can take on different forms.
There were two things I personally disapproved of. But they were very short lived.
It is a bit complex, I doubt most kids would be able to keep up with everything when I had a difficult time. But it was entertaining, well written, and not dark like most fantasy novels of today.
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