The Death-Defying Pepper Roux
By Geraldine McCaughrean

In this hilariously dark and brilliant adventure we find poor young Pepper Roux, marked for death at age 14 by Saint Constance (delivered through a vision on the eve of his birth by his overly crazed religious Aunt), awakening on the morning of his doomed fourteenth birthday. Since his life has been a long preparation for death, sheltered and knee-chapped Pepper (whose knees underwent so many, many years of kneeling and praying) goes through the motions of the typical day, seeing opportunities for death in every move he makes. Feeling his time has come, he decides to go meet death by hopping on his father’s ship and taking on a new, unbelievable identity. From there we are led by Pepper Roux through a series of escapades which bring him right into the reach of everything he has always feared…and for the first time in his 14 years, Pepper must learn how to live.