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Josh Lieb has a very impressive page on IMDB with some solid comedy credit, including several Emmys. His first book for kids, I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I want to Be Your Class President, had hilarious blurbs from Judd Apatow and Jon Stewart, who likened to the book to the baby of War and Peace and The Breakfast Club that had been left to be raised by wolves. Writing funny kid's

Castle Hangnail is the special treat that we get from Ursula Vernon that comes between the ending of her fantastic  Dragonbreath series and the start of her eagerly anticipated new series, Hamster Princess, featuring Harriet, a an extraordinary princess who excels at checkers and fractions, despite the curse that a wicked fairy god mouse cast, leaving her looking toward a Sleeping

Back in 2013 I read and loved Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein. Besides being a book about books, which of course I adore, Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library is written in a style that will attract a wide range of readers, from the avid to the unsure. In The Island of Dr. Libris, Grabbenstein once again creates an everyman main character, astutely weaving in

Ms. Rapscott's Girls is the newest novel from Elise Primavera, author of one of my favorite books, Libby of High Hopes and I love it to bits! Ms. Rapscott's Girls, both the book and the titular character, call to mind classics from my childhood like Mary Poppins, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and my absolute favorite, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. Set firmly in the real world, there are generous

Full disclosure here:  I have been a fan of Jason Segel's since watching the television show Freaks & Geeks ages ago. Having grown up with the Muppets, I was further impressed by Segel when I heard an interview in which he spoke passionately and thoughtfully about co-writing and acting in the Muppets revival movie. This, along with the fact that Segel had the good sense to team up with

Winterfrost  by Michelle Houts features a mythical creature that captured my imagination as a child - gnomes, also known as "nisse." Gnomes was one of the first books I remember purchasing with my own, hard earned money, and I think it also is the first encyclopedic book about a fictional creature. Winterfrost  is a superb story that combines holiday and cultural traditions with a story of

Many of you probably know Gregory Maguire as the author of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. I discovered it a year or so after it was published in 1995 in the bargain section of the bookstore where I worked and remember how thrilling it was to read back then. Long a fan of fairy tales, I was amazed to learn that a meal could be made of a behind the scenes, adult

You probably know Annie Barrows for her fantastic ivy + bean series, now 10 books strong (you can read my review here) but my first introduction to Annie Barrows was when I reviewed her book The Magic Half in 2010. Published in 2007, this story captured my imagination and has stayed with me. I was THRILLED when I learned that Barrows was working on a sequel and am happy to say that it's

I have had a copy of The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, Book 1: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood on my shelf since 2010 when it was released. While the plot sounded interesting, I have hung on to it for over four years, hoping to get to it someday, because of the completely charming  illustrations by a favorite of mine, Jon Klassen. Now, four years later and four books into

The Unwanteds, the first book in Lisa McMann's Unwanteds series came out in 2011 and the blurb on the cover, "The Hunger Games meets Harry Potter," didn't grab me, despite the fact that I read and admire both series. I was  burned out on dystopian settings and wary of any book that is compared to Harry Potter. But, The Unwanteds won the California Young Reader Medal medal for best

If, like me, you are slightly put out by the fact that your copies of the four books in The Giver Quartet by Lois Lowry do not have matching covers. At least, this is the case if you bought the books as they were released (no pun intended.) The Giver was published in 1993, Gathering Blue in 2000, Messenger in 2004 and Son in 2012. You can buy them all in hardcover with the new covers,

The Night Gardener is the second novel from Jonathan Auxier (check out his fantastic blog The Scop) with perfectly creepy cover art by Patrick Arrasmith. Auxier's first book, Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, an excellent story that reads like a cross between Peter Pan and Treasure Island with a bit of Dickensian drama thrown in for good measure. With The Night Gardener, Auxier has set

THE SPINDLERS is now in paperback! Lauren Oliver is the author of the brilliant YA dystopian trilogy that beings with Delirium and a society where romantic love is considered a disease that should and can be eradicated from the human experience on a child's eighteenth birthday (after all, love can make you feel like you are on the top of the world or in the depths of despair.) She is also

RUMP: THE TRUE STORY OF RUMPLESTILTSKIN is now in paperback!! Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin by Liesl Shurtliff is a clever exploration and expansion of the classic fairy tale and, as with the original, there is everything in a name. Names and magic are at the heart of Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin, which is set in a bleak fairy tale landscape where a king who is hungry

When N. D. Wilson realized that many young readers think all great fantasies begin in England, he wrote the 100 Cupboards trilogy, an other-worlds-fantasy that begins in Henry, Kansas with baseball-playing Americans. And, while I love this magical trilogy, Leepike Ridge, Wilson's debut, which I reviewed in 2010, remains my favorite. In Leepike Ridge Wilson gives readers something rare - a