The Griffin's Riddle

The Griffin's Riddle
by Suzanne Selfors
Recommended Ages: 10+

For their own reasons, Ben and Pearl, apprentices to Imaginary Veterinary Dr. Emerald Woo, are having a bad mood day. It's frankly not a good look for them. But wait till they meet the Griffin, the giant half-eagle, half-lion who's the king of the Imaginary World. His moods actually affect the weather. And if he doesn't like them, he could keep them from going back to Buttonville forever.

Failure is not an option on this mission. Almost everybody in town, including Dr. Woo, has come down with a case of troll tonsillitis. It's extremely contagious and it makes your face swell up like, well, a troll's. Luckily, both Ben and Pearl have already had their tonsils taken out, so they're immune. That leaves only them to travel to the king's, er, palace. Them and Dr. Woo's quirky assistant, Mr. Tabby, who (you may not be surprised to learn) turns into a cat whenever he goes to the Imaginary World. His feline behavior is really unhelpful when they've got to persuade a temperamental Griffin to give them one of his feathers, which is the only cure to troll tonsillitis. Even less helpful is the nefarious Maximus Steele, an evil imaginary creatures poacher who menaces the kids during their urgent mission.

With this fifth book in the "Imaginary Veterinary" series, I'm only one book away from being completely caught up on the series; and that book is The Fairy Swarm. The fact that all six of these books were written about a decade ago puts me in a bit of a bad mood (to continue the theme), since it means it's unlikely the series will continue past the next book, and I'm really enjoying it. The hero kids have flaws and feelings that I can sympathize with. They're growing and achieving bigger things than they would expect of themselves, than most people they know would expect of them. They're fun to hang around with, and each of their adventures is loaded with magic, danger and hilarity. I'll be sorry to take leave of them. But Suzanne Selfors has other books to explore, such as a "Smells Like" trilogy featuring a dog, a bunch of "Ever After High" books including "Fairy's Got Talent, a trilogy about a dog and a guinea pig named Wedgie and Gizmo, multiple stand-alone books and a couple of upcoming "Willow's Woods" stories, due for release in 2025.

The Lonely Lake Monster

The Lonely Lake Monster
by Suzanne Selfors
Recommended Ages: 10+

In this second book of "The Imaginary Veterinary" series, city boy Ben and small-town girl Pearl, aged 10, begin their apprenticeship at Dr. Woo's Worm Hospital with a simple but icky assignment: trimming the Sasquatch's toenails. Pretty soon, Pearl gets distracted, as she does. You can't blame her, because the distraction takes the form of a lake monster, like the Loch Ness Monster except in sharper focus. She's another creature from the Imaginary World, crossed over into the Known World to seek treatment by Dr. Woo. But she isn't harmless. When the kids run down to the lake shore for a closer look, she kidnaps Ben and tries to keep him as a pet on an island in the middle of the lake.

Pearl doesn't want to lose the boy who just might prove to be her best friend. She doesn't want to lose her job. But getting Ben back from the lake monster without getting caught will require her to break all the rules laid down at the beginning of their internship. She'll have to leave the building, obviously. She'll have to take a magical being out into the Known World. And she'll have to risk revealing Dr. Woo's secrets to the nosiest busybody in town, the horrid Welcome Wagon lady who keeps pounding on the locked gate, demanding to be shown around the place. Also, the magical creature she calls upon for help is one that hates humans and, to force him to help her, she must do the thing that'll definitely make him mad. Like stealing a leprechaun's gold. Exactly like that.

This is part 2 of a series of which I've already read books 1, 3 and 4. Like the other installments, it's effervesces with laughter, magic and a compassion for all kinds of people (except, perhaps, nosy busybodies). It throws a girl with a talent for trouble together with a boy who's known to worry, hesitate and, when backed into a corner, make up whoppers. They make a great team and play off of each other wonderfully, growing as characters as a result. And the cast of zany characters inhabiting the tiny, depressed town of Buttonville only adds to the fun.

For those of you reading the books in order, the next installment will be The Rain Dragon Rescue. For me, it'll be (or rather, already was) book 5, The Griffin's Riddle. Selfors' other titles include Smells Like Dog and its two sequels, a bunch of "Ever After High" books including A Semi-Charming Kind of Life and Hero Training and several other books, including Fortune's Magic Farm and The Sweetest Spell.

A Nose for Adventure

A Nose for Adventure
by Richard Scrimger
Recommended Ages: 11+

In The Nose from Jupiter, a Canadian boy named Alan Dingwall faced loneliness, alienation, bullying and intramural sports with the help of a tiny, wisecracking alien named Norbert who, for a while, parked his spaceship in Alan's nose. A year later, Alan is a nervous flyer coming in for a landing at LaGuardia Airport, worrying that his dad (who now lives in New York) will forget to meet him at the airport. Well, he's right about that, but what's even worse is that someone immediately tries to kidnap the snotty, wheelchair-bound girl who sat next to him on the flight, and before he knows it, the two of them plus a stray dog are on a perilous adventure across Manhattan. And that makes four of them, because (as I may have forgotten to mention), Norbert is back.

It's an adventure involving scary goons, stolen goods, a charlatan, gullible rich people, public transit, a friendly street kid who seems happy all by himself, and a couple of unhappy kids – one rich, one not so much – who desperately want to feel their parents' love. And also, the always hilarious voice of Norbert, which now seems to be coming out of the nose of a dog named Sally. You can never predict what he'll say next, except that it will be funny on some level. And there are a lot of levels to this beautifully, intelligently written book.

Alan, at times, seems to be an extremely smart kid. His internal musings are vivid, colorful, keenly insightful, and emotionally compelling – not to mention loaded with historical and literary references that you'd be surprised to find occupying the mind of a 15-year-old kid from a small city in Canada who (apparently) doesn't know anything about Abraham Lincoln or George Washington. At other times, he's amazingly obtuse and unobservant, failing (for instance) to remember what a car looked like that was involved in his own kidnapping. Sometimes it's as if the author's intellect runs away with his average-kid narrator. But it's an inconsistency that you're willing to live with because it enables you to enjoy this as, again, a beautifully and intelligently written book that both touches your heart and tickles your funny bone.

This is the second book of the "Nose" trilogy, which continues with Noses Are Red. Scrimger is also the author or co-author of something like 18 other books, including The Way to Schenectady, Of Mice and Nutrcackers, Me & Death, Zomboy, Downside Up and At the Speed of Gus, as well as a companion book to this series, titled The Boy from Earth, in which Alan travels to Jupiter. The more Alan and Norbert, the better.