Creature Keepers And The Perilous Pyro Paws

An epically hilarious, fully illustrated adventure series Abbie, Jordan, and Eldon band together with their cryptid friends in an attempt to save the world in the final book in this fun series. As summer draws to an end, Jordan and Abbie Grimsley are moving with their parents from the city into their long-lost grandfather’s house in the Florida everglades. But before they settle into their new life, they’re taking a completely ordinary, creature-free cruise to the Yucatan Peninsula. Despite the mysterious history and strange recent events that have surrounded the Grimsley family, there's no reason to suspect this relaxing vacation to the ancient site of the Chicxulub Crater (thought to be caused by a massive asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs sixty-six million years ago) will lead to the discovery of a never-before-seen super-cryptid and a final showdown between good and evil that will decide the fate of the entire world. Or is there…?

For kids who love the Origami Yoda and Zombie Chasers series comes the first book in an epically hilarious, fully illustrated middle grade adventure series, starring some of history's best-known mythical beasts, from the dynamic creators of Herbert's Wormhole. Twelve-year-old Jordan Grimsley has moved with his family into an old, abandoned house in Florida that belonged to his long-lost grandfather. While clearing stuff out of the attic, Jordan finds a scrapbook filled with old news clippings about local sightings of the mythological South Florida Skunk Ape. Determined to learn more, he persuades Eldon Pecone, the only other kid for miles, to come along on an excursion into the swamp, where many of the sightings occurred. This is when Jordan makes a startling discovery: not only is the Skunk Ape real, but Eldon is an elite member of a secret society of Creature Keepers—humans assigned to protect a variety of mythical beasts. And when they discover that the Loch Ness Monster has gone missing, it kick-starts a fast-paced, funny, and totally original race across the globe to restore order and balance to the world.

Carol Milford grows up in a mid-sized town in Minnesota before moving to Chicago for college. After her education, during which she’s exposed to big-city life and culture, she moves to Minneapolis to work as a librarian. She soon meets Will Kennicott, a small-town doctor, and the two get married and move to Gopher Prairie, Kennicott’s home town. Carol, inspired by big-city ideas, soon begins chafing at the seeming quaintness and even backwardness of the townsfolk, and their conservative, self-satisfied way of life. She struggles to try to reform the town in her image, while finding meaning in the seeming cultural desert she’s found herself in and in her increasingly cold marriage. Gopher Prairie is a detailed, satirical take on small-town American life, modeled after Sauk Centre, the town in which Lewis himself grew up. The town is fully realized, with generations of inhabitants interacting in a complex web of village society. Its bitingly satirical portrayal made Main Street highly acclaimed by its contemporaries, though many thought the satirical take was perhaps a bit too dark and hopeless. The book’s celebration and condemnation of small town life make it a candidate for the title of the Great American Novel. Main Street was awarded the 1921 Pulitzer Prize, but the decision was overturned by the prize’s Board of Trustees and awarded instead to Edith Wharton for The Age of Innocence. When Lewis went on to win the 1926 Pulitzer for Arrowsmith, he declined it—with the New York Times reporting that he did so because he was still angry at the Pulitzers for being denied the prize for Main Street. Despite the book’s snub at the Pulitzers, Lewis went on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1930, with Main Street being cited as one of the reasons for his win.

Abbie, Jordan, and Eldon are off on their next Creature Keepers mission in the second book in this epically hilarious, fully illustrated middle grade adventure series, from the dynamic creators of Herbert's Wormhole. Gearing up for a triumphant return to South Florida, and their new position as honorary Creature Keepers, Abbie and Jordan are surprised when it turns out they are actually heading north of the border to Canada for their summer vacation. With Creature Keepers the world over abandoning their posts, the two siblings have been tapped for a special assignment: to serve as the new keepers for Syd—otherwise known as Bigfoot! Caring for Syd has never been a particularly difficult job—he’s more than content to sit around in his treehouse and watch TV all day. But TV, in fact, is posing the newest threat to the Creature Keepers. Specifically, a reality-show host named Buck Wilde is dead set on tracking down Bigfoot and exposing him. And before long, the Keepers suspect that Buck isn’t the only one intent on finding Syd.…

The Queens are intrigued when a grisly murder mars a small town’s Christmas It’s Christmas in Chicago, and Inspector Richard Queen is enjoying a busman’s holiday at a conference on gangland violence—but his son, amateur sleuth Ellery, is bored silly. Until, that is, Ellery reads of an unusual killing in rural Arroyo, West Virginia: A schoolmaster has been found beheaded and crucified. Ellery hustles his father into his roadster and heads east, since there is nothing he’d like better for Christmas than a juicy, gruesome puzzle. When the Queens arrive in Arroyo, they learn that the victim was an eccentric atheist, but not the sort to make enemies. What initially looks to be the work of a sadistic cult turns out to be something far more sinister. In the months ahead, more victims will turn up all over the world—all killed in the same horrifying manner. It will take several bodies before Queen divines the clue that unlocks the mystery of the Christmas crucifixion.

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