Russell Troy Monster Boy

Russell is sure the "monster" ring is just a silly trick but he follows the instructions anyway and suddenly he's sprouting horns!

Head keeper Ken is world-famous for never turning a difficult animal away. Ken's zoo gives a 'last chance', offering a home to all those animals whose misbehaviour or strange habits have led to their exclusion from other zoos. But Ken and his wife adore animals, and have collected a team of keepers who share their passion and their unusual approach to animal care. However naughty or difficult an animal, Ken's zoo will always give them plenty of care and understanding. Remaining forever calm, Ken is infinitely resourceful with his network of world-wide contacts - and always thrives on a crisis. This time, he's got beavers who won't stop building dams, unruly ostriches, a baby crocodile with teething problems, and a baby giraffe afraid of heights ... And, when the Council decide to close the zoo, there's a dragon at the gates ...

Once upon a time all literature was fantasy, set in a mythical past when magic existed, animals talked, and the gods took an active hand in earthly affairs. As the mythical past was displaced in Western estimation by the historical past and novelists became increasingly preoccupied with the present, fantasy was temporarily marginalized until the late 20th century, when it enjoyed a spectacular resurgence in every stratum of the literary marketplace. Stableford provides an invaluable guide to this sequence of events and to the current state of the field. The chronology tracks the evolution of fantasy from the origins of literature to the 21st century. The introduction explains the nature of the impulses creating and shaping fantasy literature, the problems of its definition and the reasons for its changing historical fortunes. The dictionary includes cross-referenced entries on more than 700 authors, ranging across the entire historical spectrum, while more than 200 other entries describe the fantasy subgenres, key images in fantasy literature, technical terms used in fantasy criticism, and the intimately convoluted relationship between literary fantasies, scholarly fantasies, and lifestyle fantasies. The book concludes with an extensive bibliography that ranges from general textbooks and specialized accounts of the history and scholarship of fantasy literature, through bibliographies and accounts of the fantasy literature of different nations, to individual author studies and useful websites.

Fantasy is a genre in motion, gradually expanding its reach and historical sources to embrace a global identity Historical Dictionary of Fantasy Literature, Second Edition is a snapshot of the genre in this moment, identifying new themes and sources that are emerging to inspire, enhance and invigorate the published works of fantasy writers.

Revised and expanded, this 20th anniversary edition of the novel that launched the bestselling Magic Shop series features a new Afterword by the author. Illustrations.

Every 3rd issue is a quarterly cumulation.