Briefly Noted

“In a strange, surreal world, Alex Metcalf finds himself joining a fantasy baseball league filled with figures from children’s literature and fairy tales. While playing the games, he meets Dorothy and other characters from the Oz series (not just the first book but the less familiar characters from the sequels) along with such stalwarts as Anne Shirley; Toad, from The Wind in the Willows (he thinks he is playing cricket); and the Cheshire Cat. More contemporary characters from the Redwall series, Madeleine L’Engle’s novels, and others have walk-on parts. Meanwhile, the Big Bad Wolf is trying to escape from prison and exact a bloody revenge on Alex and the other players. The backstory, based on a dream, adds up to a goofy, rather ramshackle story that may be too esoteric for most young people. Still, inveterate readers may enjoy the fractured take on children’s literature.”

“Along the Arctic Circle lies a small island called Neversink, whose jagged cliffs and ice-gouged rocks are home to a colony of odd-looking seabirds called auks, including one Lockley J. Puffin. With their oceanfront views and plentiful supply of fish, the auks have few concerns—few, save for Lockley’s two best friends, Egbert and Ruby, a know-it-all walrus and a sharp-tongued hummingbird. But all of this is about to change.”