THE TOP FIVE KICK-ASS BOOKS I READ THIS YEAR

Here it is, Wormies. My list. Five books I enjoyed more than all others this year.

For the record, making the cannibal's list does not mean these are masterful works of literary genius. No, the books made the list because they kicked ass more than the others. That's it.

Number one: The Caretaker of Lorne Field: A Novel

Jack Durkin is the ninth generation of Durkins who have weeded Lorne Field for nearly 300 years. Though he and his wife Lydia are miserable and would like nothing more than to leave, Jack must wait until his son has come of age to tend the field on his own. It's an important job, though no one else seems to realize it. For, if the field is left untended, a horrific monster called an Aukowie will grow -- a monster capable of taking over the entirety of America in just two weeks. Or so it is said. . .

This paranoid, suspenseful, work is easily my number one book of the year. I was gripped by the story from the first page to the last. Look for a full review in the next day or two.



Number two: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared off the secluded island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger family. There was no corpse, no witnesses, no evidence. But her uncle, Henrik, is convinced that she was murdered by someone from her own deeply dysfunctional family. Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist is hired to investigate, but he quickly finds himself in over his head. He hires a competent assistant: the gifted and conscience-free computer specialist Lisbeth Salander, and the two unravel a dark and appalling family history. But the Vangers are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves.

Wormies, I know you aren't surprised by this one. The Millennium Trilogy was a world wide phenomenon in 2010. You can't go anywhere these days without seeing someone nose deep into the bright yellow paperback. My favorite of the trilogy, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO is suspenseful, intelligent and heck of a good yarn.

Number Three: Dracula The Un-Dead

It is 1912, twenty-five years after Dracula "crumbled into dust." Vampire-hunter Dr. Van Helsing's protégé, Dr. Jack Seward, is now a disgraced morphine addict who's convinced that Countess Elizabeth Bathory, a murderous, ravenhaired beauty born in 1560, still walks the earth. Meanwhile, the intelligent and capable Mina, wife of Jonathan Harker, has her own concerns: her son Quincey has finally learned his parents' terrible secrets, but not soon enough to prevent Jonathan's brutal murder in Piccadilly Circus.
Someone is stalking the band of heroes who defeated Dracula. Could it be that Dracula somehow survived their attack and is seeking revenge? Could it be that love never dies?
Based on Bram Stoker's own handwritten notes for characters and plot threads, this is the bone-chilling sequel to the timeless classic Dracula.

This one surprised even me. Some of you are probably rolling your eyes this made my top five. That's fine. To each his own (wait till you see my number four!). I found this book to be pure pulp action fun. It just kicked ass. The last hundred or so pages were as frantic and crazy as an out of control stagecoach! If you liked Dracula but aren't one of those purist nuts, then I really think you'll like DRACULA, THE UN-DEAD.

Number Four: Night of the Living Trekkies

This sci-fi /zombie/comedy/adventure follows a group of rag-tag Trekkies getting together for the fifth annual FedCon (billed as the "largest Starfleet Convention in the western Gulf Coast region"). Our heroes are dressed in homemade uniforms and armed with prop phasers but soon find themselves defending their hotel and convention center against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Suddenly, all of their useless knowledge about particle physics and old Star Trek episodes has genuine real-world applications! And while hotel employees and regular civilians are dying left and right, our Trekkies summon strength and courage by emulating their favorite starship-voyaging characters. Packed with hundreds of gags referencing Star Trek, comic books, and fan conventions, Night of the Living Trekkies reads like the strange lovechild of Galaxy Quest and Dawn of the Dead. Journey to the final frontier of zombie science-fiction mash-ups! This is an original work of parody and is not officially sponsored by, affiliated with, or endorsed by the owners of the Star Trek brand.

Stop rolling your eyes. If you've read NIGHT OF THE TREKKIES then you know I am a wise for including this book in my year end 'best of' list. No, this isn't high literature. No, the only awards this book is going to win is...well, it probably won't win any awards. But it kicks ass, and that's what is important here.

Number Five: Draculas: A Novel of Terror 

A DYING MAN'S GREATEST TREASURE...
Mortimer Moorecook, retired Wall Street raider, avid collector, is losing his fight against cancer. With weeks to live, a package arrives at the door of his hillside mansion-an artifact he paid millions for...a hominoid skull with elongated teeth, discovered in a farmer's field in the Romanian countryside. With Shanna, his beautiful research assistant looking on, he sinks the skull's razor sharp fangs into his neck, and immediately goes into convulsions.

OPENS THE DOOR TO AN ANCIENT EVIL...
A rural hospital. A slow night in the ER. Until Moorecook arrives strapped to a gurney, where he promptly codes and dies.


Four well-known horror authors pool their penchants for scares and thrills, and tackle one of the greatest of all legends, with each writer creating a unique character and following them through a vampire outbreak in a secluded hospital.

Plain and simple, this book is full throttle vampire mayhem. It's gory, action packed and intensity driven. Forget TWILIGHT. Forget THE VAMPIRE DIARIES. DRACULAS is vampires in their true form, monstrous, vicious man-eating beasts!

There you have it. My top five.

There were plenty of books I could have snuck in somewhere but these ones had just a little bit more fun in them.

If you happen to pick any of them up after my recommendation, well, I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

WHISKEY SOUR by J.A. Konrath

Whiskey Sour (A Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels Mystery) is the first book in J.A. Konrath's Jack Daniels series and I'm here to tell you it rocks.

If you've been following my blog at all over the last few months then you know Konrath has become my new favorite writer. His book Trapped (A Novel of Terror) was one of the best horror novels I read this year, hands down, while his collaboration with Jeff Strand, F. Paul Wilson and Blake Crouch, called Draculas: A Novel of Terror, became an e book hit. His books are more fun than roller coasters and bungee jumping.

WHISKEY SOUR is about Lieutenant Jack Daniels' race to track down a vicious serial killer terrorizing the women of Chicago. He calls himself the Gingerbread Man and his fast and bloody rampage is creating a media frenzy and puts pressure on Daniels to catch the killer before any more women die.

Daniels is a smart, tough, gal that has busted her ass to reach the level of Lieutenant of the CPD's Violent Crimes section, at the cost of her marriage and a life outside of the job. Her insights and thoughts on life as a hard working cop are at times sad and hilarious. The story is mostly told from her POV, while alternating at times with the The Gingerbread Man.

WHISKEY SOUR combines humor with some serious suspense, which seems to be my reading trend lately. I like the mix of darkness with glimmer of light. I never saw myself as much of a noir/police procedural fan but I like the cache of writers I've recently discovered (Jeff Lindsay, Jeff Strand, Blake Crouch and of course Konrath). Any one of them is going be worth the cover price for their books.

Look for a review of Konrath's second book in the Jack Daniels series, Bloody Mary (Jack Daniels Mysteries), in the very near future!

Let It Snow - Twisted Sister

Have a rockin' Christmas Wormies!!!

SINGLE WHITE PSYCHOPATH SEEKS SAME by Jeff Strand

Okay, I know I said I wasn't going to get to Single White Psychopath Seeks Same until after my next fix of Dexter.

But I couldn't resist.

This one is a little shorter than the previous Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary)so I figured I could whip through it in the remaining days before Christmas (when I know I'm getting a whack of J.A. Konrath and Blake Crouch books).

It turns out this was a faster read than I expected. Unlike GRAVEROBBERS WANTED, which to me started off a little dull, SINGLE WHITE PSYCHOPATH SEEKS SAME verily ripped out to a chainsaw buzzing start.

Where as the first book Strand seemed to be getting the feel for his cheeky private investigator, here Andrew Mayhem felt fully realized. Sure, there were some really stinky jokes but there were some good ones, too.

Here Mayhem is negotiating his rate for him and his friend Roger:

"Six hundred, plus one hundred for my friend to watch my kids."
 She narrowed her eyes. "Five hundred, plus the hundred for your friend."
"Six hundred, plus nothing for my friend."
 "Done."

In SINGLE WHITE PSYCHOPATH SEEKS SAME Andrew Mayhem comes up against, not just one, not two, but five crazy killers. Oh, wait. If you include The Headhunter that makes six. Of course there are the two redneck chainsaw/power drill wielding loons at the start. If that isn't enough for our hero to have to deal with he's pretty much in hot water with Helen, his wife. She may be small but she's a firecracker.

The killers jet Andrew and Roger to their Alaskan manse where they have a veritable carnival house of horror. Will they survive? Well, since there is a third Mayhem adventure, Casket For Sale (Only Used Once), An Andrew Mayhem Thriller, you know at least one makes it out alive. Or maybe he doesn't and he's a zombie in the third book. Or not.

His movements sort of reminded me of those old toys called Weebles, which commercials proclaimed would wobble but not fall down. When I was a kid I'd bet my next door neighbor that I could get my Weeble to wobble and then fall down forever, but his mother had come in and canceled the bet before I had a chance to use the hammer.

Action packed, full of stupid jokes and some pretty funny ones, SINGLE WHITE PSYCHOPATH SEEKS SAME was pretty kick-ass and I highly recommend it.

This really has nothing to do with reviewing the book, but for quirky interest sake, I pictured Andrew Mayhem as Seth Rogan and Roger as Paul Rudd. But sometimes I would inter-change them.

What is your favorite Christmas time horror film?

Added a new gadget today, Wormies. It's a poll.

What's your favorite Christmas time horror movie? For me it's an easy choice. Black Christmas (Special Edition) directed by Canadian Bob Clark in 1974, about a psycho-killer that terrorizes a sorority house during the holidays.

Next for me would probably be Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984). When SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT was released some folks were so pissed it was about a killer in a Santa suit, they tried to have it banned.

After that it would have to be Gremlins (Special Edition) , directed by Joe Dante (1984). Still a lot of fun after all these years. Pretty much family friendly, accept for a scene where the mother hacks up a couple gremlins with a kitchen knife.

It's a tradition around this bookworm's house to watch The Polar Express (Full Screen Edition) with the kids on Christmas Eve (an absolutely stunning film you must see, if you haven't already). Then, after the kiddies are in bed, we turn down the lights and slip in BLACK CHRISTMAS.

GRAVEROBBERS WANTED (No Experience Necessary) by Jeff Strand

Last week I reviewed Suckers by J.A. Konrath and Jeff Strand. It featured stories starring a couple of their popular gumshoes tracking down the bad guys and generally getting put through the wringer by their respective puppet masters.

I enjoyed SUCKERS so much that I bought the first two books in Strand's Andrew Mayhem series, which begins with Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary).

Before I get too far into this let me say Mayhem had a tough act to follow. I'm just getting into Jeff Lindsay's series of Dexter novels. I'm pretty gong ho on them. But, whilst I wait for Christmas morn to get my next fix of Dexter, I decided to dig into GRAVEROBBERS WANTED.

I found the first part of the book fairly tedious. I wasn't laughing at the jokes. I couldn't get into the little bit of action there was. I just wasn't feeling it. I came this close to burying it near the bottom of my Kindle index and then sneaking under the Christmas tree to searcher out that next Dexter book.

But listen, to be fair this was probably more a reflection of my mind space than Strand's talent as a scribe. So I pushed on because I have read plenty of Strand in the past and always came away pleased. Hell, I just finished reading some kick-ass Mayhem stories last week.

And I'm glad I did.

The second half of GRAVEROBBERS WANTED is a lot of fun. The jokes are better, darker, and the gore is notched way up. Not only that but the cleverness of the novel begins to shine through. I was reminded of Richard Laymon's In the Dark, which is a very good thing, as IN THE DARK is one of my all time favorite Richard Laymon books.

When aspiring private investigator Andrew Mayhem and his buddy Roger except an exorbitant amount of money to dig up a grave and retrieve something from the coffin, well, they are just asking for trouble.

And trouble answers the call.

GRAVEROBBERS WANTED has it all; psychopaths, grave robbing, snuff films, decapitations, cannibalism, bad jokes, okay jokes and even some pretty funny jokes.

Check it out. If you have a Kindle it's practically free at $2.99.  I'll certainly be reading the next book in the series Single White Psychopath Seeks Same, but not, of course, before I finish catching up with a certain serial killer.


 

DEARLY DEVOTED DEXTER by Jeff Lindsay

Dearly Devoted Dexter (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) is the second book in Jeff Lindsay's series about a serial killer that kills other killers.

Dexter Morgan works as a blood spatter expert for the Miami-Dade police department but also moonlights as a murdering dark avenger.

Every police department should have one!

The plot of this installment isn't as engaging as the first book, Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard), but Dexter still manages to entertain with his dry wit and darkly humorous musings on life and death.

This time around a shadowy government agency needs his help to track down a psychotic madman preying on his former special op's army mates who betrayed him in the past. It's your average cat and mouse story but, as I said, Dexter makes it fun.

For much of the first half of the book Dexter is forced to contain his Dark Passenger (the shadowy presence Dexter accredits his dark urgings...that and the moon). Sergent Doakes, one of my favorite characters in the books, is keeping a close eye on Dexter. The Sergent suspects something is very wrong with Dexter, and after the events of the first book, doesn't let him out of his sight.

Therefore Dexter is forced to "play" the dutiful boyfriend to Rita and her children, instead of slicing and dicing bad guys. In the second half the story picks up, rushing head long to a satisfying finish.

It's a quick read. I finished it in a couple of days, which is fast for me. Again, Lidsay's writing is very economical, with a touch of poetic prose thrown in to give it a little more flavor. Sometimes starting a series of books when you know you have to read five or six books to catch up can be a burden but these books just beg to be read fast and in no time you'll be whipping through them like me.

Sucks, though, I have to wait for Christmas morning until I can get my next Dexter fix.

DARKLY DREAMING DEXTER by Jeff Lindsay

I won't go too in depth about Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard). Let's face it, you've probably read it already. Well, most of you, anyway. And if you haven't read it, you have probably seen the Showtime television show based on it.

What? You haven't read the book or seen the show? You've been on an deserted island for the last ten years?

Me, too!

Well, let me give you a brief synopsis. It's about a serial killer who kills serial killers. It's actually quite a nifty idea. Clever, even. And so is Dexter Morgan, our hero of sorts.

Dexter is a blood spatter expert for the Miami-Dade police department, an area code that seems to have a high number of murderers. That makes life interesting for Dexter, who has a knack for finding these scumbags before detectives can. Then he chops them into little pieces.

That's my kind of hero!

Now, a new killer is in town, one that has more than piqued Dexter's interest. There is something wonderful and familiar about these new killings. And it appears the killer has an interest in Dexter, too.

DARKLY DREAMING DEXTER is a fun book. In fact, it's a lot of fun. Addicting. It's fast, funny, and at times, even somewhat poetic. Lindsay's writing really flows easy, making this a quick read, even for someone like me that usually takes a week to read a 300 pager.

One aspect that I found interesting about the book was Dexter's musings about the politics within a police department, and how a lot of times mistakes are made because of it. It correlated nicely with what I read in the true crime opus On the Farm: Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver's Missing Women. ON THE FARM delved deep into the political war zone of the Vancouver Police Department and how a serial killer was continuously over looked because of it.

The next book in the series is Dearly Devoted Dexter (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard), and yup, I'm already reading it.

SUCKERS by Jeff Strand and J.A. Konrath

Suckers,Suckers,Suckers. What can I say about it? It's as funny as a couple of giggling vampire grannies and stinky toe-jam. Well, maybe stinky toe-jam isn't that funny. Or maybe it is.

Jeff Strand and my new favorite author, J.A. Konrath, team up for a bit of slap stick mayhem in their out of control vampire romp SUCKERS. It features two of the authors well known crime busters, Strand's Andrew Mayhem (from Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary) and Single White Psychopath Seeks Same (Adventures of Andrew Mayhem)) and Konrath's Harry McGlade (who makes his living in theJack Daniels series, which you can own by simply clicking here).

When Harry takes a job to find a runaway, the case leads him to a liar of vampires, or wannabe vampires, or maybe its just a home for geriatric blood loving, giggling, sisters. I don't know, because honestly you can't really trust what either of these guys tell you, especially that Harry guy. Somewhere along the line he bumps into Andrew Mayhem, or maybe it was Mayhem that bumped into McGlade. I don't know, but there was a jar of spaghetti sauce in there somewhere.

SUCKERS is worth the $2.99 Kindle price. I don't often laugh out loud when I'm reading a book but Strand and Konrath forced it out of me, at gun point. Okay, not really. It would be weird if the authors had been hovering over me while I read it. For one thing I don't think the border cops would let Konrath into Canada. For another, if Strand owned a gun, it would probably be the kind where a flag with the word "BANG!" pops out when you pull the trigger.

Along with the novella SUCKERS, this collection also comes with some splendid short stories featuring Mayhem and McGlade to get you ready for the main event. Particularly fun is Konrath's THE NECRO FILE, a tummy tickling laugh out loud story...if Konrath were tickling your tummy while you read it. Well, okay, not really. But that old lady wouldn't leave me alone.

I don't know what came over Strand to think writing A BIT OF HALLOWEEN MAYHEM was a good idea, but I'm glad he did. If you're the kind of person that knows better than to break into a haunted house on Halloween night, this is definitely not the story for you. Or perhaps it is. Living life vicariously through fictional characters is a safer existence, after all! ABOHM (that's short for A BIT OF HALLOWEEN MAYHEM so I don't have to write it out again...doh!) is as tummy tickling laugh out loud story...if Strand were...well, you see where I'm going with this. What's with old ladies and tickling younger men, anyway?

Are you still here? Gee wiz, I can't keep going on like this. I'm getting a headache. Seriously. If you want to be entertained I linked the dang book three times up there!!!

Seriously, you're still here?

Still?

You really need to get a life.

Come on, don't go away mad. I didn't mean that. It's Konrath and Strand. It's like they're in my head! GET OUT!

I think I need an exorcism. Preferably sans green pea soup or 360 degree head twists. I could also do without the vagina-cross jabbing. That was sick. Who does that?

ON THE FARM (Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver's Missing Women) by Stevie Cameron

Every now and then a book comes along that takes you on a an unexpected ride of emotions so strong that it actually leaves you physically exhausted by the time you are through. Stevie Cameron's On the Farm: Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver's Missing Women is just such a book.

Most people will recognize the name of Robert William Pickton. He's the Port Coquitlam pig farmer believed to have murdered upwards of fifty or more prostitutes from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, tagged by some as Canada's poorest postal code. His M.O. was to pick up these desperate souls, providing money and drugs, before taking them back to his farm in Port Coquitlam, where many of them would never leave.

ON THE FARM is quite simply a tale of epic proportions. It's not just a story about a dumb, yet wily, pig farmer who abducted and slaughtered prostitutes. As Cameron proposes early on in, this is a story about geography. It's a story about a place on Earth that women could seemingly disappear and almost no one cared. Not the Vancouver Police Department. Not the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Not the Vancouver Municipal Government.

It did not matter that friends and family were begging the police to look into the growing number of missing women that worked the few blocks that made up the Downtown Eastside. It didn't matter that people were warning the police that there might be a serial predator preying on these street workers.

After all, they were just prostitutes.

However, Cameron's book digs deep into the lives of these women. We learn about their childhoods, their dreams and desires. We learn about their troubled upbringings, from abusive mothers and fathers, to violent and controlling husbands and boyfriends, to their long journeys from foster home to foster home. It truly is difficult reading, this glimpse into these lives of these women as they fall from grace.

It's a sad fact that so many of the stories eventually ran together in my head, making it difficult for me to distinguish one woman's tale from another. There in lies one of the most shocking aspects to this story. The numbers. They are huge. Never before has a serial killer evaded authorities like Robert Pickton. Cameron explores these women's lives replacing some shred of decency, dignity, that was stripped from them by those that failed to do them justice when it was needed most.

Cameron takes a long look at the disturbing ineptitude of the Vancouver Police Department surrounding this case. She is critical, and rightly so, of many high ranking VPD employees, who stubbornly refused to realize there was a serial killer preying on prostitutes. Some of the stories of infighting and backstabbing will leave one shaking their head in frustration and amazement, wondering how this could possibly go on.

From there Cameron takes a long look at the process the police went through collecting evidence from Pickton's farm. It's a sad, yet fascinating, look at the enormous task investigators faced, one that would turn out to be the most costly, not to mention grizzly, criminal investigation in Canadian history.

Finally the author takes you through the Pickton trial and the mind numbing decisions made by a seemingly insensitive judge that, unbelievably, seemed bent on destroying the prosecution's case.

ON THE FARM has a massive cast and at times can be overwhelming, especially emotionally. Even though I found it difficult to distinguish all the individual stories, Cameron's presentation of the families ordeal will touch you and bring tears to the driest eyes.

I don't think I can recommend this book highly enough. It's out now in hardback and as an ebook.

SANTA'S TWIN by Dean Koontz

I just heard terrible news.
Hope it won't give you Christmas blues.
Santa was mugged, tied up, and gagged,
blindfolded, ear-stoppled, and bagged,
locked in his cellar under the Pole,
down in a dismal, deep, dark, dank hole.

Thus begins Santa's Twin by New York Times bestselling author, Dean Koontz. It's a story about what happens when Bob, Santa's twin brother, locks him up and takes over Christmas.

Written in rhyme, this is a book that's tons of fun to read. If you are a fan of Dean Koontz' fiction, especially the output from the last fifteen years, you'll be sure to enjoy what he serves up for SANTA'S TWIN. His novels are filled with whit and charm and he puts those tools too work here, creating a playful, yet exciting, Christmas thriller.

In place of a watch, he wraps up a clot
of horrid, glistening, greenish toad snot.
From a package for Emily, he steals a doll
and gives her a new gift sure to appall.

It's slimy, rancid, and starting to fizz.
Not even the villain knows what it is.
The stink could stop a big runaway truck,
it's such gooey, gluey, woozy-making muck.

To compliment Koontz' prose is Phil Parks' marvelous illustrations. You and your kids will find yourselves gazing at them in wonder and amazement. Okay, that's a bit of hyperbole but you know what I'm saying. They're really great.

If I had one complaint about SANTA'S TWIN it would be its length. The book is overly long for a bedtime story. A children's story like this, in my opinion, shouldn't last much more than ten to twenty minutes. This one began to drag near the end and I soon found myself reading to two snoring children (which, I suppose, might be a good thing?). Perhaps this is a two night book but I tend to like reading right through one of these tales once they are begun. If you are like me, give yourself a block of about half hour to forty minutes for this one.

When you're finished, and if your kids are still awake, you can search each of Phil Parks illustrations for the hidden snowman. Some are out in plain sight while others will take a bit of a keen eye.

The paperback of SANTA'S TWIN can be had quite cheaply on Amazon and is certainly worth the price.

THE NIGHTWOOD by Robin Muller

One of my goals for this blog when I started was to make it as diversified as possible. By that I mean I wanted to review more than the latest horror novel. I wanted to review all types of books. I'm a lover of YA fiction, but also children's books.

For years I've been wanting to branch out even further. In the new year one of my resolutions is to read some non-fiction; biographies, true crimes, memoirs and perhaps some political tomes.

Coming up in a few days is a review of Stevie Cameron's On the Farm: Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver's Missing Women. But to start things off in the right direction is a look at Robin Muller's The Nightwood.

Robin Muller is the award winning author of several books for children, including Hickory, Dickory, Dock, 13 Ghosts of Halloween and Angel Tree. For The Magic Paintbrush he won the prestigious Governor General's Award.  

October saw the release of the anniversary edition of THE NIGHTWOOD, a tragic love story about two people who fall in love while under the spell of the dangerous Elfin Queen. Elaine is the daughter of the Earl of March. Tamlynne is a knight in the court of the Elfin Queen. When they meet under the Nightwood and dance the night away, they fall in love. But it is a love that can not be, not while the Elfin Queen rules the woods.

There is hope, however, in the words of a haggard old woman, a woman who has lost much to the Elfin Queen.

Beware of the Elves

Who come in the night

To visit your dreams

And give you a fright.

Beware of the Elves

And their magical Queen

Who turns joy to sorrow

And laughter to pain

Beware the Elves.

All children must learn:

If you stray in the woods

You may never return. 

What follows is an enchanting and wonderful book about magic and love. I like silly kids books as much as the next person. I love Walter the Farting Dog and all the No, David! books. But sometimes what I want is something with a darker nature to it, and THE NIGHTWOOD is such a book. This is the kind of book your kids stay very quiet for, eager for the turn of the next page.

Robin Muller's artwork is phenomenal. The colours are vivid and the images striking. THE NIGHTWOOD is released from Tundra Books and is one of the nicer productions of children's books I've seen (the inside of the dust jacket has a reproduction of one of the art pieces and the above poem, nice enough to frame).

If you and your children like Celtic folktales and Elves and magic then THE NIGHTWOOD is the perfect bedtime story.