Penny Dreadful

The perfect book for girls and boys who look to find adventure and magic in surprising places! What if you were really bored with your life? What would you wish for? Penelope Grey wishes for something-anything!-interesting to happen, and here#x19;s what she gets: " Her father quits his job. " Her family runs out of money. " Her home becomes a pit of despair. So Penelope makes another wish, and this time the Greys inherit a ramshackle old house in the middle of nowhere. Off they go, leaving the city and their problems behind them. Their new home is full of artists, tiny lions, unusual feasts, and true friends. Almost immediately, their lives are transformed. Penelope#x19;s mother finds an unexpected job, her father discovers a hidden talent, and Penelope changes her name! Penny#x19;s new life feels too magical to be real, too real to be magic. And it may be too good to last . . . unless she can find a way to make magic work just one more time-if it even wasmagic. Any Which Wallauthor Laurel Snyder introduces a quirky cast of characters as pleasantly strange as they are deeply real. Abigail Halpin adds to the charm with her distinctive line drawings. Fans of Polly Horvath#x19;s My One Hundred Adventures,Ingrid Law#x19;s Savvy,and Jeanne Birdsall#x19;s The Penderwickswill be enchanted by Laurel Snyder#x19;s alternatively humorous and poignant look at small-town life and what it really takes to become a happy family. From the Hardcover edition.

LAUREL SNYDER'S novels, Any Which Wall and Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains, and her first picture book, Inside the Slidy Diner, have delighted readers, both young and old. She wrote Any Which Wall as a tribute to Edward Eager and Edith Nesbit, both of whom have influenced her work. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Laurel and her family now live in Atlanta, Georgia. Visit her online at LaurelSnyder.com.

ABIGAIL HALPIN is an illustrator and graphic designer who likes tea, mixed tapes, typography, and old book stores. Her illustrations appear in the novel Maybe Yes, Maybe No, Maybe Maybe by Susan Patron. Abigail lives in beautiful (but snowy) Wells, Maine.