About the Author

Derek Landy lives near Dublin. Before writing his children's story about a sharply dressed skeleton detective, he wrote the screenplays for a zombie movie and a little thriller in which everybody dies.

As a blackbelt in Kenpo Karate, he has taught countless children how to defend themselves, in the hopes of one day building his own private munchkin army. He firmly believes that they await his call to strike against his enemies (he doesn't actually have any enemies but he's assuming they'll show up sooner or later).

The reason Derek writes his own biographical blurb is so that he can finally refer to himself in the third person without looking pompous or insane.

Reviews

K-Gr 8-Bernie Libster translated into English and tells these seven stories written by Italian author Gianni Rodari (1920-1980), who was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Prize for children's literature in 1970. Libster's goal is to make Rodari's legacy of stories as well known in the U.S. as they are in Europe, Russia, and Asia. "The Little Mermaid" is adopted by a human family and becomes well known for her storytelling. "The Young Shrimp" prefers walking forward to walking backward. "The Man Who Stole the Coliseum"" believes that structure belongs to him, and begins carrying bits and pieces of it to his home every day. "A Violet at the North Pole" brings a bit of color and perfume to the area's starkness. "Tonino the Invisible" finds that invisibility is not everything he had hoped it would be. "Tiny Teresa, the Girl Who Refused to Grow" is so upset that her father was killed in a war that she decides she will never grow up, and she doesn't, until circumstances force her to change her mind. The accountant in "The Accountant and the Wind" learns when to hold himself down with bricks, and when to fly free. Libster makes each character unique with his deep, velvety, expressive voice. These whimsical tales can be enjoyed by the entire family.-Beverly Bixler, San Antonio Public Library, TX Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

Skulduggery Pleasant is the adopted name of a powerful detective mage who is sworn to protect Stephanie, the 12-year-old niece of his murdered friend. Here, skulduggery takes a double meaning-our detective is capable of scurrilous behavior in the pursuit of his suspects, and he's also a skeleton, robbed of his flesh by an age-old spell. Listen Up: Skulduggery's droll bass is a delight, and the cool-cat jazz on the soundtrack is an added bonus for grown-ups hip enough to know a groovy story when they hear one. Degas has a wonderful time building this story's suspense and conveying its dry humor.-Angelina Benedetti, King Cty. Lib. Syst., WA Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.