Sunday, November 27, 2011

STRAW HOUSE, WOOD HOUSE, BRICK HOUSE, BLOW

STRAW HOUSE, WOOD HOUSE, BRICK HOUSE, BLOW, by Daniel Nayeri (Candlewick 2011)(ages 14+), offers a quirky, compelling, and often funny quartet of novellas, across a disparate range of genres and voices.

In Toy Farm, Sunny, a young straw man, must defend his home -- a toy farm where the toys grow from the ground -- against an interloper bent on disassembling them to determine how the Farmer gave them sentience.

In Our Lady of Villains, a girl must save the world from a corporation's impending release of nanotechnology that would turn the entire world into a "nano hotspot," where everywhere is wifi.  Only it all plugs into your brain.

Wish Police presents a world in which wishes manifest as reality and it is the job of the Imaginary Crimes Unit to prevent the worst from coming to fruition.  Saul, his partner Ari, and their new colleague Mack must stop a spoiled boy's wish on a star for the death of his family from coming true.

Finally, Doom with a View is a dryly funny tale told from the point of view of an oddly preppy Death about his interactions with and on behalf of a pair of star-crossed lovers.

I keep thinking of this book as "Stephen King's Different Seasons meets The Three Little Pigs." :-).  On the whole, it's a collection of page-turning, fascinating, finely wrought, and occasionally thought-provoking reads that will leave readers wanting more.

Go check out the videos for each of the stories.

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