Saturday's Sunday Reviews

Elizabeth Ward reviews "other world" titles in her "For Young Readers" column. Books reviewed include:

• Avi, Strange Happenings: Five Tales of Transformation. I like what Ward calls Avi very much: "the man with one name but 1,001 story ideas." Funny! In any case, Ward also liked this one.
• Guus Kuijer, The Book of Everything (an "electrifying short novel")
• Chris Abouzeid, Anatopsis. Except for the fact Ward calls this novel "new" (it was written 20 years ago) and rides on the coat tails of Jane Yolen and Rick Riordan, it's a good review. ("witty romp"). ETA: Michele reminds me that the first draft was written 20 years ago, but that Abouzeid rewrote Anatopsis for publication. (Thanks, Michele!) Still, it's not derivative.
• Anne Ursu, The Shadow Thieves ("the novel is about 50 pages too long--but the whole thing is redeemed by Ursu's signature playfulness")