Stan Swanson

*Book source ~ A review copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.

Hobart Hucklebuck lives in Pennywhistle where basically everything is enchanted and doing regular ol’ magic is passé. Forget about doing things the old-fashioned way. Residents rely on enchanted items to do everything and when the enchantments suddenly start acting up or stop working altogether they have no idea what to do. Tie their own shoes? Put bread in a toaster and then butter it? Themselves?! How absurd! Complaints start to pile up and when Hobart’s grandfather, Wicksford Waxenbee, is charged with screwing up the enchantments, Hobart decides he needs to find the real person responsible. He and his friends play detective with mixed results. How will Hobart prove his grandpa’s innocence if he sucks at detective work?

I have to say this is a fairly cute Middle Grade story. It reminds me a lot of Harry Potter only much more whimsical. All of the characters have alliterative names, the enchanted items are quite creative as are the names of places and things to eat and drink, there’s old fashioned magic, a mystery, some peril, a bit of inept detective work and great characters. Plus, cats. Who doesn’t love cats? Well, besides Hobart. If you’re a fan of MG books then I highly recommend this one. It’s quite an enjoyable read.… (more)

This is not a book you read; it's a book you do. It's a great workbook for songwriters, with sections for every week of the year. It includes places to jot down ideas, word games to inspire lyrics, chord progressions and melody lines to play with, and space to write a whole song, plus lists of "power words," quotes from famous songwriters and information about songwriting resources. I just wrote my first week's song, and I'm having a hard time keeping myself from reading ahead to next week. In fact, if I didn't have other things to do, I could just cuddle up with this book for the winter and write one song after another. Or I could use it whenever I feel stuck. This book would work well for poets, too. It's so much fun. --Susan Lick… (more)