Under Wildwood / Colin Meloy / 559 pages

This is the sequel to Meloy's (of the Decemberists) Wildwood.  Meloy writes a thoroughly engaging fantasy that is greatly enhanced by the perfect spare illustrations of Carson Ellis.  In this book Prue and Curtis must set out on a quest to save Wildwood and all of the good, magical people and creatures.  Loved Septimus the talking rat who added quite a bit of levity.  The shape changing :Life Science Teacher Darla Thennis is pretty scary.  The evil Titans of industry also take a hit in the story as they use orphans to crank out all the gadgets consumers crave.  The story moves along nicely and the subplots all meld together nicely.  This is great for that special reader who craves big, fat books..and there's more to come!