A Valiant Quest for the Misfit Menagerie - Tapa dura

Trapped in a toy store?
Sounds like a mission for four furry friends.

Bertie, Susan, and the Misfit MenagerieSmalls the sun bear, Rigby the Komondor dog, and Wombat the wombathave at long last escaped from evil Grand Master Claude’s Most Magnificent Circus and are finally free to live life at their leisure. But there’s something missing. Something that’s keeping them from moving on. Or rather, someone. Tilda the Angora rabbitand fourth member of the Misfit Menagerieis being held captive at Toddle’s Toy Emporium, a massive toy store more impressive than even F.A.O. Schwarz.

Now Bertie, Smalls, and the gangincluding a sword-wielding hedgehogmust embark on a quest to rescue their kidnapped friend, braving the mean streets of Hollyhoo City and the bratty Chrysantheum Toddle. It’s a journey that will take them over an actual clay rainbow, force them to hide among stuffed animals in a life-like jungle, and lead them to soar above the ground in a hot-air balloonall big tasks for animals who only recently saw that there was a world outside of Mr. Mumford’s farm. But if they’re valiant enough, they just might reunite the menagerie and find themselves a new home.

Jacqueline Resnick (www.jacquelinewrites.com) received her MFA from the New School in 2009. She grew up in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and dog. The Misfit Menagerie series is her first for children.