Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up | Series: Secrets of Dripping Fang
Things seem pretty hopeless for the Shluffmuffin family in the fourth book in this hilarious series. The treacherous Mandible sisters have kidnapped Cheyenne again, and it's up to Wally to rescue her. And not only is their adoring dad a vampire, but lately he's taken up all sorts of offensive and unsavory activities like "volunteering" at a bloodmobile and licking strangers' bleeding wounds on buses. Gross!
Throw in thirty-six grubby orphans singing show tunes, a bizarre plot to overthrow the human race with a flu virus sprayed out of perfume bottles, and some deadly, chatty wolves, and things in Dripping Fang Forest couldn't get much more surreal.
But when Wally comes up with a brilliant SWAT team-style commando plan to get Cheyenne back, the Onts just may be defeated once and for all. (Yeah, right . . .)
Cheyenne and Wally have been kidnapped by the horrible Mandible sisters. Why in the world would anyone (even Hedy and Dagmar, evil giant ants who are plotting to destroy the human race) want to kidnap a snotty ten-year-old girl with so many allergies that she is always sneezing and blowing her nose. Maybe it is better that you do not know. Now it is up to Wally to rescue his sister. Throw in a vampire dad whose volunteer activities at the bloodmobile are making everyone uncomfortable. Add Miss Jolly and her singing orphans ("Could we love a spider mommy? Yes, we could. We don‘t care if she is weird, if she‘s good." and the Spydells (they prefer to adopt because if they have children of their own, Shirley Spydell would devour husband Edgar after mating—it‘s a spider thing, you know. Fast paced, silly and gross—a quick and entertaining read kids will enjoy. Although this book is part of the "Secrets of Dripping Fang" series, it can be read and enjoyed independently. 2006, Harcourt, Ages 8 to 10. (Children's Literature - Anita Barnes Lowen )
About the Author
DAN GREENBURG is the creator of the enormously popular Zack Files series of middle grade novels as well as the author of a number of bestselling adult books, the best-known of which is How to Be a Jewish Mother. He lives in New York.
SCOTT M. FISCHER has illustrated many book jackets and also created art for Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons. He lives in upstate New York.
Dan Greenburg has known success as a humorist, a novelist, a journalist, a screenwriter, and a playwright. Now he has turned his considerable talent to writing an original new series of books for a younger audience. Inspired by his own son Zack, for whom the hero of his new series, The Zack Files, is named, Greenburg has combined his love of humor, his interest in things paranormal, and his talent for writing to create books that kids like Zack will want to read. With 18 books to his credit, Dan Greenburg's work has been translated into 19 languages and is available in 22 countries. His best-selling titles for adults include How to Be a Jewish Mother, How to Make Yourself Miserable, Scoring, Love Kills, How to Avoid Love and Marriage and Exes. His previous books for children include Young Santa, The Bed Who Ran Away From Home, Jumbo the Boy and Arnold the Elephant. His articles have appeared in the New Yorker, Esquire, Ms., Time, Newsweek, Life, New York magazine, Cosmopolitan, the New York Times Book Review, Vanity Fair, Playboy, and have been reprinted in 33 anthologies of humor and satire in the United States and England. Born and raised in Chicago, Dan Greenburg received a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Illinois, and his M.A. from UCLA. He is the father of Zack, a teenage son, who played the title role in the motion picture, LORENZO'S OIL, and served as the inspiration for The Zack Files. Mr. Greenburg lives in Westchester County, New York.
