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/ . / B O O K S ➻ F R I E N D O F D $ A $ L $ S $ ➸ Every Saturday afternoon, I go for a long run, and Phoebe bikes alongside me, and this is what she says to me the minute we hit the trail: "Ask me a question." Which is really her way of saying: Ask me a question about a book I am currently reading, and I will summarize the plot for you while you run, which will distract you from the agony of exercising. Some of these summaries are quick, easily dispatched. Family lives on prairie, endures terrible storms, long winters, and much suZering, but survives. Girl deals with embarrassing dental issues, gets braces, endures much teasing, but survives. Hand- some man has superpowers, saves world. Recently though, things have gotten a little more involved. "Tell me about this Pseudony- mous Bosch guy," I say to Phoebe, as we set out. "What are those books about, exactly?" Phoebe pedals for a bit, thinking. "Hmmmm," she says. "That's hard." "Try," I say. "Well," she says, "they're basically about the five senses: smell, sight, feel, hearing, and taste. There's a lot of chocolate in the third book. And there's this group of evil guys called the Midnight Sun, who are trying to figure out The Secret, As my readers well know, I am a secretive author, desperately afraid not just of the public spotlight but even the smallest penlight. (It's the batteries—I have trouble replacing them in my remote location.) Nonethe- less, I occasionally find myself making appearances at glam- orous venues such as elemen- tary school cafeterias and the backs of chain bookstores, most of which seem to close perma- nently a few days later. Why a phobic character such as myself should choose to expose himself like that is a question best left Pseudonymous Bosch which I think is about, uh, immortality. The main characters are named Cass and Max- Ernest and… it's hard to explain." She's often still explaining when we stop, forty-five min- utes later. I first encountered the Pseudonymous Bosch books a few years ago, on one of those gray winter days when the town library is closed and you're sitting in your house, dy- ing of claustrophobia and getting on each other's nerves and it's too cold to do anything outside, so you end up—jail break!—camping out in the kids' section at Barnes and Noble, trying to avoid spending money on Care Bear sticker books. I found a book and picked it up based entirely on the title (The Name of This Book is Secret, see #90) and the beauty of its cover. I flipped to the back flap, to see who was behind it: based on the author bio alone, I wanted to have it. Or, better, I couldn't wait until our kids were old enough to read a book this weird and fun. Two and half years later, we finally found ourselves in the summer of Pseudonymous Bosch. He was kind enough to take the time to do a round-up of his favorite mysteries for kids. —Andy to my psychiatrist. (I mean, my publicist). I have, however, learned to come armed with certain provisions to protect myself against the prying pub- lic. They are, in no particular order: large scratch-proof sun- glasses, emergency chocolate rations, a discreet handheld sound-eVects machine (sirens, gunfire, broken glass, farts, etc.), and book recommenda- tions. Why book recommendations? Because "What books do you recommend?" is almost always the one hundredth question I get (the first ninety-nine being What is your real name?). Because my books are meant to be mysteries, I usually recom- mend mystery books. And because my audience is meant to be younger, I usually recom- mend adult mysteries. I figure somebody else has already recommended The Hardy Boys or Harriet the Spy, so instead I mention Edgar Allan Poe or Dashiell Hammet or Dorothy Sayers (the latter author be- ing a particular favorite of mine when I was a kid). But I fear that you—the reader of this blog—are most likely an adult. Thus, out of sheer perversity, and also because it was requested, I am going to recommend a few children's titles that have lately held my interest. One thing that is won- derful about young readers is that they still retain the power to be mystified. As an adult, I find that children's books help restore my sense of mystery. Hopefully, these books will do that for you, too. And if you have an actual child by your side, all the better. —PS 22

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