STAN SWANSON
The Misadventures of Hobart Hucklebuck ​
Book One : Magic & Mayhem
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Things are not as they should be in Pennywhistle. Enchanted toasters are not toasting, enchanted sprinklers are not sprinkling and Hobart Hucklebuck's origami messenger birds are suddenly attacking him. Someone seems to be draining the power from all of the enchanted items in the village. But who could it be and why have they implicated Hobart's grandfather?
"The Misadventures of Hobart Hucklebuck" follows Hobart and his friends, Specks Spacklethack and Rosie Rumpleskirt, as they try to solve this mystery and free Hobart's grandfather from the Tower of Tribulation on Mumblemonk Mountain. The trio's investigation into the mysterious happenings on Druid Lane gets them into hot water more than once and ultimately brings them dangerously close to disaster not only for themselves, but the entire village of Pennywhistle.
ALL REVIEWS ARE FROM AMAZON
"Move over Harry Potter, Hobart Hucklebuck is the new kid in the world of magic. This is the perfect book to get a tween to start reading. The world that Mr. Swanson has created is fun and creative, even down to the phrases the kids use such as something being “thermal” meaning it’s cool. I’ve read other books by this author and enjoyed them as much as I loved this one. Mr. Swanson’s ability to invent the characters’ names alone shows how invested he becomes in this world as he writes and it’s that reason that makes the reader want to become invested too."
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"A few pages in to this book I suspected it was just going to be a precious extended variation on Harry Potter's Diagon Alley, with lots of magic shops, enchantments, twee characters, cutesy names and too-clever magic spells. Well, please just excuse me for being a sourpuss, because this book pulls itself together in short order and ends up being a rousing delight. So, exciting, fun, funny, well written, touching, and very thoughtfully and carefully crafted - so, so much more than expected and very satisfying."
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"What a fun bunch of characters in this book. All of them were well written and developed. My boys loved Hobart and said he was 'brave' and 'awesome' and they found it funny that he was so afraid of cats. They loved the specter that worked in Hobarts' Grandfathers shop and they also loved the different shop names. My 4 yr old asked would our bread butter itself if he asked and when I said no he said why not!!!"
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