Named for two literary characters ("Alice" from Lewis Carroll and "Ozma" from L. Frank Baum), the author is the daughter of a Philadelphia-area elementary school librarian. Father and daughter embarked on a streak of reading-out-loud sessions every night before bed as Ozma was growing up--a "streak" that would continue for eight years straight.

Young Max McDaniels battles trolls, water beasts, and other monsters in a hostile, poverty-stricken dystopian landscape profoundly transformed by the villainous Astaroth.

"A teen girl discovers she is a book jumper--she can leap directly into books, meet the characters, and experience the world of the book"-- Amy's grandmother, Lady Mairead, insists that Amy must read while she resides at Lennox House in Scotland-- but not in the usual way. It turns out that Amy is a book jumper, able to leap into a story and interact with the world inside. As thrilling as Amy's new power is, it also brings danger: someone is stealing...

"The life of a book isn't easy, especially when people judge you by your cover (not every book can be adorned with sparkly unicorns!). And this narrator should know--it's the book itself, and it has a lot of opinions. It gets irritated when readers bend its pages back, and it finds authors quite annoying. But it does have a story to tell. Through witty direct address and charming illustrations, readers meet a book that has never been read, with a...