Illinois Authors

Aladdin Paperbacks, New York : 2000.

Combines four novels by children's book writer and National Public Radio commentator Daniel Pinkwater into one volume.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston : 2010.

Big Audrey, who has cat-like whiskers, and her telephathic friend Molly set out on a journey to find out why flying saucers are landing behind the old stone barn in Poughkeepsie, New York, and, more importantly, to determine whether another cat-whiskered girl really exists.

Molly O'Malley is a clever, adventurous girl. She is also a Dwerg. Dwergs are strange folks who live very quietly in the Catskill mountains, have lots of gold, and are kind of like dwarves (but also not!). Molly isn't interested in cooking and weaving, as she is expected to be. So, she sets off to see the world for herself. Which means a new job, a trip to New York City, prowling gangsters, an adorable king, a city witch, and many historical ghosts. More importantly, it means excellent pizza, new friends, and very quick thinking. Now someone is pursuing the Dwergs for their gold. Can Molly O'Malley save the day?--

Bantam Books, Toronto ; ©1979

Leonard's life at his new junior high is just barely tolerable until he becomes friends with the unusual Alan and with him shares an extraordinary adventure.

Marshall Cavendish, New York : 1997.

A young girl and Larry, the polar bear who lives in her father's hotel, enjoy each other's company and, on an outing to the zoo, they discover Larry's brother Roy.

Macmillan, New York : ©1988.

Tired of working as a librarian in Alaska, Aunt Lulu takes her sled and her fourteen Huskies and moves to Parsippany, New Jersey.

Aladdin Paperbacks, New York : 1997, ©1993.

In this comedy of errors, a famous children's author visits an elementary school.

Irving and Muktuk, two muffin-eating polar bears from the frozen north, have some trouble fitting into life at the zoo in Bayone, New Jersey.

Candlewick Press, Somerville, Mass. : 2012.

A bear with a secret admirer who leaves sweet, crunchy treats outside his cave each night tries to repay the kindness with honey, but comes to find out that his new friend is smaller, cuter, and fonder of carrots than any bear.

Feiwel and Friends, New York, NY : 2010.

Yetta, the beautiful chicken, breaks free from the truck that is carrying her to market. She quickly realizes the big city is nothing like the chicken farm. She is scared and confused until she meets and saves the life of a little, green parrot.

Scholastic, New York : ©2000.

Despite the insistence of her second-grade teacher that their Halloween celebration will focus on pumpkins, Big Gloria finds a way to introduce her favorite vegetable, the potato.

Scholastic, New York : ©1998.

Big Bob and Big Gloria, who are friends because they are both large for their age, start a new trend when their second-grade class is supposed to make turkey decorations for Thanksgiving.

Scholastic, New York : ©1999.

For their second-grade class celebration of Kwaanza, Chanukah, Christmas and all other winter holidays, Gloria and Big Bob write a play about Potato Claus, friend to children everywhere.

Bullseye Books, New York : 1993.

The adventures of a talking blue moose, who moves in with Mr. Breton and helps him run his restaurant on the edge of the big north woods.

Marshall Cavendish, New York : 2004.

Larry the polar bear's new interest in playing the bongos leads to an impromptu performance with Big Bear at the Cafe Mama Bear.

Aladdin Books ; New York : 1992.

Melvin recounts his extraordinary adventures in time and space with his 111-year-old sort of great-Uncle Borgel.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston : 2012.

In the 1960s, Harold Knishke, a Chicago teenager with a special place in his heart for Bushman, the famed departed gorilla of the Lincoln Park Zoo, embarks on a hometown adventure, in a quest to become a great artist and figure out how he became the object of a famous folk song.

Scholastic, New York : 2001.

When a gigantic wild ice cream cone runs off with the girlfriend of Captain Charles Handsome, the adventurer captures Cone Kong and takes him back to the Big City.

Macmillan ; New York : ©1991.

Relates how Kevin Spoon acquired a doodle flute and made a friend.

Scholastic, New York : [2003], ©2002.

After Ralph and Sylvia Nebula flee a fat camp ashram to join their friend Mavis at a dude ranch, they help her unite the Western town's factions by preparing for the arrival of an unidentified flying object.

Through his radio tooth, William learns of an invasion by spacemen who are taking all of earth's supply of junk food. Thousands of them landed on Earth grabbing up all the junk food they could find. William knew it would get worse, but he was being held captive on a spaceship. What could he do!

A collection of seventy-two short humor pieces with commentaries.

Dover Publications, Newburyport : 2018.

These four different stories - collected for the very first time - abound in hilarious situations and characters. Includes Wingman, Fat Men from Space, The Magic Goose and The Muffin Fiend.

Scholastic, New York : 2005.

Four friendship stories bound in a single volume.

Random House, New York : 1996.

Seymour Semolina, a boy who loves to read, awakes to find a talking goose in his room and the two share an adventurous nighttime flight.

Aladdin Books ; New York : 1992.

A boy accompanies some guys from space on a visit to another planet, where they discover such incredibly amazing things as talking rocks and root beer with ice cream.

E.P. Dutton, New York : ©1983.

Though he has turned into a werewolf, his parents, teacher, and classmates still see him as Lawrence Talbot, second-grader.

Marshall Cavendish, New York : 2004, ©1999.

After he eats an eighth of a ton of ice cream at Cohen's Cones, Larry the polar bear happily becomes the spokesbear for the Iceberg Ice-Cream Company under the slogan, I do not feel sick.

Houghton Mifflin, Boston : ℗2003.

Two muffin-loving polar bears make a yearly attempt to use stealth and subterfuge to get muffins at the Yellowtooth Blueberry Muffin Festival.

Crowell, New York : ©1980.

When Jack travels to the Indonesian island of Maggasang to search for his missing anthropologist parents, he begins a series of incredible adventures which take him outside the universe.

Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, New York : ©1985.

Chronicles the adventures of the remarkable canine who became the undisputed king of Hoboken's dockside dogs.

Victor's parents go away for two weeks. It is while staying up late watching television that he discovers evidence of a secret community of intelligent lizards. In fact there seems to have been an invasion from outer space that went almost unnoticed.

HarperTrophy, New York, NY : 2006, ©2004.

Upon moving to Hoboken, New Jersey, a boy convinces his two new friends to help him track down the mysterious phantom who stole his bicycle, as well as Arthur Bobowicz, owner of a giant chicken that once terrorized local citizens.

Dodd, Mead New York, [1974]

A little boy is presented with an old camera that seems to have a special magic.

Nick and Maxine have a new babysitter--the eccentric Mrs. Noodlekugel who lives in the funny little house behind their drab high-rise apartment building along with her feline butler, Mr. Fuzzface, and four farsighted mice.

"In a wonderfully loopy third episode, Nick and Maxine are surprised to meet Captain Noodlekugel, back from the sea with a somewhat untrainable bear."--Amazon.com.

When Mrs. Noodlekugel's four mice make a terrible mess with cookie crumbs at tea, she decides to take them on the bus to visit the eye doctor-- and invites Nick and Maxine to come along!

Aladdin, New York : 2002.

Mush, a dog from the planet Growf-Woof-Woof, relates how she came to be on Earth, and how she and three other animals formed a jazz ensemble that foiled a band of ice cream parlor robbers.

Aladdin Paperbacks, New York : 2002.

Kelly, who has wanted a pet dog for a long time, runs into a highly-educated, mushamute dog from the planet Growf-Woof-Woof.

Four Winds Press, New York : ©1979.

Instead of the pickle his grandmother asked him to get at the supermarket, Conrad brings home a pickle creature.

Oryx Press, Phoenix, Ariz. : 1992.

Grade level: 1, 2, 3, 4, k, p, e, t.

Flammarion, [Paris] : 1997

Dutton, New York : 1985, ©1982.

Roger's umbrella becomes increasingly more wild and uncontrollable until he meets three old ladies who teach him how to talk to it.

After little Mildred Frobisher has a sleepover at the hotel where she lives with her parents and Larry the polar bear, Larry decides that he too would like to host a sleepover for his friends.

Nal Dutton, [Place of publication not identified] : 1983.

Macmillan ; New York : ©1993.

Kevin Spoon and Mason Mintz walk six miles to attend the opening of a new Spaceburger restaurant.

Clarion Books, New York : ©2002.

A guide to buying, training, and caring for a dog, with special emphasis on understanding its personality, feelings, and reactions to new situations.

Xlibris, [Place of publication not identified] : [2007?]

A comic fantasy set in heaven on the subject of obesity. The protagonist is Milton Cramer, an obese editor who is murdered for rejecting an author's manuscript. The novel is a satire on weight-conscious America by a Jewish humorist.

HarperCollins, New York : ©2005.

After three Hoboken children and their giant chicken Henrietta begin to appreciate beautiful sidewalk art, they venture into art class and visits to Manhattan.

Hastings House, New York : ©1977.

When a seagull drops a can of orange paint on his neat house, Mr. Plumbean gets an idea that affects his entire neighborhood.

Set in the 1950s in Chicago, Robert Nifkin tells his highly unorthodox high school experiences in the form of a college application essay.

Arthur goes to pick up the turkey for Thanksgiving dinner but comes back with a 260-pound chicken.

Bantam Books, New York : 1980, ©1978.

One harmless bet on a horse race starts a chain of events that turns a 12-year-old into one of the world's richest people and a spiritual guru.

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, New York : ©2000.

After one of its members is banned from the school lunchroom, the Watson Elementary School Werewolf Club has lunch at Tom's Tibetan-American Lunchroom, where they run into alien meatballs.

Aladdin ; New York : 1993.

Relates the adventures of Edward, grandson of a famous television sled dog, with his owner Steve, who manages a Hoboken ice cream stand.

Little, Brown, Boston : ©1986.

The talking blue moose attempts to unravel the riddle of the Moospire, a vampire moose that reportedly lurks near the town of Yellow Tooth.

Wolfgang Amadeaus Mozart helps Inspector LeChat catch the thief who is stealing all the muffins of Europe.

When shoelace heir Neddie Wentworthstein and his family take the train from Chicago to Los Angeles in the 1940s, he winds up in possession of a valuable Indian turtle artifact whose owner is supposed to be able to prevent the impending destruction of the world, but he is not sure exactly how.

Macmillan ; New York : ©1992.

Chris Kevin-Keith fixes up and reopens an abandoned lunch wagon, unaware that it originally closed because it was haunted by a scary phantom.

HarperCollins, New York : c2003.

Inspired by a movie plot, Morty and Ray paint pictures of each other and then do mean things at school to see if their portraits will become ugly.

Knopf, New York : ©1970.

Each time the little lion opens his mouth, he roars, and each roar causes something around him to disappear.

Paw Prints 2008.

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, New York : ©2001.

A new student who claims to be a vampire joins the Watson Elementary School Werewolf Club, but the werewolves discover his true secret when fruits and vegetables begin to disappear all over town.

Aladdin Paperbacks, New York : 2002.

Mr. Talbot has taken the Werewolf Club to London! Unfortunately, they made the trip in Uncle H.G. Talbot's unreliable time-and-space machine, and they've arrived in 1890 London--where it might be a tad difficult to buy the 212 double-A batteries they need for the machine to get them home.

Aladdin Paperbacks, New York : 2001.

The Watson Elementary School Werewolf Club goes on a field trip to Basketball Hall, where Sir Hugo hopes they will solve the mystery of the hound which has plagued his family for generations.

Trupmet Club, New York : ©1980, (1991 printing)

The family's new pet kitten grows at such a ridiculous rate that the father must bring home animals to compare its size each day.

In the mid-1950s, Yggdrasil Birnbaum and her friends, Seamus and Neddie, journey to Old New Hackensack, which is on another plane, to try to learn why ghosts are disappearing from the Birnbaum's hotel and other Hollywood, California, locations.

Seabury Press, New York : ©1975.

While searching for a comfortable new home, three domestic hogs run into some unexpected and alarming situations, including hostile residents and police, a butcher's shop, and a fierce forest hog.

Macmillan Pub. Co. ; New York : 1990, ©1981.

The Popsnorkle family test drives the Tooth-Gnasher Superflash, pleased with the car's ability to turn into several different animals.

Harcourt, San Diego : 2002.

With the candor and wit that he's known for, Daniel Pinkwater shares heartfelt and often peculiar reflections on the dogs (and other assorted creatures) that have shaped his life and family traditions. Pinkwater begins with the tale of his colorful Uncle Boris, who sets off on a trek from Warsaw to the Yukon in search of gold. Along the way he strikes up a curious friendship with Jake, the lead dog in his team of malamutes, who, as it happens, converses in perfect Yiddish. This is the first in a series of delightful anecdotes that introduce a curious cast of canines, including a couple of wolf breeds, a Labrador retriever, a few more malamutes, a chow chow, a mutt, and even a Pekinese, among others. A mordantly funny and smartly entertaining mix of memoir and fancy (Booklist), Uncle Boris in the Yukon shows us a world where, though Pinkwater is top dog, it's the four-legged companions who steal the show.

Macmillan, New York : ©1989.

Charles enjoys spending time with his gentle Uncle Melvin, even though Melvin harbors strange delusions about his own power to talk to the birds or control the rain.

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, New York : 1996.

At bedtime, a young boy enters the outer space-patterned wallpaper in his room and has adventures with a band of spacemice.

Macmillan Pub. Co. ; New York : ©1991.

At the height of his vampire craze, Jonathan meets some real vampires and finds they are not quite what he expected.

Dodd, Mead & Co., New York : ©1973.

A wizard is determined to get the wonderful crystal at the bottom of the lake.

Backpack Books, New York : 2002.

The Wild Dada Ducks initiate drasitc changes when the school authorities object to their wearing fish neckties and bicycle wheels to school. Their ingenuity knows no bounds as they create a true high school hero from a total nerd. The powerful Kevin Shapiro counters chaos and ultimately squelches revolution with Grape-Nuts, leaving anyone who reads this thrilling story wishing he hadn't. -- Jacket flap.

Marshall Cavendish, New York : 2004.

After being hit on the head by his mother and told to fend for himself, Larry the polar bear floats from Baffin Bay to New Jersey where he gets a job as a lifeguard.