March 10, 2009
 This is a particularly strong week for new kids books, which makes our interview with eleven year old Dylan Roberts, one of North America's most outstanding readers, particularly appropriate!KB: So Dylan, if a good fantasy novel were a cake what would the recipe for it be? Dylan: That's an interesting question. For adventure it would need suspense, adventure of course, some fighting, but for children no going into the gore, not a lot of language but some to make it realistic. It would need to have something to fall back on if something didn't work. Or if they wanted it to fail, that would be okay. They need to have something to get, or win something, or survive. KB: Excellent. As someone who has read a large number of fantasies dealing with good and evil, does evil get a fair shake in most books? Dylan: Some books, but other books don't and you pretty much know that good is going to win. But good and evil depends on what side you're on. Usually when they have sequels evil wins for a time and then good comes back. Not a lot of books has evil winning. I like it when it goes into a stalemate, sort of like the Farsala Trilogy KB: If you could live inside one book which would it be? Dylan: That's tough. Probably Fablehaven. Hmmm, or else The Return of the King. It seems like that has a very very good ending. The Fablehaven series hasn't ended yet so I don't know how it will come out! KB: Good call. You can't beat The Return of the King for a great ending. As Gandalf himself said we must "do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till." Thanks Dylan. Those were some outstanding answers! Dylan: Sure! Here they are! Our weekly picks for the two best: two hardcover, two paperback, and two children's books. The very best new arrivals to leap out of the box and onto our shelves this week. Don't forget that a five dollar gift certificate awaits the first person to email in to identify the unattributed author of this weeks Mystical Twitter. Call or email us if you want more information on any of these titles, or to have us hold you a copy. Or stop in and check them out in person. We'd love to see you. Thanks as always for sharing your reading with us!
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