Readers who like the outrageous humour of Lemony Snicket and Harry Potter are in for a magical treat in the first of Debi Gliori's Pure Dead Magic books. Gliori leads us on a wild and wacky tour of the Titus and Pandora Strega-Borgia's family life. Dad has gone missingùhe has been kidnapped by his really nasty half-brother and full-time gangster who wants the Strega-Borgia fortune; meanwhile, Mom is caught up in her studiesùshe's taking courses in advanced witchcraft. And Titus and Pandora are in real troubleùnot only are they trying to break in a new nanny, a modern-day Mary Poppins who uses her palm pilot to do magic, but they've shrunk their baby sister and somehow lost her somewhere on the Internet. Throw in an enormous castle in the Scottish Highlands, a host of mythical beasts including Tock the family crocodile and Ffup the dragon, not to mention a dead granny who is being kept frozen in the freezer until they find a cure for whatever ails her, and you have a hilarious and inventive novel that will have young readers chortling with glee and hungry for the sequel, Pure Dead Wicked!