ONE BEASTLY BEAST: Two Aliens, Three Inventors, Four Fantastic Tales
by Garth Nix
illustrated by Brian Biggs
Eos/HarperCollins
ISBN-10: 0060843195
ISBN-13: 9780060843199
Ages 7-11
176 pages

Garth Nix has gained a reputation as a well-regarded author of high fantasy for children and young adults, particularly with his bestselling Abhorsen trilogy, which includes SABRIEL, LIRAEL and ABHORSEN. In the introduction to his latest collection, however, Nix explains the incentive to create a different kind of fantasy story: "I…love all kinds of stories, but most of all I like the ones that tell of fantastic creatures and fabulous places. When I grew up, I found out that I didn't want to just read stories like that, I wanted to write them."

The result is ONE BEASTLY BEAST, a collection of four short stories that appeal to Nix's own boyhood tastes in reading, which were drawn heavily toward pirates, aliens, monsters and wacky inventions of all kinds. These four delightfully silly tales combine many of these elements in different ways, and the result is both a departure for Nix and a humorous invitation to fantasy for younger readers.

In "Blackbread the Pirate," Peter falls headlong into video piracy (complete with swashbuckling and swords) when his mother's instructions to return the DVDs to the video store go horribly wrong. In "The Princess and the Beastly Beast," the royal daughter of a fierce warrior princess and a wizarding father sets off on an adventure of her own --- where being eaten by a ferocious monster is only the beginning of her exploits.

Orphaned Bill the Inventor (found abandoned as a baby wrapped in a giant banana peel) tries, and fails, to reconcile his inventing desires with prospective adoptive parents (who include pirates and aliens), before he discovers where he really belongs. And, in the most complicated tale of the bunch, "Serena and the Sea Serpent," the youngest of 17 daughters --- who is far too smart for her own good --- must figure out how to tame the sea monster who threatens her town's harbor and perhaps find her own happiness in the process.

Nix's humorous, pun-filled pages are packed with Brian Biggs's equally whimsical cartoon-style drawings. Although these tales might seem an odd or unexpected choice for a master of high fantasy, they show off Nix's lighter, funnier side while still exhibiting his creativity, ingenuity and passion for fantasy writing.

   --- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

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