Inside the world of Kenny & the Book of Beasts

Angela DiTerlizzi never forgets her Magical Yet, especially when she wrote more than ten drafts to this book just right. She’s written other books, too, including Just Add Glitter, Some Bugs, Some Pets, and Baby Love. She lives with her husband, best-selling author-illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi, and their daughter in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Tony DiTerlizzi, a New York Times bestselling author and illustrator, has been creating books for twenty years. His work include titles such as Jimmy Zangwow’s Out-of-This-World Moon-Pie Adventure and The Spider and the Fly (a Caldecott Honor Book); fantastic middle grade novels like Kenny & the Dragon and the WondLa trilogy. He also created The Spiderwick Chronicles with Holly Black. In Kenny and the Book of Beasts (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers), as sequel to Kenny and the Dragon, Kenny must cope with many changes in his life—including the fear that he’s losing his best friend. Time has passed since Kenny Rabbit’s last adventure with the legendary dragon Grahame, and a lot has changed in the sleepy village of Roundbrook. Kenny has a whole litter of baby sisters. His friends are at different schools and Sir George is off adventuring. At least Kenny still has his very best friend, Grahame —until Dante arrives. Dante is a legendary manticore and an old friend of Grahame’s — and their catching up does not involve Kenny. But there’s a Witch to defeat, a pal to rescue, and a mysterious book to unlock — and those are quests for best friends. Booklist noted that “This may be a cozy world filled with darling animals […] but the stakes are high, and the lessons on friendship, acceptance, and the dangers of prejudice are meaningful.”