Bob, by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead

Bob is the latest release by two authors who have many good and known books for young adults and teens between them. Mass wrote one of my all-time favorite books, A Mango-Shaped Space, and Stead will be known to anyone who has enjoyed OBOB in recent years as the author of Liar & Spy as well as the Newbery Award-winning When You Reach Me. Two very capable authors creating a magical book together!

Bob is a creature from a book of fairy and folk tales read by Livy when she was very little. In this story she returns to her grandmothers house in Australia 5 years after her last visit, and subsequently finds Bob, her childhood friend - who happens to be short and green and dressed in a chicken suit - still waiting for her in her bedroom closet. Livy finds out that not everyone can see Bob, and as the story progresses we wonder if Bob is real, or the presence of something serious that Livy is afraid or unable to face from her past. We don't really know until the end, when happily we discover that Bob is not a way for Livy to cope with a trauma, but a way for both Livy and Bob to build on an imagination that children often have but seem to lose as they get older.

Perhaps the most wonderful part of the story is how Bob finds his home and family, Livy loses but then finds Bob again, and all of the magic is then passed on to another child, a neighbor of Livy's whom is also drawn into the same story from the book. This is a pretty quick book to read, and reminds me a lot of DiCamillo's Tale of Despereaux of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.  This is a light, fun story that will bring a little warmth to that child within you, no matter who or how old you are! 4 paws!