In his second novel for young readers (and his first for teens), Weston (Zorgamazoo) includes a few familiar fairytale names, like a Jack who nabs a bag of magic beans and "Detective Inspector White" (an audacious, modern Snow White). But this noirish page-turner is no bedtime story. Once, there were fairies whose dust brought health and happiness to Dust City, but 16-year-old Henry Whelp—a talking, walking wolf—is locked in a world where the fairies have disappeared and a pale form of fairydust is an addictive catchall drug made by powerful corporations. When he escapes juvenile detention to see his imprisoned father, who believes fairies are still around but captured by the corporations, Henry finds a hopeful romance with a wolf named Fiona and becomes dangerously entangled with ruthless mobsters. Clever use of iconic characters and fairytale symbols against a hardboiled backdrop contribute to Weston's distinctive and highly imaginative mise en scène. Though Henry knows that not all fairytales have happy endings, his scrappy determination to restore good should have readers avidly following him through the grimy streets of his brutal world. Ages 12–up. (Nov.)

Gr 8 Up—Henry Whelp is a wolf, and not just any wolf—he's one of the animals that has evolved to human size and intelligence. His father is in prison for murdering a girl and her grandmother, à la Little Red Riding Hood, while Henry is living at a juvenile detention facility. With help from his human friend Jack (possessor of magic beans, of course), Henry escapes from the home and obtains letters his father wrote to him about the real circumstances surrounding his crime. Dad worked for Skinner, the mobster who controls illegal trade in dust—manufactured quasi-fairydust that causes wishes to become reality—and he asks his son to investigate what happened to the fairies who used to provide the real thing. Henry starts running dust for Skinner in an attempt to discover the truth, facing ever-increasing danger. He's aided by Fiona, a beautiful young female wolf, and the two eventually travel to the fairies' former home, the floating city of Eden, where they risk their lives to reveal the fairies' fate. This dark tale will appeal to fractured fairy tale and "Hunger Games" fans alike, and its urgency and obvious parallels to real drugs ring true in spite of the imagined setting and characters. There's some extreme violence, including some committed by the generally sympathetic Henry, but it contributes to the story's immediacy and sense of danger.—Beth L. Meister, Milwaukee Jewish Day School, WI