Title: Tales of a Fifth Grade Knight
Author: Douglas Gibson
Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
Anticipated publication date:  August 1, 2015
ISBN:  978-1623702557
Genre: Fantasy
Age: 8 up

A weird and wacky, Underground Town of elves and talking animals exists in Douglas Gibson’s   Tales of a Fifth Grade Knight.   Isaac’s school is anything but ordinary.   It used to be a castle but “…the townspeople took one look at this creepy, drafty, damp, heap of rocks with a dungeon and said. “Hey! Let’s turn it into a school.””  When Isaac’s sister Lily disappears from the school’s furnace room, he and his two friends follow her down a tunnel “just big enough for a fifth grader to crawl though.”   They emerge in a magical land where animals grow larger and can talk - a world where humans turn into elves, after they finish weirding.  Weirding is a time when someone might turn into a giant ear, or have a firefly backside.  There is no cure for weirding.  Isaac and his friends must find and leave with Lilly before she begins to change, even though most of the creatures are trying to keep them underground!

This book will be a fun read for elementary children who enjoy a dash of wacky with their fantasy.  While Isaac and his sister have a typical sibling relationship, Gibson’s wild imagination creates uncommon characters in Underground Town that will speak directly to the combination of imagination, humor and wackiness in older elementary readers.  Great for children who have enjoyed Dan Gutman's My Weird School series.