Felix and Calcite: The Land of the Trolls

K-Gr 3–Late one night, a chatty purple troll girl named Calcite accidentally bursts into the room of Felix (a young, redheaded white boy), popping out of his toy chest. The seemingly normal bin contains an interdimensional portal to the Land of the Trolls, which Felix discovers pretty quickly after falling in and being sucked through to the alternate universe. Readers are rapidly brought up to speed regarding the goings-on of this fantastical realm by an omniscient narrator, the Ancient Master Troll, who is constantly snuffling up boogers. Calcite, it turns out, stumbled upon the portal only because she is hiding from some tiny and adorable gnomes…who are hot on the trail of her and her new friend, Felix! Felix soon discovers that the gnomes are hunting trolls only because they (wrongly) believe that trolls eat gnomes. In no time, he realizes he can clear up this misconception, and clear it up he must, because he should really be getting back to bed. The first in a planned series, this is a fun, fast read with a quickly resolved conflict. The cartoonish style; eye-catching, bright color scheme; and inclusion of a maze and an eye-spy game (plus a promise that Felix will indeed return to visit his friend) will likely entice readers.