"The Adventure of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle: The Thing Beneath the Bed" by Patrick Rothfuss, illustrated by Nate Taylor

72 pages

This looks just like a kid's picture book, but it is not! It's got cute illustrations and the main characters are a little girl and her teddy bear, but do not be fooled by these appearances.

The Princess lives in her castle with only her best friend, Mr. Whiffle the teddy bear. There are no grown-ups to ruin her fun and tell her what to do, so she gets to spend all day exploring, digging for "treasure," and generally having a blast with Mr. Whiffle. The only problem is the Thing Beneath the Bed. There are three endings to the story: a happy one, a scary one, and the real one, which is creepy, unexpected, and hilarious.

This story cracked me up! I loved the contrast between the cute drawings and the disturbing stuff going on in the castle. I enjoyed this dark-humor spin on a classic fairy tale storyline.