Full to bursting with animated fantasy creatures, this delightful story begs to be read aloud. Animal lovers will eagerly anticipate more Logan and Zoe adventures.

There's something unusual about Logan Wilde, and it's not just that he is a newcomer to the small town of Xanadu. He has a way with animals, from his pet fish to his mice, his cat to the griffin that has hidden itself under his bed ... yes, that's right: griffin. There's something usual about Xanadu too, specifically The Menagerie on the outskirts of town. No one outside of the property's inhabitants is supposed to know about the unusual collection of magical and mythical creatures that abides there, but when five griffin cubs escape and one chooses to hide under Logan's bed, he is drawn into the mysterious place. Along with classmates Zoe Kahn and Blue (Menagerie inhabitants), Logan quickly becomes engaged in tracking down cubs, and figuring out how they escaped. When the trio come to realize that Logan's missing mother has had a long career with the Menagerie, and that the perimeter of the compound was deliberately sabotaged, they realize there's more at stake then getting a few cubs back home undetected. Readers will enjoy this satisfying introduction to an intriguing setting and community, but they may be less pleased with the novel's clumsy and abrupt "To be continued..." ending. Reviewer: Heidi Hauser Green

Gr 5–8—A new arrival in small-town Xanadu, Wyoming, seventh-grader Logan spends more time than he'd like to thinking about his mother's mysterious disappearance. His life becomes exciting when he discovers a baby griffin under his bed. No bigger than a puppy, Squorp turns out to be an escapee from the Menagerie, a zoo filled with mythical creatures and run by his classmate Zoe and her family. Logan soon finds himself teamed up with Zoe and her merman friend, Blue, to find five other griffin runaways. As he helps track them down, the truth about his mother's secret life begins to surface. Meanwhile, members of SNAPA, the organization in charge of all menageries, will arrive soon for an inspection and if everything is not up to par the place will be shut down. Can the trio get the griffins back in time? Who really was Logan's mom? The characters are likable, unique, and well developed, and the narrative is filled with lively dialogue and humor. The creatures, including a pair of snooty unicorns and a charismatic but murderous kelpie, are delightful. The authors do a great job of creating an attention-grabbing magical world within the realistic setting. Readers who enjoy books like Brandon Mull's Fablehaven (Aladdin, 2007) will soak up the intermixing of mythological information and mystery. The first in a series, this page-turning fantasy will fly off library shelves.—Kira Moody, Whitmore Public Library, Salt Lake City, UT

Numerous books have successfully built on a premise of human interaction with mythical creatures, but this one is overstuffed and convoluted. When Logan and his father move to the small town of Xanadu, Wyo., he becomes involved in the search for six missing griffin cubs from the Menagerie. The action is as wild and wooly as a mammoth, with those prehistoric beasts, unicorns, mermaids and hellhounds and other creatures appearing around every corner. In the space of one day, Logan complains, "my clothes have been set on fire by a phoenix, drowned by a kelpie, rolled on by a mammoth, clawed and nibbled by griffin cubs, and drenched in kraken ink." Can he help classmate Zoe and her family save the Menagerie from being shut down by SNAPA (SuperNatural Animal Protection Agency)? Driven by the plot, the characters lack depth; the creatures provide heft, but there are too many, too conveniently introduced. Pop-culture references--The Hunger Games, the Pirates of the Caribbean films, Wheel of Fortune--feel like pandering and will date the book. One clever touch is Logan's ability to communicate with the opinionated griffin cubs. Book 2 will pick up from the last sentence of the abrupt ending: "Someone had murdered the goose who laid the golden eggs." Unfortunately, the story itself lays an egg. For a really magical book about mythical animals, readers should try The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, by Patricia McKillip (1974). (Fantasy. 9-12)