Keir Graff – författare

A wild and whimsical adventure story, perfect for fans of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s LibraryBrian can think of a few places he''d rather spend his summer than with his aunt and uncle in Boring, Illinois. Jail, for example. Or an earplug factory. Anything would be better than doing summer school on a computer while his scientist dad is stationed at the South Pole.   Boring lives up to its name until Brian and his cousin Nora have a fight, get lost, and discover a huge, wooden house in the forest. With balconies, turrets, and windows seemingly stuck on at random, it looks ready to fall over in the next stiff breeze. To the madcap, eccentric family that lives inside, it’s not just a home—it’s a castle.    Suddenly, summer gets a lot more exciting. With their new friends, Brian and Nora tangle with giant wasps, sharp-tusked wild boars, and a crazed bureaucrat intent on bringing the dangerously dilapidated old house down with a wrecking ball.   This funny, fantastical story will resonate with any reader who’s ever wished a little adventure would find them."For boys and girls alike, this story sings.”—Blue Balliett, award-winning author of Chasing Vermeer 

Twin brothers discover their new home is also a portal--for an hour a day--to a parallel dimension in this rollicking middle-grade adventure, perfect for fans of The Mysterious Benedict Society Colm and Mal are twins so identical their own mom can''t tell them apart, but they''re different in just about every other way. Mal''s a pragmatist while Colm''s a dreamer, and they bicker and battle constantly. Neither brother is excited to be moving to Chicago for a fresh start with their mom just after their dad''s death. But nothing cures homesickness like intrigue--and their new home, Brunhild Tower, has plenty of it: mysterious elderly neighbors who warn against wandering the building at midday, strange sounds in the walls, and an elevator missing a button for the thirteenth floor. One day, that button appears--and when the doors open on the missing floor, the boys are greeted by the strangest puzzle yet: a twin building that is stuck in time and bustling with activity. All of Brunhild Tower''s former residents live on in this phantom tower, where the rules of the real world don''t apply. But when the brothers and their newfound friends discover they''re all trapped by an ancient curse, they must band together to set everyone free before it''s too late.

Living in the luxurious Arcanum building - with its interior balconies perfect for playing tag, an elevator like an iron birdcage, and quirky neighbours behind every apartment door - has always been fun and games for twelve-year-old Minerva Keen . . . until her neighbours start getting poisoned. Anyone could be next, and everyone is a suspect, including Minerva herself.To clear her name and help the police crack the case, Minerva starts her own detective club. So what if it only has two other members, one Minerva's accident-prone daredevil brother and the other the biggest and quietest kid in school, who happens to be afraid of his own shadow? Minerva knows that with her brainpower, the club's sleuthing skills, and case files full of suspects, they can unmask the poisoner . . . hopefully before it's too late.

Living in the luxurious Arcanum building - with its interior balconies perfect for playing tag, an elevator like an iron birdcage, and quirky neighbours behind every apartment door - has always been fun and games for twelve-year-old Minerva Keen . . . until her neighbours start getting poisoned. Anyone could be next, and everyone is a suspect, including Minerva herself.To clear her name and help the police crack the case, Minerva starts her own detective club. So what if it only has two other members, one Minerva's accident-prone daredevil brother and the other the biggest and quietest kid in school, who happens to be afraid of his own shadow? Minerva knows that with her brainpower, the club's sleuthing skills, and case files full of suspects, they can unmask the poisoner . . . hopefully before it's too late.

“Thoroughly entertaining . . . from desperate writing students in Missoula to a van of itinerant strippers working the Hi-Line paralleling the Canadian border.” —Publishers Weekly  A Parade Magazine “Books We Love” Pick   The Big Sky State may seem to lack the shadowy urban mazes traditional to the noir genre. But in Montana, darkness is found in the regions of the heart, driving the desperate and deadly to commit the most heinous of crimes. Here, James Grady and Keir Graff, both Montana natives, masterfully curate this collection of hard-edged Western tales.  Montana Noir includes Eric Heidle’s “Ace in the Hole,” an Edgar Award nominee for Best Short Story, and impressive contributions by David Abrams, Caroline Patterson, Thomas McGuane, Janet Skeslien Charles, Sidner Larson, Yvonne Seng, James Grady, Jamie Ford, Carrie La Seur, Walter Kirn, Gwen Florio, Debra Magpie Earling, and Keir Graff.   “Terrific . . . Montana Noir is one of the high points in Akashic’s long-running and justly celebrated Noir series . . . varying landscapes reflect the darkness within the people who walk the streets or drive the country roads.” —Booklist   “Montana may not have the back alleys so common to noir but it has western justice which can be quick, brutal and final and that is as satisfying as anything found in the urban streets that typically attract the dark beauty of the noir genre.” —New York Journal of Books   “Certain noir standbys prove both malleable and fertile in these 14 new stories . . . If Montana has a dark side, is anywhere safe from noir?” —Kirkus Reviews

Let Keir Graff take you inside Chicago's Fine Arts Building - a building that hides worlds behind its doors. Exploring the Fine Arts Building’s warren of hallways is like stepping into a time machine. It’s not a museum—it’s a place of work. The walls reverberate with timeless music. Sopranos soar up to the high notes as violin bows draw tunes from strings. Someone plays a piano so busily they must have twelve fingers. Dancers’ feet thud against wooden floors. A tuba burps out “Ride of the Valkyries” as the doors of the manually operated elevators provide percussive slams. And more quietly, behind closed doors, painters paint, writers write, and luthiers shave soft ribbons from billets of spruce.In Chicago's Fine Arts Building, celebrated writer and Fine Arts Building tenant Keir Graff takes readers behind the scenes of this cultural hub. Initially conceived as a space for artists' studios, a home for the city's working artists, the building was an immediate success, but the Great Depression brought a long, slow decline to the building. Graff explores the building's history, its revitalization, and its cultural place in the city of Chicago. Featuring interviews with current tenants and access to the building's archives, including historical photos and artifacts, and a foreword by bestselling author Gillian Flynn, Chicago's Fine Arts Building sheds a new light on this storied building and its long history.Other Chicago landmarks have more stunning architecture or are more perfectly restored, but none of them has aged so well—because in the Fine Arts Building, it’s the work that has been preserved. Two centuries have turned and its purpose remains the same: to provide artists and artisans space to pursue their callings, and community with other creatives, too, offering a living demonstration that something good happens when so many work so closely to each other. Which is not to say it’s always been easy. Whatever comes easily in the arts?