Vivian Vande Velde – författare

If Howard had known the old hag was a witch, he never would have taunted her. But he did, and she did what witches do--cursed him--and now he''s a goose! Howard is desperate to become a human again. But the only way to break the curse is to do three good deeds. How can you help others when you''ve got webbed feet, wings for hands, and can''t say anything but "Honk"?

At first her goal was winning. Now it’s surviving . . . .“A stylish tale [that] addresses both fantasy gaming and censorship.” —TheNew York Times Book Review The Edgar Award–winning author presents a rollicking story that puts a high-tech twist on the classic medieval fantasy-adventure . . . Giannine has made it through the crowd of demonstrators outside the arcade to use the gift certificate from her dad. In the virtual reality game Heir Apparent, there are way too many ways to get killed—and Giannine seems to be finding them all. Which is a shame, because unless she can get the magic ring, locate the stolen treasure, answer the dwarf’s dumb riddles, impress the head-chopping statue, charm the army of ghosts, fend off the barbarians, and defeat the man-eating dragon, she’ll never win. And she has to, because the protesters have broken into the system, and losing means she’ll die—for real this time . . . “Consistently entertaining.” —Publishers Weekly “Thrilling sf drama [and] a tough girl protagonist.” —Booklist  “Suspenseful. . . . hilarious. . . . riveting reading for experienced gamers and tyros alike.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)A Junior Library Guild Selection and a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age

Grace Pizzelli is the average sister. She’s nothing like her brilliant older sister, Emily, who works for Rasmussem, creators of the world’s best virtual reality games. They seem so real that you can taste the food and smell the flowers.

The games aren’t real, though—or at least they weren’t. Now that Emily has hidden herself inside one , it’s clear that the technology can only keep her safe for so long. Something must have gone terribly wrong for Emily to retreat into the pink and sparkly Land of the Golden Butterflies, but no one seems to know what.

Grace may consider herself average, but she’s the only one who can save Emily. So Grace enters the game, hoping to find her sister and talk her out of virtual suicide. There isn’t much time left before sustained exposure to the technology will have dire results. Unless Grace can find her sister soon, Emily will die—for real.

One should be able to say of a princess “She was as good as she was beautiful,” according to The Art of Being a Princess (third revised edition), which the almost-thirteen-year-old Princess Imogene is supposed to be reading. Not feeling particularly good, or all that beautiful, she heads for a nearby pond, where, unfortunately, a talking frog tricks her into kissing him. No prince appears, as one might expect. Instead, the princess turns into a frog herself! Thus launches a funny, wonderfully spun fractured fairy tale in which Imogene wonders if she will be forever frogified.