The Black Book of Secrets Book

This is one of those books that bedclothes and flashlights were invented for. Young pickpocket Ludlow Fitch escapes his frightful parents in the City and finds himself in the remote village of Pagus Parvus. There he's taken in as apprentice by another newcomer to the village, Joe Zabbidou (as in "Zabbi Zabbi Dou!" this erstwhile Flintstones fan kept thinking), who's a pawnbroker of secrets -- that is, people tell him their deepest secrets while Ludlow records them in Joe's mysterious black book, and then Joe pays them. At first Ludlow naturally thinks the purpose is blackmail, but that isn't it at all . . .

I assume there's a paperback of this by now, but I haven't seen it. The hardback, though, is only $14.95, and I would say worth every penny. Not only is this a book you'll probably want to read again yourself, you're likely to find yourself forcing it on your friends. But that's not the only reason you might want to opt for the hardback. Whoever designed this (Susan Walsh for the book and Rich Deas for the cover, it says here) was obviously as nuts about the novel as I am, because everything about the production looks, feels and even smells appropriate for what's essentially a modern rendering of those books that have had generations of kids reading them obsessively and clandestinely. My only quibble with The Black Book of Secrets is that Higgins seems to be setting herself up at the end for a sequel or even a series, and this is a book that should be left to stand alone as the wonderful creation it is; any sequel can only, by its very existence, detract.