Latest installment in popular children’s book series to be released

Brooklyn BookBeat

February 26, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Author and illustrator Abby Hanlon. Photos courtesy of Penguin Random House

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Abby Hanlon’s popular “Dory Fantasmagory” chapter book series has readers clamoring for the next installment, but thankfully, they will not have to wait long. With three books in the series available to read in seventeen languages around the world, young readers and their parents have discovered, as noted in a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly, “Time with Dory is time well spent.” Now in Dory’s fourth adventure, a loose tooth leads to hilarious hijinks in “Dory Fantasmagory: Head in the Clouds.”

In her most recent book, 6-year-old Dory is always having a good time exploring the best world of all — her imagination. Dory has her first loose tooth, and, with her usual over-the-top excitement, she cannot stop talking about the tooth fairy.

Naturally, this drives her brother and sister crazy. But it also sparks a serious jealous streak in her nemesis, Mrs. Gobble Cracker, who wants all of Dory’s attention to herself. However, Mrs. Gobble Gracker has decided to steal the tooth fairy’s job, and flying around in a tutu from Rosabelle, she heads for Dory’s house. It is time for Dory to come up with a serious plan to get the tooth fairy her job back.

Losing baby teeth is such a universally common and important event in a young child’s life. According to USA Today, parents paid the Tooth Fairy more than $290 million in 2016. Dory’s whimsical approach to conquering her fears and dealing with new challenges is the perfect response to this childhood milestone.

With her enormous imagination and even bigger personality, Dory is the literary descendant of Ramona Quimby and Junie B. Jones. Hanlon has a true gift for writing authentic kid dialogue and coming up with hilarious (yet somehow completely believable) scenarios for Dory and friends that guarantee giggles on every page.

Hanlon is a former teacher. Inspired by her students’ storytelling, she began to write her own stories for children, and taught herself to draw. She is the author of the “Dory Fantasmagory” series and “Ralph Tells a Story.” Abby lives in Park Slope with her husband and their two children.

Hanlon will stop at Books Are Magic on Sunday, March 11 as part of the national tour for “Dory Fantasmagory: Head in the Clouds.”