Bestselling author Daniel Pinkwater (Lizard Music, The Hoboken Chicken Emergency) returns in classic form with the illustrated, middle-grade adventures of one young Molly O’Malley: a dwarf (well, dwarf-ish) girl who just won’t settle for a boring mountain life.

Molly O'Malley is a clever, adventurous girl. She is also a Dwerg. Dwergs are strange folks who live very quietly in the Catskill mountains, have lots of gold, and are kind of like dwarves (but also not!).

Molly isn’t interested in cooking and weaving, as she is expected to be. So, she sets off to see the world for herself. Which means a new job, a trip to New York City, prowling gangsters, an adorable king, a city witch, and many historical ghosts. More importantly, it means excellent pizza, new friends, and very quick thinking.

Now someone is pursuing the Dwergs for their gold. Can Molly O’Malley save the day?

Molly is a Dwerg whose people live magically hidden in the Catskills, tending goats and mining gold. Dwergish girls sometimes go into the nearby town to go to school and Molly has seen enough of the outside world to know she wants to see more and that a life of weaving, cooking and tending goats doesn’t really interest her. So Molly goes in to Kingston, gets a job at a pizzeria and starts to make friends with the residents of Kingston; both the living and the dead.  When Redcoats, not actually living or ghosts, are seen to around town committing crimes, Molly finds out that it is part of a larger plot to find the Dwerg’s gold. Can Molly stop them and still keep the Dwerg’s existence secret?

Aimed at middle school readers this is a delightful story that will please both the young and adult reader. I look forward to more of Molly’s adventures. ~~ Stephanie L Bannon