"The Monstrous Memories of a Mighty McFearless," Ahmed Zappa, Puffin; 2006; 215pp.

So you know something your parents don't -- that monsters exist. Of course they do, but you can breathe easy: The world is about to become a safer place with author Ahmet Zappa's "The Monstrous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless." This adventure tale of Minerva McFearless and her brother, Maxwell (of the famous monster-fighting McFearless clan) doubles up as an encyclopedia identifying all the different monsters in the universe, and better still, recipes to combat them.

Eleven-year-old "monsterminator" Minerva and her 9-year-old brother Maxwell find trouble when they stumble upon the "Monstranomicon," a book with poisonous paper teeth and a penchant for biting down hard on unwelcome readers. Now, what's their father doing with a catalog of every monster on Earth? He's referring to it as he "monsterminates" them, like his forefathers before him, that's what. Family secret revealed, Minerva takes it upon herself to read and write in Monstrosity (a language that all monsters use to communicate), to befriend Monstranomicon and to become an expert on every feathered, furry or scaly fiend that ever terrorized humans.