Delia Sherman is the author of the Andre Norton Award-winning The Freedom Maze,  Through a Brazen Mirror, The Porcelain Dove, and The Fall of the Kings (2002, with Ellen Kushner). Her latest novel is an ambitious (and very funny) tale of Nick, a lost boy who finds himself an unlikely apprentice to the ancient, sorta evil, but mostly just grumpy wizard Smallbone. It contains magic spells, enchanted animals, dueling wizards, biker werewolf minions, and much more.

When twelve-year-old Nick runs away from his uncle’s in the middle of a blizzard, he stumbles onto a very opinionated bookstore. He also meets its guardian, the self-proclaimed Evil Wizard Smallbone, who calls Nick his apprentice and won’t let him leave, but won’t teach him magic, either. It’s a good thing the bookstore takes Nick’s magical education in hand, because Smallbone’s nemesis — the Evil Wizard Fidelou — and his pack of shape-shifting bikers are howling at the borders. Smallbone might call himself evil, but compared to Fidelou, he’s practically a puppy. And he can’t handle Fidelou alone.

Wildly funny and cozily heartfelt, Delia Sherman’s latest is an eccentric fantasy adventure featuring dueling wizards, enchanted animals, and one stray boy.

Our previous coverage of Delia Sherman includes:

Read “The Great Detective” by Delia Sherman at Tor.com
Time Travel and YA Lit: A Talk with Delia Sherman, by Patty Templeton
Delia Sherman’s “The Wizard’s Apprentice” at Podcastle, by C.S.E. Cooney

The Evil Wizard Smallbone will be published by Candlewick on September 13, 2016. It is 416 pages, priced at $17.99 in hardcover, and $9.99 for the digital edition.