P. W. Catanese at SimonSays, official publisher's site

About the
books:

The Thief and
the Beanstalk

The Brave
Apprentice

The Eye of 
the Warlock

The Mirror's Tale

The Riddle
of the Gnome

This and
that:

P.W. Catanese 
Amazon Blog

Author's sketchpad

Author 
appearances

About the
author

Questions
and answers

Just for teachers

Media resources

Recommended
links

Contact the author at pwcatanese@aol.com

The reviews say:
"ACTION-PACKED... ROLLICKING ADVENTURE... COMPLEX CHARACTERS... FAST-PACED...VIVID DESCRIPTIONS...IMPORTANT THEMES... PERILOUS BATTLES... NARROW ESCAPES... GREAT HEART... EXCITING... CHARMING... CREEPY... SENSITIVE...THRILLING!"
(Click on the book titles for more.)

An award nomination for The Mirror's Tale.
The Mirror's Tale has been nominated for the Maud Hart Lovelace Award,  sponsored by the Minnesota Youth Book Award organization. Winners will be announced in April 2009. This happily follows on the heels of the Boston Author's Club honor for the same title.

Coming January 6, 2009:
Happenstance Found (The Books of Umber)
As it turns out, my new book is going to be in hardcover. As a result, it's being pushed back a few months. Instead of September 2008, it will come out in January 2009.

Happenstance Found is the first installment in a fantasy-adventure trilogy called The Books of Umber.  (Don't worry - the first book does not end on a cliffhanger - it's a satisfying read all by itself. )

If you enjoy the books I've already written, I can promise that you'll like The Books of Umber too. I've seen some rough drafts of the cover art, and it will be fantastic. My publisher is working with an artist named David Ho who is doing an amazing job.

Here's what I can say so far about the story: It's an exciting adventure with a fascinating pair of heroes. Umber is a historian, explorer and inventor (and a bit of a maniac) who dropped into the kingdom out of nowhere ten years before. And Happenstance is a boy with some highly unusual abilities -- but no memory of who he is or where he came from. Each has a surprising origin and a strange destiny. And Happenstance is being pursued by a dreadful stalker who will stop at nothing. 

"Further Tales": Over 400,000 books in print.
My first five books are known collectively as Further Tales. These action-packed novels from Simon & Schuster/Aladdin Paperbacks pick up the loose threads of famous fairy tales and use them to weave exciting new adventures. Each book has its own story and characters; it doesn't matter which you read first. Young readers like them -- even reluctant readers. Adult readers like them. And teachers have discovered that they make a sensational read-aloud in the classroom.  Dive in! 

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Also of interest: 

I'm happy to report that The Thief and the Beanstalk is becoming an audiobook as part of the Library of Congress' Talking Books for the Blind Program. Production is beginning now at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. featuring the voice talent of actor/narrator Erik Synnestvedt. This is part of a free program of braille and audio materials circulated to eligible borrowers in the United States by postage-free mail, using a national network of cooperating libraries. You can learn more here. 

The back story: 

These fantasy adventure novels are published by Simon and Schuster/Aladdin Paperbacks. To find out how you can buy a copy online, click on the book covers above.  

These are novels, not picture books, between 240 and 280 pages long. Each is a sequel (of sorts) to a famous fairy tale.  These are separate stories with different characters, so it doesn't matter what order you read them in. They fall into the category of books for middle-school readers, but I wrote them for anyone who likes a story with lots of adventure, action and thrills. I seem to be picking up more and more grown-up fans.