Striped Sock of Courage: Nurk

Having mostly enjoyed Ursula Vernon's Dragonbreath stories, I requested the other book by her that the library carried. Nurk: The Strange, Surprising Adventures of a (Somewhat) Brave Shrew is text based; a standard book with illustrations but with the same attention to character and respect for the story that Danny and his friends show.

Nurk is a shrew who lives alone, with only the journals of his adventurous grandmother for company. He decides to live up to his heritage and seek adventure, although he's careful to pack plenty of clean socks because no matter how thrilling your deeds are, cold feet are still demoralizing. Sometimes he needs help, and sometimes he gives it, and sometimes he speaks sternly to his faltering feet to get them to go in the right direction. My favorite line, when Nurk is faced with a particularly frightening task, is: "I know I have to. I just don't know if I can." A fun little book that I'll hand along to the boys.