Odds Are Good

Beloved for his hilarious and unexpectedly moving novels, Bruce Coville is also a master of the short story.

These two collections, in one volume for the first time, feature eighteen tales of unusual breadth and emotional depth. Here Coville pairs folklore and inventive contemporary fantasy, sending an untidy girl into battle against a nagging household brownie and stranding three cousins in an old hunting lodge stalked by a forest sentinel.

Other tales explore quieter corners of the supernatural, following a boy who guards an angel’s carved wooden box across a lifetime and a twelve-year-old boy who discovers his true form through a unicorn’s horn.

The volume moves from broad humor to chilling encounters, dropping an egg farmer into a bustling township inside a giant’s molar and trapping a young boy in an underground realm where nightmares are harvested.

This omnibus is a perfect introduction to Bruce Coville’s magic for the uninitiated.

Includes an introduction by Jane Yolen.

• Ghost Stories: A midnight clatter in an unfamiliar kitchen introduces ten-year-old Benjie to the ghost of Elvira Thistledown, whose heavenly biscuits float straight toward the ceiling.


• Fairy Tales: Princess Violet flees her suffocating royal court in the saddlebag of a goblin ambassador named Bindlepod, choosing subterranean adventure over fragrant palace boredom.


• Coming of Age: After being targeted by school bullies, sixteen-year-old Vince receives unexpected guidance from a flamboyant fairy godfather who grants a wish that turns people blue across the nation.


• Scary Stories: A lacquer-framed antique mirror in a dusty curio shop absorbs a teenage clerk’s buried rage, feeding a malevolent double that grows desperate to break through the glass.


• Also by This Author: The Monster’s Ring and The Skull of Truth.