"Tess Monaghan's favorite children's bookshop seems like an enchanted place out of a fairy tale where she hopes her daughter, Carla Scout, will one day escape into the world of C. S. Lewis and Dr. Seuss while curled up in a brightly painted rocker. Like every fable, however, beneath the magical whimsy of The Children's Bookstore lives an insidious villain: a thief whose sticky fingers threaten to bring the shop to ruin. Tess brings it upon herself to expose this shoplifter, rescue the shop, and in turn brighten the mood of the shop owner, Octavia, whose snappish demeanor worsens with each disappearing book ... "--Dust jacket front flap.