With nods to The Phantom Tollbooth and Coraline, this darkly funny fantasy is a classic-in-the-making-the story of a boy who wants the world to disappear . . . and what happens when it does.

Mickey is angry all the time: at his divorced parents, at his sister, and at his two new stepmoms, both named Charlie. And so he can't resist the ad inside his pack of gum: "Do you ever wish everyone would go away? Buy The Anti-Book!" He orders the book, but when it arrives, it's blank-except for one line of instruction: To erase it, write it. He fills the pages with all the things and people he dislikes . . . and the next thing he knows, he's wandering an anti-world, one in which everything and everyone familiar is gone. Or are they?

Full of humor and surprise, and slyly meaningful, this is a Wizard of Oz for today's generation-a fantastical quest for comfort and belonging that will resonate with many, many readers.