3.75 Got this more or less by accident thinking it a YA Urban Fantasy that doesn't deal with angsty teenage love, but it's more like middle-school level. Still, I immensely enjoyed the imaginative setting contrast between rustic Catskill dwarves and modern life along with all the quirky characters. Unfortunately, the last quarter of the book seems a little rushed and agent-based. The main character merely seems to arrange things through others. While a nice change from children's books where everything hangs on an action scene by the underage heroes (rarely heroines) it's a bit of a let-down and takes the book down from what would otherwise be a solid 4.25. But then I'm not the target audience.

The book's cast is appropriately diverse and even cleans up some common misconceptions. The interior illustrations can't quite keep up with the cool cover, unfortunately, but they are still nice. Would certainly buy that for a middle-schooler, especially one who feels a little like an outsider.