Agreements. Specifically, a treaty ratified by all the orders of whimsical like forms who dwell here that affords a measure of security for mortal caretakers. In a world where mortal man has become the dominant force, most creatures of enchantment have fled to refuges like this one.

Being smart can make happiness elusive. Being REALLY smart can help you find it in more places than most.

An unread book does nobody any good. Stories happen in the mind of a reader, not among symbols printed on a page.

Try as we might to postpone them, days of reckoning inevitably arrive.

It was an emergency!" Seth blurted. "Read my lips - emergency reading - not some demented idea of fun. If I was starving, I would eat asparagus. If somebody held a gun to my head, I would watch a soap opera. And to save Fablehaven, I would read a book, okay, are you happy?" You had best be careful, Seth," Grandma warned. "The love of reading can be contagious." I just lost my appetite," he declared.

Was life like that? You could look ahead to the future or back to the past, but the present moved too quickly to absorb.

Excruciating agony makes me cranky.