While driving his granddaughter home from day care, John -- the very author of this book! -- suddenly finds himself without warning standing in the midway of a carnival of Mother Goose fairy tales! He is greeted by Jack -- of Jack and Jill fame, of course -- who tells John that Mother Goose is expecting him, as she has a role for him to play. But what does Mother Goose really want? And why does she think John is a writer of detective stories? And why when she meets John does she greet him as almost a long-lost son? And for that matter, why do so many of the fairy-tale characters have a different story they want John to write for them, instead of the ones in which they have lived for hundreds of years? John is not a mythical creature -- he's only a human, after all -- but can he save the Mother Goose Carnival? Can he solve the mystery of the vanishing fairy-tales?

John and Mother Goose: The Carnival of Tales is complemented by a selection of Mother Goose rhymes, chosen by John himself. Together, this charming novella and the fairy tales make ideal reading for young and old.