Little People

Orbit Book Co, 2003. Near Fine. When a lad of eight or so, Michael saw an elf in the garden. This made an i mmense impact on his life. He became a boy with Something to Hide, and it s howed. Unfortunately, the first wasn't the last elf he saw. After confessin g to his girlfriend Cruella that he saw an elf--a revelation she isn't terr ibly enthusiastic about--he somehow ends up with an elfin attendant who, in the process of explaining what really goes on at his stepfather's shoe fac tory and why there was an elf in the garden, takes him to Elfland, as dange rous a place as fairy tales would have one believe. Although it involves lo sing whole years and getting arrested often, Michael determines to rescue t he elves from their shoe-factory servitude. Regrettably, he does almost eve rything without first thinking it through, so any success he enjoys tends t o be more accidental than intentional. Chattily entertaining, his story als o moves along at quite a clip, rather like Elfland, in which dull bits can be fast-forwarded.