Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blogs, and Some Other Things That Aren't As Scary, Depending on How You Feel About Lost Lands, Stray Cellphones, Creatures from the Sky, Parents Who Disappear in Peru, a Man Named Lars Farf, and One Other Story We Couldn't Quite Finish So Maybe You Could Help Us Out

Editor:  Ted Thompson

Year:  2005

Publisher: McSweeney's Books

Pages: 202

Goodreads Summary:

Interspersed with charts, graphs, and various crossword puzzles, A Book of Noisy Outlaws, Evil Marauders, and Some Other Things . . . features some of today's best authors spinning new tales ranging from the spooky to the strange. George Saunders tells the story of a father who takes caution to dangerous extremes in "Lars Farf, Excessively Fearful Father and Husband." In "ACES by Phone," a small boy finds a cell phone that lets him listen in on the thoughts of dogs, and in "Small Country," Nick Hornby introduces a country too small for a postal system but, unfortunately for one bookish boy, just big enough for a football team. Each story features full-color illustrations by artists including Barry Blitt, Lane Smith, David Heatley, and Marcel Dzama.

The collection includes previously unpublished children's stories from Jonathan Safran Foer (Everything is Illuminated), Nick Hornby (High Fidelity), Neil Gaiman (Sandman), George Saunders (CivilWarLand in Bad Decline), Kelly Link (Stranger Than Fiction), and Jon Scieskza (Stinky Cheese Man). The dust jacket folds into a unique aerogram, which factors into a special contest involving a story written partly by Lemony Snicket, partly by thousands of children.

This is a fun little collection of stories. Some of them aren't that great but others are awesome. My favorites were the Neil Gaiman, George Saunders and the Jeanne DePrau story. I loved the creativity in the title and the dust jacket is awesome with it's half-finished story. Oh, and this book has a hilarious introduction by Lemony Snicket. I bought this book on impulse off eBay because it had a Neil Gaiman story and I'm glad I did. It was well worth what I paid for it.