Monster Problems — Victor Pineiro

"Magnificent." -- Kirkus Reviews, STARRED Review on Time Villains

Story Thieves meets Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library in the second book of this wacky, hilarious, and fast-paced middle-grade series. Can Javi and his friends stop Count Dracula from taking over the school?

With Blackbeard banished from their present time, life has gone somewhat back to normal for Javi, his sister Brady, and his best friend Wiki. And Javi can now focus on his favorite thing in the world: crafting extreme sandwiches. Except their beloved Principal Gale has to make an unexpected trip back to Oz, leaving the excessively strict and downright terrifying Ms. Vlad in charge.

With the school all kinds of doom and gloom the trio is desperate for some change. Luckily that arrives in the form of their new Vice Principal, Mr. Dragon. Mr. D is immediately adored by the students, especially Brady, and Javi's glad he wasn't forced to summon any historical or fictional folks from his magical table to get the school back on track.

Except something seems a little off about Mr. Dragon, and soon it's clear he isn't who he says he is. With Brady under his spell he's able to summon his monster crew to take over the town, and eventually the world. Javi's going to have to get his own team if he's going to stop their evil vice principal before it's too late.

Praise for Time Villains:

"Piñeiro scores with this tale of friendship, magic, and adventure... Magnificent." -- Kirkus Reviews, STARRED Review

"It's got heart, it's got thrills, it's got pirates! You won't be able to put down this action-packed, relentlessly funny adventure." -- Sarah Mlynowski, author of the New York Times bestselling Whatever After series

"A magical table that pulls in famous people from history and fiction? Is this the greatest idea for a book ever? Yes. Yes it is. Come join the best dinner party in history (and books), full of pirates, sandwiches and history's greatest figures!" -- James Riley, New York Times bestselling author of The Story Thieves series