2005 ALA Best Books for Young Adults Nominee
2006 Locus Award Winner
Calcephony "Callie" McCallan is a fourteen-year-old middle child. Her older brother, who she adores, is away at college while her younger brother, who she can sometimes stand, makes himself a nuisance at home. When the rock-n-reel band Brass Rat comes to town, she leaps at the chance to interview the band members for her school newspaper. Her parents agree on one condition, her younger brother Nick gets to come, too.There they meet the dark and mysterious lead singer and flute player Peter Gringras and his bandmates. During the interview, she senses that not all is what it seems. And when all the children in her town go missing on Halloween night, she knows exactly who is responsible. Only, no one believes her. So, she takes things into her own hands.
Pay the Piper is the first of the new "Rock 'n' Roll Fairy Tale" series written by the well known author Jane Yolen and her musician son, Adam Stemple. The series consists of "modern" retelling and reinterpretation of fairy tales (in this case, the Pied Piper of Hamelin), and while being aimed toward younger readers, make for quite a fun read regardless of age.
