To Be Rescued: Nicholas E. Quick Eleven-year-old boy with dark hair and dark eyes. Right-handed. Can't whistle. Has a birthmark in the shape of Argentina behind his left knee.

When eleven-year-old Nicholas Quick and his parents try to escape from a mob of gangsters, Nicholas is shocked to discover four things: his family possesses secret magic, some dogs can talk, books make delicious sandwiches . . . and he has been left behind. Teaming up with magical private investigator Maxwell Powers, Nicholas sets off on a quest to rescue his parents and stop the evil Blackwell. There's just one problem: Max has inconveniently lost his appendix, and with it all, of his magic. What ensues is a cheeky, nonstop comedic adventure full of laughs, peril, scenic prisons, false mustaches, and suspect tea parties.