Right away, the reader is drawn into this book by the wonderful cover illustration which is dramatic and amazingly detailed.  Quickly paging through, we find beautiful and expressive black and white sketches to enhance the text on almost every page.  This fictional story is framed in the factual setting of Edgar Allan Poe’s childhood.  Orphaned at age 3, Poe went to live with Frances and John Allan who raised him as their foster son.  As Eddie grew, he discovered his talent for imaginative writing, particularly poetry focused on the macabre.  With a rich fantasy life, his constant companion is a little imp who whispers fearful imaginings into her ear constantly through day and night and a trustworthy raven who provides sensible balance to the imp’s constant rants.  One night during an especially alarming nightmare, Eddie wakes to finds he has sleepwalked outside to the neighbor’s chicken yard and is suddenly accused of bagging and hanging up his cat and the neighbor’s prize rooster.  Faced with a whipping by his foster father the following day, he must prove himself innocent.  His detective adventures take him to the local theater where he eventually solves the mystery and makes a very special friend.  The writing of this book is rich with descriptive language and pulls the reader in to turn page after page.  I really enjoyed this book and will highly recommend it to my 4-8th grade readers.