Debi Gliori

Debi Gliori's Pure Dead... series is like an amalgamation of the Artemis Fowl stories, the Addams Family cartoons, and the Series of Unfortunate Events books. Nothing about these books is particularly original, but Ms. Gliori is an entertaining writer with an excellent eye for pilfering only the most amusing elements from other people's books.

Aftertaste:
I'd say this series deserves at least half of the enormous amount of hype that it's currently getting from certain English booksellers... which seems like I'm damning them with faint praise, but if you've been to a bookstore in England recently you'll realize it's actually nothing to sneeze at.

Availability:
Everywhere.

Other Recommendations:
Anything by Eoin Colfer

The Chrestomanci books, Howl's Moving Castle, and Castle in the Air, by Diana Wynne Jones

The Harry Potter books, by J.K. Rowling