This year, at the Minnesota Book Awards, Curriculum and Instruction graduate Kurtis Scaletta was awarded the Readers' Choice Award for his new book, The Tanglewood Terror. Sponsored by the Pioneer Press and Twincities.com, the Readers' Choice Award winner was selected by more than 2,000 voters from across Minnesota.

The Tanglewood Terror tells the story of 13-year-old Eric Parrish, who comes across glowing mushrooms in the woods behind his house. He's sure there's a scientific explanation. But when the fungus begins to overrun the entire town of Tanglewood - in a repeat of a blight that, legend has it, reduced the town to rubble 200 years ago - it falls to Eric, his brother Brian, and a runaway girl named Mandy to get to the bottom of the mystery.

The author of two other books, Mudville and Mamba Point, Scaletta lives in Minneapolis, where he is currently working on his fourth book for middle school audiences.