Matthew Templeton and the Enchanted Journal

On his thirteenth birthday, Matthew Templeton receives a journal from an elderly librarian. To the birthday boy, it's as about as exciting a gift as a pair of socks. But this book is from Del, a magical world, and the librarian confides that it will grant any wish Matthew writes in it. Sort of. The journal has a sense of humor. The elderly librarian is not what she seems, either. When a gang of four-armed monsters called wergs, sent by an enchanter to retrieve the book, descend on Matthew's street, he and his friends must escape to the world of Del (if you can call their fire-to-frying-pan trip an escape). There, they embark on a riotous, never predictable quest filled with wacky magical creatures, woods that wander, a princess who might be a chihuahua (or vice-versa), sorcerers and, of course, much more.