The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde (2006, Hardcover)

I purchased this book on eBay after reading the summary on the back in a local bookstore. It took a little getting used to at first but once you get into the groove and start to understand what the writer is going for, it's quite fun! All in all the book was very good however, I found that when i read the entire summary on the back that it gave away too much information and the book would've been much better if I read it not knowing so much already. Since then I only read a sentence or two of the summary so I'm more "surprised" when reading the entire book. It's apparently part of a series of Jack Spratt mysteries but I've never read any others and this one stood well on it's own. There were no important references to previous books that would make you need to read the others before this one. I'd recommend purchasing this one on eBay at a low cost or renting from a library. Definitely a unique perspective of Nursery rhymes. =)