When life is funny, make some jokes about it. Billy Plimpton has a big dream: to become a famous comedian when he grows up. He already knows a lot of jokes, but thinks he has one big problem standing in his way: his stutter. At first, Billy thinks the best way to deal with this is to . . . never say a word. That way, the kids in his new school won’t hear him stammer. But soon he finds out this is NOT the best way to deal with things. (For one thing, it’s very hard to tell a joke without getting a word out.) As Billy makes his way toward the spotlight, a lot of funny things (and some less funny things) happen to him. In the end, the whole school will know -- If you think you can hold Billy Plimpton back, be warned: The joke will soon be on you!

"By the law of averages, I should not be around for the writing of this book, nor the subsequent ones, but it has to be said that in this life, against all the odds, there are the survivors, which is obviously the category into which I fall." On Looking Back is the first in a series of books that reveal the compelling life story of Elizabeth Dumpleton. Each chapter takes the reader on a journey, beginning with Elizabeth’s younger years, where she fondly recounts her friendships and adventures, living with her five older brothers and their single mother in the East-End. She then experiences the early death of her mother and is forced to endure a life fraught with unhappiness and danger, as she is ripped from her brothers with a sudden evacuation to the country during the war. Elizabeth lays bare her emotions, recalling each memory honestly and unashamedly. One moment the reader could be chuckling along with an amusing anecdote, before sinking into sadness as she battles the twists and turns of a war-torn life. Full of compassion, On Looking Back is an emotional read from start to finish. Fans of biographies and memoirs will find this book difficult to put down once they pick it up.

A tragicomic story of bad dates, bad news, bad performances, and one girl's determination to find the funny in high school from the author of Denton Little's Deathdate. Winnie Friedman has been waiting for the world to catch on to what she already knows: she's hilarious. It might be a long wait, though. After bombing a stand-up set at her own bat mitzvah, Winnie has kept her jokes to herself. Well, to herself and her dad, a former comedian and her inspiration. Then, on the second day of tenth grade, the funniest guy in school actually laughs at a comment she makes in the lunch line and asks her to join the improv troupe. Maybe he's even . . . flirting? Just when Winnie's ready to say yes to comedy again, her father reveals that he's been diagnosed with ALS. That is . . . not funny. Her dad's still making jokes, though, which feels like a good thing. And Winnie's prepared to be his straight man if that's what he wants. But is it what he needs? Caught up in a spiral of epically bad dates, bad news, and bad performances, Winnie's struggling to see the humor in it all. But finding a way to laugh is exactly what will see her through. **A Junior Library Guild Selection**

In Look Back and Laugh, John Schmidtke laughs about the crazy things that happened in his family. The wonderful thing is that the longer ago it was and the worse it got, the funnier it gets. Is your life like that? We're talking about the silly stuff that usually ruins your day. The mistakes, misstatements, accidents, misfortunes, problems. Don't let them ruin your life! If bad things happened, it isn't because you're unlucky. It's because you're normal! Your past, the downs as well as the ups, can be a real blessing. It all depends on how you look at them. Laughter is the key. Whatever happened (ridiculous, riotous or ruinous) happened. If you can laugh at it, you can live with it. There is humor in everything. All you have to do is find it. Laughter is good medicine too. When you think back on even a bad event with laughter, it will bring a smile instead of tears or anger. It'll help you-and everyone around you-because happiness is catchy. Go ahead, friend. Buy this read! Find out why John says, "If life is taking you to the Funny Farm, you might as well laugh along the way!"

Short Stories of Our Time Tantra Bensko - california, usa White Arms Papa's Song Mama Carly Berg - texas, usa Bringing Back Beulah Fat Pat The Last Supper Shattered Risen The Horse Head Earrings Turquoise Dreams Ute Carson - texas, usa The Old Should Be Explorers Tony Concannon - massachusetts, usa The Book Rudy Ch. Garcia - colorado, usa Class Epiphany Margaret Karmazin - pennsylvania, usa He'll Do James D. Reed - ohio, usa Just One More Thing (To Go Wrong) W. Jack Savage - california, usa Veterans at the Post Office Tom Sheehan - massachusetts, usa Lover, not Yet Lover The Storekeeper The Rig Runner Bhadauria Manish Singh - gujarat, india The Lunatic Hollis Whitlock - british columbia, canada The Search for Eternal Life Samuel K. Wilkes - alabama, usa Leaving the Nest Abigail Wyatt - england, uk The Long March Home Al Claro de Luna

Few things in life are more delightful than sharing in the laughter of a baby. Until now, however, psychologists and parenting experts have largely focused on moments of stress and confusion. Developmental psychologist Caspar Addyman decided to change that. Since 2012 Caspar has run the Baby Laughter project, collecting data, videos and stories from parents all over the world. This has provided a fascinating window into what babies are learning and how they develop cognitively and emotionally. Deeper than that, he has observed laughter as the purest form of human connection. It creates a bond that parents and infants share as they navigate the challenges of childhood. Moving chronologically through the first two years of life, The Laughing Baby explores the origin story for our incredible abilities. In the playful daily lives of babies, we find the beginnings of art, science, music and happiness. Our infancy is central to what makes us human, and understanding why babies laugh is key to understanding ourselves.

Denis Johnson's New York Times bestseller, The Laughing Monsters, is a high-suspense tale of kaleidoscoping loyalties in the post-9/11 world that shows one of our great novelists at the top of his game. Roland Nair calls himself Scandinavian but travels on a U.S. passport. After ten years' absence, he returns to Freetown, Sierra Leone, to reunite with his friend Michael Adriko. They once made a lot of money here during the country's civil war, and, curious to see whether good luck will strike twice in the same place, Nair has allowed himself to be drawn back to a region he considers hopeless. Adriko is an African who styles himself a soldier of fortune and who claims to have served, at various times, the Ghanaian army, the Kuwaiti Emiri Guard, and the American Green Berets. He's probably broke now, but he remains, at thirty-six, as stirred by his own doubtful schemes as he was a decade ago. Although Nair believes some kind of money-making plan lies at the back of it all, Adriko's stated reason for inviting his friend to Freetown is for Nair to meet Adriko's fiancée, a grad student from Colorado named Davidia. Together the three set out to visit Adriko's clan in the Uganda-Congo borderland—but each of these travelers is keeping secrets from the others. Their journey through a land abandoned by the future leads Nair, Adriko, and Davidia to meet themselves not in a new light, but rather in a new darkness.