"Rotten Ralph is one cat who can make reading fun for kids. And he does!" --Marc Brown Sarah needs a topic for her school project on ancient Egypt. Her rotten red cat, Ralph, thinks history is a bore. Only after he spoils a research trip to the library does Ralph decide to help. According to Sarah, the ancient Egyptians believed cats were wise and had special powers. And Rotten Ralph knows he can prove them right! This antic adventure is the first Rotten Ralph Rotten Reader, a rambunctious new series for beginning readers.

Ralph, a very, very, nasty cat, finally sees the error of his ways--or does he?

Have you ever been REALLY mad at your best friend? * "This well-crafted story is an excellent choice for those seeking books featuring conflict-resolution." -- Booklist, starred reviewIn two little houses,on two little hills,lived two best friends...So begins the story of Rita and Ralph. Every day they meet to play beneath the apple tree. It's always fun and games -- until one roundly rotten day when a new game means someone ends up crying. Who knew it could be so hard to say "I'm sorry?"Just when it seems nothing will ever be right again, a surprising thing happens. The old friends try something new, that isn't new at all. Something they've done a hundred times...Carmen Agra Deedy's brilliant storytelling combined with Pete Oswald's spirited illustrations make for a comforting tale of healing and true friendship.

Sarah takes Ralph to school so he can do his ABC's for show and tell, but as usual, the rotten cat refuses to cooperate.

Rotten Ralph's owner, Sarah, is fed up with her red rascal's behavior. Ralph is tired of Sarah trying to change him. He misses his cat family, which never made him alter a thing about himself. But in this gag- and guffaw-filled adventure for newly independent readers, the world's favorite rotten red cat gets tripped up when he runs away for a journey down memory lane.

When the carnival comes to town, the world's favorite fractious feline discovers the hilariously wrong way to victory before he gets it right. "Illustrated with Rubel's deadpan pictures, this is a prize for newly independent readers, for whom ‘practice makes perfect' indeed." —The Horn Book Guide "Ralph has his own special niche in the world of children's literature, and now on the easy-reader shelves, too." —Kirkus Reviews*

Rotten Ralph is even rotten on his birthday, finally forcing poor Sarah to take drastic measures.

Sarah's rotten cat Ralph goes to a Halloween costume party dressed as her and creates horrible mischief under the protection of his disguise.

Rotten Ralph makes an earnest attempt at good behavior but is enticed, not too reluctantly, into a series of misadventures by some ruffian alley cats. "The gleefully naughty story is matched by antic pictures, so brashly colored that they glow in the dark." -- Publishers Weekly

Dead End in Norvelt is the winner of the 2012 Newbery Medal for the year's best contribution to children's literature and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction! Melding the entirely true and the wildly fictional, Dead End in Norvelt is a novel about an incredible two months for a kid named Jack Gantos, whose plans for vacation excitement are shot down when he is "grounded for life" by his feuding parents, and whose nose spews bad blood at every little shock he gets. But plenty of excitement (and shocks) are coming Jack's way once his mom loans him out to help a fiesty old neighbor with a most unusual chore—typewriting obituaries filled with stories about the people who founded his utopian town. As one obituary leads to another, Jack is launced on a strange adventure involving molten wax, Eleanor Roosevelt, twisted promises, a homemade airplane, Girl Scout cookies, a man on a trike, a dancing plague, voices from the past, Hells Angels . . . and possibly murder. Endlessly surprising, this sly, sharp-edged narrative is the author at his very best, making readers laugh out loud at the most unexpected things in a dead-funny depiction of growing up in a slightly off-kilter place where the past is present, the present is confusing, and the future is completely up in the air.