Fun in the sun! For best pals Melonhead and Sam, it’s a winter break with grandparents, which is more fun than you’d think! A comical and heartwarming story about friendship, community, and the special connection between kids and those young at heart! My best pal Sam and I are in Paradise, the community in Florida where my grandparents Nana and Jeep live. We’re staying with them while my dad works and my mom is on a trip with her lady relatives. Everything in Paradise is swank and deluxe, and lots of stuff is “For the Convenience of Our Residents.” We’re sure that means free. We especially like the All-You-Can-Eat Buffet. Since Florida is loaded with animals, we’re going to capture a pet for Sam. We considered a wild piglet or a parrot or an armadillo or an iguana, but we’ve decided to find an alligator egg because it’s easy to carry on an airplane and it can hatch once we’re home. All we have to do is come up with a way to get that egg. Luckily, Sam and I are idea men! Praise for the Melonhead series Melonhead: “Laugh-out-loud funny, rivaling Stink and Fudge in its troublemaker quotient.” —School Library Journal Melonhead and the Big Stink: “The clever dialogue sparkles. A breezy and humorous middle-grade tale.” —Kirkus Reviews Melonhead and the Undercover Operation: “Melonhead’s pure, kid-centric, fun-loving perspective is hard to resist.” —Kirkus Reviews Melonhead and the Vegalicious Disaster: “Melonhead returns with rapid-fire narration and adventure.” —BooklistOnline.com Melonhead and the We-Fix-It Company: “Melonhead and his friends inhabit a world . . . where inventiveness and camaraderie reign supreme.” —Kirkus Reviews

Fun in the sun! For best pals Melonhead and Sam, it’s a winter break with grandparents, which is more fun than you’d think! A comical and heartwarming story about friendship, community, and the special connection between kids and those young at heart! My best pal Sam and I are in Paradise, the community in Florida where my grandparents Nana and Jeep live. We’re staying with them while my dad works and my mom is on a trip with her lady relatives. Everything in Paradise is swank and deluxe, and lots of stuff is “For the Convenience of Our Residents.” We’re sure that means free. We especially like the All-You-Can-Eat Buffet. Since Florida is loaded with animals, we’re going to capture a pet for Sam. We considered a wild piglet or a parrot or an armadillo or an iguana, but we’ve decided to find an alligator egg because it’s easy to carry on an airplane and it can hatch once we’re home. All we have to do is come up with a way to get that egg. Luckily, Sam and I are idea men! Praise for the Melonhead series Melonhead: “Laugh-out-loud funny, rivaling Stink and Fudge in its troublemaker quotient.” —School Library Journal Melonhead and the Big Stink: “The clever dialogue sparkles. A breezy and humorous middle-grade tale.” —Kirkus Reviews Melonhead and the Undercover Operation: “Melonhead’s pure, kid-centric, fun-loving perspective is hard to resist.” —Kirkus Reviews Melonhead and the Vegalicious Disaster: “Melonhead returns with rapid-fire narration and adventure.” —BooklistOnline.com Melonhead and the We-Fix-It Company: “Melonhead and his friends inhabit a world . . . where inventiveness and camaraderie reign supreme.” —Kirkus Reviews

Melonhead, the first book in author Katy Kelly's laugh-out-loud chapter book series, is now in paperback! Adam Melon's friend Lucy Rose gave him a nickname—Melonhead—and it caught on fast. Melonhead is a self-proclaimed inventor. All his life, which is ten years and counting, great ideas have been popping in and out of his melon head. And sometimes they work! This year Melonhead's class is entering an inventing fair, so he and his friend Sam are dreaming up plans. And Capitol Hill has a ton of places to find invention parts. But they have to be sure they find what they need and get home on time with no excuses. That might be hard, because Melonhead and Sam have a way of forgetting. But their work will all pay off if they win first place—they'll be headed to even bigger and better things!

“Melonhead and his friends inhabit a world . . . where inventiveness and camaraderie reign supreme.” —Kirkus Reviews For fans of Judy Blume's Fudge titles as well as Carl Hiaasen's Hoot. Money. That’s what Melonhead and his best friend, Sam, need. Due to a “situation,” the boys have to pay for something they accidentally ruined. Neither of them receives an allowance, so they create the We-Fix-It Company. When jobs start pouring in, the boys feel like they have all the answers. But they soon run into a problem too big for just the two of them to handle. Luckily, their friends offer to help. With teamwork and the courage to dream big, the kids surprise even themselves and deliver amazing results.

Lucy Rose records in her diary her special summer plans--to make a keychain for her mother, to help decorate the living room, to prevent her parents' divorce, to vanquish some squirrels, and to enjoy a ninth birthday adventure with her father.

Could Bert really be a zombie cat? Two friends put their brains together to find out in a wry new mystery series. While helping her best friend, Danny, film his latest horror flick, Mellie discovers a scraggly cat behind a dumpster outside the YummCo Foods factory. Mellie names the stray Bert and hides him in her room, knowing her parents won’t let her keep him. But soon Bert has decapitated all her stuffed animals, and before long he is leaving the headless corpses of birds and mice as gifts for her. Danny is convinced the cat is a zombie, living on the brains of his victims. But is that what is really going on? Award-winning author Kara LaReau lets loose a fresh and sharply funny new mystery series, with an irresistible touch of the macabre. Fans of creepy stories and animal lovers alike will devour this fast-moving first episode in one gulp.

Overweight thirteen-year-old Celeste begins a campaign to lose weight in order to make sure she does not win the Miss HuskeyPeach modeling challenge, in which her mother and aunt have entered her--against her wishes.

Aphrodite Wigglesmith is a thirteen-year-old prodigy. After a fast track through Harvard, she's back at her old middle school to teach remedial math and prove a bold theory: anyone can be a genius with the right instruction. Enter Mindy, a ditzy baton twirler who knows more about hair roots than square roots. What could she possibly learn from such a frumpy nerd, except maybe what not to wear? But somewhere between studying and shopping, the two girls start to become friends. They're an unlikely pair, but in this uproarious middle-grade comedy, wacky is the norm and anything is possible - just like middle school.

THE PAIN AND the Great One are going places! In these new stories the kids are on the go—the Pain needs a trip to the emergency room; the family goes to the mall and not everyone stays together; the kids visit a county fair and want to ride the Super Slide; and a beach outing includes a boogie board. Lots more action and adventure for the dynamic duo who never stay still.

THE PAIN AND the Great One hardly agree on anything. But deep down, they know they can count on each other, especially at school, where it often takes two to figure things out. Like when that first baby tooth falls out on the school bus. Or when an unwanted visitor on Bring Your Pet to School Day needs to be caught. Or worst of all, when a scary bully says you’re burnt toast. On days like these it can feel good not to go it alone. (And don’t forget Fluzzy the cat, who knows a thing or two himself.)