Whippersnapper Wednesday

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Loose Leashes

by: Amy Schmidt & Ron Schmidt

Reading level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover: 40 pages
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers (January 13, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0375856412
ISBN-13: 978-0375856419
Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.3 x 0.4 inches

Product Description:

Sixteen kid-friendly rhymes accompany funny photographic portraits of dogs in this delightful picture book. A salty dog’s lament of traveling the world is perfectly captured in ballad form; a finicky Yorkie expresses her bathing preferences in common meter; while a Paul Bunyan-esque golden lab celebrates the outdoors in haiku form. This collection of canine poems and photos will enchant dog lovers of all ages.

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The True Meaning of Smekday

by: Adam Rex

Reading level: Ages 9-12
Hardcover: 432 pages
Publisher: Hyperion Book CH (October 2, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0786849002
ISBN-13: 978-0786849000
Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.6 inches

Product Description:

It all starts with a school essay. When twelve-year-old Gratuity ("Tip") Tucci is assigned to write five pages on "The True Meaning of Smekday" for the National Time Capsule contest, she's not sure where to begin. When her mom started telling everyone about the messages aliens were sending through a mole on the back of her neck? Maybe on Christmas Eve, when huge, bizarre spaceships descended on the Earth and the aliens - called Boov - abducted her mother? Or when the Boov declared Earth a colony, renamed it "Smekland" (in honor of glorious Captain Smek), and forced all Americans to relocate to Florida via rocketpod? In any case, Gratuity's story is much, much bigger than the assignment. It involves her unlikely friendship with a renegade Boov mechanic named J.Lo.; a futile journey south to find Gratuity's mother at the Happy Mouse Kingdom; a cross-country road trip in a hovercar called Slushious; and an outrageous plan to save the Earth from yet another alien invasion. Fully illustrated with "photos," drawings, newspaper clippings, and comics sequences, this is a hilarious, perceptive, genre-bending novel by a remarkable new talent.