Morzant is taking me on a walking tour of his home planet. I’m panting, hot from the thousands of little suns burning in the pink sky. Wind blows sand in my eyes and up my nose and uncovers the bones of strange creatures. Leafless silver trees grow here and there.
“Is all of Zeenton desert?” I ask.
“None of Zeenton is desert,” he says. “It’s all dessert.”
My blistering feet suddenly feel chilled. I look down. The ground is butter pecan ice cream. The suns fall from the sky. They land as candy sprinkles. A dark river appears on the horizon and begins to flow toward us.
“That’s unusual for this vicinity,” Morzant says. “Spontaneous hot fudge rivers are more common in the southern hemisphere.”
He pulls up a leafless silver tree. It’s a big spoon. He quickly scoops ice cream and piles it into a heaping mound. Morzant and I climb to the top of the mound just as the hot fudge river reaches us. The river splits as it flows around the mound and then comes together again on the other side. The mound begins to melt.
“I’m sorry your visit to my planet has proven so perilous,” Morzant says. “How disappointing that we won’t be able to visit the Hall of Math.”
Just as we’re about to sink into the hot fudge, a canoe carved out of a giant banana drifts by. Bigfoot is in the canoe paddling through the hot fudge with one of the leafless silver tree spoons.
“Jump in!” he yells to us.
We do. Bigfoot paddles the banana canoe to shore where all my friends and three puppies greet us.
“Dessert time!” Bigfoot says.
Morzant and I follow the group to a little shop called “Not a Mirage.” There’s a sign in front promising every flavor imaginable. A foghorn sounds when Bigfoot pushes open the door.
Penny gets in line first and the duck behind the counter takes her order.
“I’ll have two scoops of mystery,” she says.
Beverly’s turn is next.
“A small dish of sad, please,” she says.
After Bigfoot, Norman, Morzant, and the puppies order their dessert, the duck whips up a little dessert for himself.
BIGFOOT’s dessert:
ADDIE ON THE INSIDE by James Howe
[YOUNG ADULT]
Atheneum-Simon & Schuster
July 26, 2011
PUTTING MAKEUP ON THE FAT BOY by Bil Wright
[YOUNG ADULT]
Simon & Schuster
July 26, 2011
MORZANT’s dessert:
AMERICAPEDIA: TAKING THE DUMB OUT OF FREEDOM
by Andisheh Nouraee, Daniel Ehrenhaft, and
Jodi Lynn Anderson
[YOUNG ADULT—NON-FICTION]
Walker
July 19, 2011
SCARY SCIENCE: 24 CREEPY EXPERIMENTS
by Shar Levine and Leslie Johnstone,
illustrated by Ashley Spires
[MIDDLE GRADE—NON-FICTION]
Scholastic
August 1, 2011
WAGONS HO! by George Hallowell and Joan Holub,
illustrated by Lynne Avril
[PICTURE BOOK]
Albert Whitman
August 1, 2011
PENNY’s dessert:
THE GIRL IS MURDER by Kathryn Miller Haines
[YOUNG ADULT]
Roaring Brook
July 19, 2011
RETURN TO DAEMON HALL: EVIL ROOTS
by Andrew Nance,
with illustrations by Coleman Polhemus
[YOUNG ADULT—SEQUEL TO DAEMON HALL]
Henry Holt
July 19, 2011
VANISHED by Sheela Chari
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Hyperion-Disney
July 26, 2011
DARK SOULS: A NOVEL by Paula Morris
[YOUNG ADULT]
Point-Scholastic
August 1, 2011
MISFIT by Jon Skovron
[YOUNG ADULT]
Amulet-Abrams
August 1, 2011
THE POISONED HOUSE by Michael Ford
[YOUNG ADULT]
Albert Whitman
August 1, 2011
The DUCK’s dessert:
MAGICAL MISCHIEF by Anna Dale
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Bloomsbury USA
July 19, 2011
THE SECRET SPIRAL by Gillian Neimark
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Egmont USA
July 26, 2011
THE WIZARD OF DARK STREET
by Shawn Thomas Odyssey
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Egmont USA
July 26, 2011
BAD ISLAND by Doug Tennapel
[YOUNG ADULT—GRAPHIC NOVEL]
Graphix-Scholastic
August 1, 2011
PETER NIMBLE AND HIS FANTASTIC EYES
by Jonathan Auxier
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Amulet-Abrams
August 1, 2011
NORMAN’s dessert:
INTO THE TRAP by Craig Moodie
[YOUNG ADULT]
Roaring Brook
July 19, 2011
JANITORS by Tyler Whitesides,
with illustrations by Brandon Dorman
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Shadow Mountain
July 20, 2011
THE TROUBLE WITH SQUIDS by Julie Gardner Berry,
with illustrations by Sally Faye Gardner
[MIDDLE GRADE—FOURTH IN THE SPLURCH
ACADEMY SERIES]
Grosset & Dunlap-Penguin
July 21, 2011
TROUBLEMAKER by Andrew Clements,
with illustrations by Mark Elliott
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Atheneum-Simon & Schuster
July 26, 2011
COLLISION COURSE by GORDON KORMAN
[MIDDLE GRADE—SECOND IN THE TITANIC TRILOGY]
Scholastic
August 1, 2011
BEVERLY’s dessert:
LUNCH-BOX DREAM by Tony Abbott
[YOUNG ADULT]
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
July 19, 2011
PEARL by Jo Knowles
[YOUNG ADULT]
Henry Holt
July 19, 2011
SILHOUETTED BY THE BLUE by Traci L. Jones
[YOUNG ADULT]
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
July 19, 2011
THE BABYSITTER MURDERS by Janet Ruth Young
[YOUNG ADULT]
Atheneum-Simon & Schuster
July 26, 2011
AND THEN THINGS FALL APART by Arlaina Tibensky
[YOUNG ADULT]
Simon Pulse-Simon & Schuster
July 26, 2011
OLIVER’s dessert:
BONE DOG by Eric Rohmann
[PICTURE BOOK]
Roaring Brook
July 19, 2011
CROCODILE’S TEARS by Alex Beard
[PICTURE BOOK]
Abrams
August 1, 2011
PERFECT SNOW by Barbara Reid
[PICTURE BOOK]
Albert Whitman
August 1, 2011
LENNY’s dessert:
KING HUGO’S HUGE EGO by Chris Van Dusen
[PICTURE BOOK]
Candlewick
July 26, 2011
DEAR HOT DOG by Mordicai Gerstein
[PICTURE BOOK]
Abrams
August 1, 2011
VIOLET’s dessert:
FROG AND FRIENDS by Eve Bunting,
illustrated by Josée Masse
[EARLY READER]
Sleeping Bear Press-Gale
July 22, 2011
BAILEY by Harry Bliss
[PICTURE BOOK]
Scholastic
August 1, 2011
* The dream entries from Briar’s journal contain premonitions of books that will be published in the future. Briar’s dream self foresees the books’ summaries and knows which will likely appeal to each of her friends. Briar always wakes up before she can see whether her friends will enjoy the books.
