Megan McDonald

Every morning, Judy Moody measures Stink and it's always the same: three feet, eight inches tall. Stink feels like even the class newt is growing faster than he is. Then, one day, the ruler reads -- can it be? -- three feet, seven and three quarters inches Is Stink shrinking? He tries everything to look like he's growing, but wearing up-and-down stripes and spiking his hair aren't fooling anyone into thinking he's taller. If only he could ask James Madison -- Stink's hero, and the shortest person ever to serve as President of the United States. Spotlight editions are printed on high-quality paper and with reinforced library bindings specifically printed for the library market. Grades K-4.

Judy Moody is making a list and checking it twice, but all her brother, Stink, wants this year is snow. It hasn't snowed on Christmas in Virginia in more than a hundred years, so what are the chances that that will change? Enter the new mailman, Mr. Jack Frost, who not only looks like a jolly old elf but also seems to know a lot about weather patterns, has a fondness for the cold, and works looooooong hours during the holiday season. Plus it's the best time of the year, when strange packages and lots of surprises are swirling around, so isn't it possible that Stink might get his wish? Fans who curl up with this Moody comedy can be sure that their bellies will shake like a bowlful of jelly.

Some tall tales are actually true. This is a grand one, told with rightful pride by a boy who was there in the city of Philadelphia in 1777 and was lucky enough to play a role in the American Revolution. John Jacob Mickley, eleven years old, and his father were in the city when the Great Bell began ringing Brong Brong BRONG from atop the State House to warn the citizens: "Redcoats The Redcoats are coming " And come the British did -- with their muskets and their cannons and their will to keep the colonies for their king. Looting they came and stealing any metal they could get their hands on to melt down for the making of more weapons. And the prize above all? The Great Bell itself -- metal for many a cannon But the clever Pensylvanians (yes, the word was spelled like that then) had other plans for keeping the Bell safe from the British. Megan McDonald has aptly caught John Jacob's excited retelling of the story, and Marsha Gray Carrington has relished every wild and wooly moment of it in her pictures -- both funny and carefully researched.

BEETLE MCGRADY EATS BUGS Megan McDonald The debut of an exuberant new picture book character from the best-selling author of the Judy Moody series. Beetle McGrady dreams of being an explorer like Marco Polo or a pioneer like Amelia Earhart. She dreams of being brave and daring, and she will begin by ... eating an ant. It's dare double dare on the school playground, but will Beetle be able to live up to her dreams? Face to face -- or Beetle to ant -- will she be able to bite and chew and ... swallow? Gulp If she does, what will the ant taste like? If she does, will the ant be crunchy or squishy? And if she can't, does that mean she's a chicken?