New Releases by Richard Scrimger

A smartly funny and sympathetic story about being different and understanding that there is more than one way to see the world. This new novel from middle grade master Richard Scrimger will reach so many kids who need to see that their brains are a gift. When in doubt, go your own way. Augustus Constantine’s brain moves fast, and not necessarily on a straight track. Gus has ADHD, and he’s on medication to help him focus. Sometimes it feels like the best thing about him, and sometimes it lands him in a load of trouble. When Gus takes morning announcements wildly off script, he hears nothing but laughter from fellow students at Pendrell Elementary. But he has finally pushed Miss Funn (who’s anything but) and Principal Gorby (who’s getting tired of Gus’s endless jokes and unfiltered stream of consciousness) and now he’s going to be suspended for three whole days. With nothing else to do, Gus takes up his sister’s invitation to take the ferry to meet her at her college. But on the ferry, Gus’s thoughts begin to race. He’s having trouble concentrating and can’t calm down. The ride gets wilder and wilder, and the reader follows along at the speed of Gus’s brain, until it’s hard to tell what’s real from what’s imagined. Can the people who love and know him best show him the way back home? Fast-paced, funny and deeply sympathetic, At the Speed of Gus is about not always fitting, but figuring out how to find your own way.

A hilarious how-to on creative writing that makes the writing process fun for aspiring middle-school authors. For fans of Writing Radar by Jack Gantos. Interested in writing but don''t know how to get started? Love reading and want to know more about how stories are created? Like ridiculous tales about troublesome sisters, peanut butter and steamrollers? Look no further! Esteemed writer Richard Scrimger is here to answer all your burning questions about writing: whether about plot, character, structure, story hooks or commas. (Actually, don''t ask him about commas, it''s not that kind of book.) Using clever (so he thinks) analogies, (sort of) brilliant examples and funny (well . . .) anecdotes, he will give you (truly) useful tools to start you on your way as a writer. And if that''s not enough, comic illustrations by D. McFadzean are the pepperoni on the writing pizza! (That will make sense once you read the book.) So come, read this book and start your writing journey!

Now in paperback. From two of Canada''s most renowned children''s authors comes a hilarious, action-packed comic adventure novel! When chubby, geeky Wylder Wallace spills lunch on cool and aloof Addy Crowe at Toronto''s Comicon, she dashes to the bathroom, leaving behind the latest issue of her uncle''s steampunk comic hit: FLYNN GOSTER in GOLD RUSH TRAIN. Wylder, a fan of the Flynn comics, opens this new one eagerly, astounded to see the girl who was just yelling at him inside the comic. Fascinated, he follows Addy into the bathroom, and the adventure begins ... Is there a personality conflict? Oh, yes. Addy wants to go home; Wylder wants to stay and explore the world of Viminy Crowe''s comic book. Do things go wrong? You bet they do, from the very start, when Addy loses her pet rat, Catnip, and almost gets shot by a Red Rider. All the while the actual comic book story is going on around them. The train carries a fortune from the Yukon goldfields, and both dashing Flynn Goster (hero of a thousand disguises and thief extraordinaire) and villainous Professor Aldous Lickpenny (criminal genius, aided by malevolent robots but somewhat hampered by doltish nephew Nevins) have plans to steal the gold. There''s romance too -- Flynn''s old flame, the brilliant aviatrix, Isadora Fortuna, is traveling across Canada with her balloon, and her strangely familiar protégée Nelly Day. Addy and Wylder navigate the story with the aid of the comic book itself. Every page turn sends them to a different setting, from the Banff Springs Hotel to an alligator-wrestling arena in Florida. But when they finally find a portal back to the real world, catastrophe follows ... A hilarious thrill-ride of a story that will have kids laughing and on the edge of their seats with every turn of the page.

In this middle-grade novel, Bunny ends up caught in a reenactment of the War of 1812 while searching for a stolen cell phone.

Fred is a sixth-grader reeling from the loss of his beloved dog, Casey. Every day he walks home from school bouncing Casey''s old worn-out tennis ball. One day, the ball falls down a sewer grate, and Fred can''t bear to leave it down there. He pries open the grate and stumbles down. Through the sewer, Fred enters a parallel universe: Casey is alive, his mom and sister are happier, and there''s a version of Fred who''s happier too. Spending time with Casey, Fred feels joy for the first time since his dog''s death, but he slowly realizes that the loss of Casey is masking an even greater loss: the death of Fred''s father. Fred brings his sister, Izzy, to this upside-down world of lost things in the hope of finding their father and bringing him back. Can everything that is lost be found again?

Bunny is kidnapped and held for ransom, and when he escapes, he is farther away from home than he thinks, he’s on skates, and the only guidance he gets is from a wolf.

The bestselling Seven (the Series) continues with The Seven Sequels! All seven authors from the original series have returned with a second set of seven novels that can be read in any order. Eric Walters, John Wilson, Ted Staunton, Richard Scrimger, Norah McClintock, Sigmund Brouwer and Shane Peacock bring their signature writing styles to a series of adventures that take readers from the cobblestones of Cambridge to the beaches of Uruguay. This ebook bundle contains: Sleeper Broken Arrow Coda The Wolf and Me From the Dead Tin Soldier Double You "This unusual series features seven books that are connected but can stand alone as individual adventures. Building upon a plot line first laid out in the “Seven” series, each entry follows one of David McLean’s seven grandsons as he embarks on a dangerous mission in a far flung locale, as per instructions in Grandpa McLean’s oddball will...This thrill-a-minute series will hook reluctant readers as well as fans of James Bond and Jason Bourne." —School Library Journal

From the imagination of one of Canada’s funniest writers comes the story of a young zombie who is integrated into a regular classroom in southern Ontario. Clashes, heroics and hilarity ensue as the community’s tolerance for difference—and narrator Bob''s tolerance for an undead rival—are pushed to the limit in this exciting and surprisingly touching novel.

Bunny (real name Bernard) doesn''t understand why his late grandfather wants him to get a tattoo. Actually, Bunny doesn''t understand a lot of things, so it''s good that his older brother, Spencer, is happy to explain things to him. But this is a task Bunny is supposed to do on his own, and nobody is more surprised than Bunny when, after he gets tattooed, he is befriended by a kid named Jaden and adopted into Jaden''s gang. The gang hangs out at a gym, where Bunny learns to fight, but when it finally dawns on him that the gang is involved in some pretty shady—and dangerous—business, Bunny is torn between his loyalty to his new friends and doing what he knows is right. Bunny''s adventures start in Weerdest Day Ever!, part of The Seven Prequels and continue in The Wolf and Me, part of The Seven Sequels.

Twelve-year-old Jane Peeler is about to embark on a summer ritual: the family car trip. Along with her two younger brothers, Bill and Bernie, Jane will endure traffic jams, singalongs, and fights over who gets the window on a two-day car trip to New England. With help from her Walkman, it may not be too bad, even if her chain-smoking, grumpy grandmother is coming along. But during a stop at a gas station, the kids meet Marty – a kind, penniless old man with a problem. How will he get to his brother’s funeral in Schenectady the next day? Jane would like to help him out – but how? Bringing a friend along on holiday is one thing, but a total stranger? Readers will delight in the hilarious detours the Peelers must make to get their newest passenger, and themselves, to their destination on time.

Set primarily in Toronto, with brief stops in Philadelphia and New York, Mystical Rose spans from the 1920s to the 1990s. The story is told in flashbacks, revelations from the disordered mind of the elderly Rose, who, confronting death, has entered into a conversation with God. She revisits her life as an English-born girl growing up in the small town of Cobourg, Ontario. When her father returns from the First World War a burnt-out shell of his former self, her family''s reduced circumstances force Rose into domestic service. Shortly after she enters the wealthy Rolyoke household, Rose finds herself married to the scion of the family and transported into a world she struggles to understand. With lyrical, precise prose and haunting images, Richard Scrimger captures the tale of a woman never quite in control of her own destiny, yet determined to deal with all that life presents.

The story of one boy’s experience with the (not so) sweet hereafter. Fresh from having stolen a piece of fruit and taunting the grocer, Jim, a fourteen-year-old wannabe gangster, bully, and car thief, is run over by a car. What follows is a hilarious, bleak, and ultimately hopeful visit to the afterworld, courtesy of Richard Scrimger, one of the country’s finest writers. This is an afterlife peopled with unforgettable characters that might be drawn from video games: angry Slayers, tearful Mourners, and scary Grave Walkers. Jim meets them all and is given the chance to return to earth with the extraordinary gift of knowing what happens when we die. Now he must deal with living demons, including a neighborhood torturer and a truly creepy older sister. With imagery from the mean streets as well as the arcade, Me and Death is thought-provoking, exciting, sad, and funny — sometimes all at the same time.

In this hilarious sequel to The Nose from Jupiter, Alan is to take his first airplane ride. He is off to New York, where his father will meet him for some “quality time” together. There are one or two snags, though. First, his father isn’t at the airport. Then there’s his cranky seatmate, Frieda, who is almost kidnapped while she’s waiting for her wheelchair at the baggage claim. Sally, an abandoned mutt, joins the scene. And finally, Norbert is back. He is an alien from Jupiter who had previously taken up residence in Alan’s nose when he was on a fact-finding mission to Earth. Alan had been, to say the least, an unwilling host to Norbert, but when you’re lost in New York City being chased by bad guys, you need all the help you can get!

Readers first met the Peeler family as they went on a hilarious summer road trip in The Way to Schenectady. Now winter has come and with it the school holiday pageant. Jane Peeler, who loves to be the boss at all times, is directing her class production of The Nutcracker. All does not go as well as she planned as she finds the plot of the presentation creeping into her own life. First, there are problems at school, caused by a gym teacher who wants the gym for basketball, not for rehearsal space. Then there’s a budding romance in the cast. At home, Dad has come down with an illness, and Grandma — grumpy, chain-smoking, profane Grandma — comes back on the scene as a reluctant baby-sitter to Jane and her younger brothers Bill and Bernie. The fun that ensues is pure Scrimger, and is sure to delight his legion of fans.

Norbert, the tiny wisecracking alien from Jupiter, gets an emergency phone call from home. His sweetheart, Nerissa, has been kidnapped by an evil giant and placed in the Lost Tower of Lotubmen. He must find and rescue her, but he can''t do it alone. Norbert has helped Alan through three earthly adventures. Now the tables are turned, and Norbert needs Alan''s help. So Alan, the boy from Earth, comes to Jupiter and finds himself in a strange – and yet in some ways strangely familiar – environment. Richard Scrimger’s The Nose from Jupiter, A Nose for Adventure, and Noses are Red have won avid fans from Illinois to Italy. Alan is truly an everyboy. He is terrible at sports, is living through his parents’ divorce, and has to contend with bullies and even villains. But he has a secret weapon. Norbert, an alien from Jupiter, has come to Earth and established a home-from-home inside Alan’s nose. It’s from there that the wise-cracking, brave, and irresistible Norbert changes Alan’s life.

Nominated in the fiction category for the 2004/2005 Red Cedar Book Awards (British Columbia''s Young Reader''s Choice book award) Norbert’s back, and Alan’s got him! In the third of Richard Scrimger’s wildly popular Nose books, Alan is off on a camping trip with his good friend, Victor. Fun, right? Not if the person who is taking you camping happens to be Christopher, your mother’s new boyfriend. And not if you aren’t exactly a fan of the great outdoors, with its bugs and swamps and bears. The woods are full of dangers, and the boys seem to encounter them all in one hilarious misadventure after another. It’s up to Norbert, the alien from Jupiter, to help Alan find his way out of the forest.

Alan Dingwall remembers how living with Norbert, an alien from Jupiter who lives in his nose and talks in a squeaky voice, affected his relationships with his mother, his friends, and especially the bullies on a rival soccer team

Best friends Bernadette and Charlie begin seventh grade and help unravel the mysterious case of the Stocking Bandit.

Richard Scrimger is a harried dad. Between trying to dodge the Baba police (black-kerchiefed grannies who haunt his part of town looking for underdressed kids), agitating on the lost Barbie footwear phenomenon (in a million years core samples from all over North America are going to show a Barbie shoe layer just above the limestone and shale) and congratulating himself on a good day (no one died), Richard Scrimger''s definition of sanity is sharply skewed by his four young children. In a collection of incredibly funny, family life musings written at a stream-of-consciousness-my-mind-is-racing-oh-my-god-the-baby''s-eating-the-remote pace that any parent will instantly recognize, Richard Scrimger shares his life of stay-at-home dad-dom His children are typical: Ed, two, has trouble distinguishing between pine cones and other unmentionable objects; Imogen, four, wants to be a boy when she grows up; and the twins, Sam and Thea, display that mystical twin bonding connection by sticking their tongues to the frozen food shelf in the grocery store -- both at the same time. Richard Scrimger is a gifted new talent. Warmly, sometimes crankily funny, and always infused with an infectious joy, deep tenderness and respect for his tiny subjects, Richard Scrimger''s writing is terrific. Still Life With Children is the perfect Father''s Day gift -- guaranteeing laughs and hugs all around.