Humor

Trouble

A retelling of a traditional Eritrean tale in which a young goatherd disobeys his father by inadvertently trading away the board game that was supposed to keep him out of trouble.

The Flying Witch

Whirr. Whirr. Clunkety-clank. Here comes Baba Yaga! Flying her mortar and pestle, the witch with the long iron nose scours the countryside for plump young children to eat. But will she be a match for the fiesty little girl she hopes to throw into her soup? New York Times best-selling author Jane Yolen has created a clever, original story based on hundreds of traditional Russian folktales about the famed scary old witch. Vladimir Vagin’s remarkably detailed borders and intricate scenes will give readers chills and laughs as they read this witty tale.

The Magical Fruit

When a Russian billionaire robs the Norwegian Gold Reserve and melts the last remaining gold bar into the Premier Soccer League trophy, it’s up to Doctor Proctor, Nilly, and Lisa to recapture the precious prize. But after a failed break-in attempt at the billionaire’s subterranean gold-melting lab, and with the Norwegian Gold Reserve Inspection in just three days, the only way to retrieve the trophy is to win it back.

Hoping to prevent national panic and uproar, Nilly and Lisa join the Rotten Ham soccer team to try and lead the hopeless underdogs to victory before time runs out. And with the use of Fartonaut Powder, along with a handful of Doctor Proctor’s other wacky inventions, they just might have a chance!

Open Mic

Using humor as the common denominator, a multicultural cast of YA authors steps up to the mic to share stories touching on race. Listen in as ten YA authors — some familiar, some new — use their own brand of humor to share their stories about growing up between cultures. Henry Choi Lee discovers that pretending to be a tai chi master or a sought-after wiz at math wins him friends for a while — until it comically backfires. A biracial girl is amused when her dad clears seats for his family on a crowded subway in under a minute, simply by sitting quietly between two uptight women. Edited by acclaimed author and speaker Mitali Perkins, this collection of fiction and nonfiction uses a mix of styles as diverse as their authors, from laugh-out-loud funny to wry, ironic, or poignant, in prose, poetry, and comic form.

Hooey Higgins and the Tremendous Trousers

Have you ever found yourself in a slightly risky situation and thought, What I really need is a pair of super-protective trousers to keep me safe from crocodiles, flying toffee apples, and log-flume malfunctions? Head for Shrimpton-on-Sea, where Hooey, Will, and Twig are working on an ingenious contraption sure to make the world a safer place: the all-new Tremendous Trousers, aka TremTrows! All you do is slip on a pair of yellow sweatpants, stuff them full of bubble wrap, add some soda bottles topped with balloons, and inflate them with gas from a bunch of mints dropped into the soda. What could possibly go wrong? It’s a brilliant invention guaranteed to win the class prize — tickets to the carnival! Shweet!

There Was An Old Sailor

This playful, rhyming picture book offers a fresh and fun new take on the song “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.” In Claire Saxby’s telling, a white-bearded, big-bellied sailor sets things in motion by swallowing a krill. He then goes on to swallow progressively larger sea creatures, each meant to catch the preceding one.