Dead Jed is Shaun of the Dead meets Diary of a Wimpy Kid.Jed's not your typical middle school geek. He is, to use the politically correct term, cardiovascularly challenged. And while his parents have attempted to shield him from the implications of being different for as long as they could (Jed was eight and at a friend's sister's birthday party when he blew his lips off onto the cake in front of everyone, finally prompting the "big talk" from his parents...

With seventh grade behind him, Jed jumps at the opportunity to spend the summer in Mexico with his dad. But there’s just one catch: Luke and Tread get to tag along.In Mexico, fitting in might be easier than Jed imagined, with holidays such as Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Here, a rising eighth grade zombie boy and his zombie dog won’t draw that much attention.But then Tread unwittingly sets off Mexico’s Chupacabra Defense Network and Jed accidentally collides with a...

After a tumultuous first semester in seventh grade, Jed Rivers returns triumphant—or so he thinks. After embracing his undeadness to put his archenemy Robbie in his place, the thirteen-year-old zombie thought he'd have a much easier time surviving the second semester relatively intact. That was before he came across the antizombie propaganda published by the mysterious NZN Network, a group trying to push Hollywood stereotypes as the truth. Through fear-mongering and outright lies, the NZN ...

Back before the stock market crash, Jack’s dad had been working steadily, and their family had had plenty of money. But now, in the middle of the 1930s Depression, there isn’t much work for a trombone player—just a gig down in New York City once in a while. So fourteen-year-old Jack is doing his best to help out. He’s lucky enough to get a weekend job at the town boat club where the “rich folks” hang out, but Jack wishes his dad would at least try to get a regular job. Sometimes there isn’...

It’s 1895 in New York City. Hard times have hit, and life isn’t going to get noticeably better any time soon.Almost-thirteen-year-old Chipper Carey is running with the Midnight Rats kid gang just to survive. Chipper doesn’t normally like to think beyond the present. His past has been bad enough! Ma died of consumption when he was six. His short-lived stay with Aunt Millie and Uncle Bert consisted of endless beatings. He never even knew his father. Sure, Chipper feels badly about th...

At fourteen, Fergy is tired of his family's life style. He's tired of living in a van with his parents, J. P. and Gussie, and his younger sister, Ooma. He's sick of peddling honey and pamphlets of his father's writings. And most of all he hates stealing things, even though J. P. says it's all right to "reclaim" necessities from society. Fergy listens to J. P. talk about the evils of "the system," and gradually Fergy realizes that he no longer believes or respects his father. In fact, Fergy...

Twelve-year-old George Stable wants to be a rock star someday, but he gets horrible stage fright—unless he has his old teddy bear with him. Hiding the teddy in his guitar seems like a brilliant idea. Then George discovers that someone has hidden stolen jewels in the stuffing of his beloved bear. George's embarrassing "teddy bear habit" becomes the center of a life-and-death chase through Manhattan. Can George survive long enough to make his first television appearance?

At thirteen, George Stable still hasn't made his mark on the world. Oh, he plays the guitar and sings a little. And he appeared on television for six whole seconds once. A couple of years ago, he even wrote a sort of book, called The Teddy Bear Habit. But nothing really exciting has happened to him. But now, it looks as if his big chance has finally come. This agent of his, Woody Woodward, who discovered him during his six-second TV career, has come up with a plan to make him a ho...

In this brilliant debut thriller, reminiscent of the works of John le Carre and Olen Steinhauer and infused with the authenticity of the author’s travels, a young American State Department intern based in Turkey becomes “the woman who knows too much” and is marked for death.Penny Kessler, an intern at the US Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, wakes up in a hospital on the morning of July 5th to find herself at the center of an international crisis. The day before, the Emba...

Paulie Horvath is never going to be a good student like his brother, John, never going to follow his hardworking father into the plumbing trade, never going to ease his mother's mind by passing tests or cleaning up his room. But once he hears jazz by accident from the basement of a speakeasy, he knows exactly what he will do: learn that music and make it his life. Jazz is all around in gangland Chicago, but not so easy for a twelve-year-old to find, especially when his father disapproves o...