The incorrigible children of Ashton Place
Maryrose Wood
Book summary
A humorous mystery-adventure combines the runaway ostrich search with questions about the children’s family and Penelope’s origins.
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Maryrose Wood
A humorous mystery-adventure combines the runaway ostrich search with questions about the children’s family and Penelope’s origins.
Lemony Snicket
Three resourceful siblings look for a safe place at Heimlich Hospital, where the threat of unnecessary surgery and anesthesia complicates their search for refuge.
David Lubar
A comic monster adventure turns an insect bite into a startling transformation, with Lud’s new abilities first seeming enjoyable and then becoming something he must stop.
The siblings face a mysterious forest, Aunt Eda’s many rules and questions about their missing uncle. Strange creatures, night-time sightings and the contrast between chills and humour shape the story.
Leslie Bulion
Readers can try to identify each body part from poetic clues, then use sidebars and other features to explore anatomy. The collection also touches on poetic form and Shakespearean works.
Jamie’s sudden ability to understand boys is presented as a strange school mystery, and she explains it to herself as superpowers. The story also brings her friendship with Isabella and Angeline into the picture.
Bruce Coville
A school mystery with science-fiction and spooky elements follows Duncan as he tries to work out which teacher may be an alien. The aliens’ interest in pupils’ qualities adds an unsettling twist to the school setting.
Jennifer L. Holm
Babymouse wants to stand out rather than conform, and takes that ambition into the film club, where she sets out to make a movie.
Greg Taylor
A summer job that promises cooking and camaraderie turns into monster hunting. The story follows Toby as he faces frightening creatures and considers what might happen if he leaves.
Keith Giffen
A grotesque Halloween horror-comedy follows disturbing trick-or-treaters amid an alien invasion. Defiled corpses are explicitly included, so expect macabre material alongside the holiday setting.
Gary Paulsen, Patrick Lawlor
A collection of boyhood escapades turns homemade attempts at extreme sports into comic tales, from car-towed skiing to improvised jumps and a bear encounter.
Kelly deVos
Expect a horror-survival story with dark humour: a blizzard-stranded camp, missing campers and a zombie outbreak drive the action. A mystery about the camp’s supposed obesity cure runs alongside the fight to survive.
Michael Cox
The book presents Leonardo through biographical details, including his large horse project and fondness for practical jokes, as well as inventions he dreamed up. It also invites readers into a lost notebook and the Milan Messenger.
Caroline Therrien
The cat treats the household’s lack of consideration as a grievance, while its own actions leave it covered in rubbish. A bath resolves the mess, but the cat makes clear it is not entirely welcome.
Ashley Spires
This is a comic adventure about three space-minded pets facing separation from their humans, a clinic escape and a secret-laboratory mystery.
Rachel Wise
Sam’s attachment to print clashes with a proposed online school newspaper, and she learns her best friend supports the change. The story also follows Sam’s school-paper interests and her budding crush.
Ann Sei Lin
Expect a fantastical underworld of masked demons and hungry ghosts, with bargains involving personal treasures. Kasu’s effort to help Arun brings danger and deceit into a story that also features a cat companion.
Shelley Moore Thomas
A playful chase story asks readers to notice what the pictures reveal while the mouse narrator denies it. Humour comes from that mismatch, with dragons pursuing the mouse and a final change to the book’s title.
Garrett Romines
Bible stories are retold through Minecraft-style block worlds, using images, text boxes and speech bubbles. The events are explained in light prose, with in-game humour in the dialogue.
The mystery centres on seven students’ attempt to keep their school running after two deaths. Clues include antique coins and a sound heard in the garden; the students also fear the killer may strike again.
O. Henry
A kidnapping and ransom plan becomes a comic contest of wills: the criminals struggle with their young captive, while his father turns their demand back on them.
Reg Down
The book brings together mouse misadventures, a beard-tangling puzzle and children’s plan to hide an elephant, all leading towards a Midsummer’s Eve gathering.
Carrie Snyder
The children respond to an unfair arrangement by growing vegetables and proposing a trade. Their plan depends on whether the ruler will value the produce, so the story’s hoped-for resolution centres on negotiation.
Liz Pichon
Expect school and homework mishaps, Tom's excuses, and his attempts to impress Amy. His exercise-book entries mix written thoughts with doodles and cartoons.
Laura Lee Hope
A family-centred adventure moves from the Bobbseys’ home to a summer stay at Meadow Brook, with comic mishaps and a run of outings and surprises.
Dr. Seuss, Seuss, Dr Seuss, Seuss Dr
A set of humorous, illustrated rhyming stories offers playful scenarios, from a persuasive cat and a duck's poor decision to a rabbit's unusual escape from a bear.
Sophia McDougall
Expect space adventure built around peril, friendship and a high-stakes rescue mission. Alice's attempt to get home expands into a challenge involving three worlds.
Rachael Mortimer
The princess’s snoring causes a palace commotion. Princes come seeking a reward if they can stop it, but the story leaves open whether their kisses will help.
Bruce Hale
A talking cat leads Zeke from everyday family and school difficulties into an eccentric underground fantasy, with zombies, spies and other unusual characters. The mix promises comic adventure alongside the pressures of home and school.
Anthony Browne
A family’s division of labour is disrupted when the mother, who does the household tasks, is suddenly absent. A note and peculiar changes bring fantasy into this family story.
Doreen Cronin
The Chicken Squad set out to identify a new arrival in a cage in their yard. Their detective effort involves surveillance gear, marshmallows and an approaching raincloud.
Clive Goddard
This is a comic adventure built around Fintan's wish to prove himself and his pursuit of a rare prize, with rivals and kidnappers complicating the journey.
Robert Kimmel Smith
Henry’s all-day fondness for chocolate is followed by strange physical changes and a trip to a doctor. The story then shifts into a humorous chase, culminating in an unusual hijacking.
Shoham Smith
A bedtime-resisting child turns a family party into an increasingly lively affair, before the guests leave and everyone is ready for sleep. The rhyming, humorous setup centres on family life.
MG Leonard
A fast-moving mystery-adventure pairs a boy’s search for his missing father with unusual beetles, new friendships and a colourful villain. Expect comic characters, insect facts and bursts of action.
Archie Kimpton
A lively, comic animal adventure, with an eccentric family and a cat whose unusual condition drives the plot. Billy’s collecting hobby and the pet-show challenge add extra strands to the story.
Jeremy Strong
This is presented as a comic story of mismatched impressions and eccentric circumstances, bringing two teenagers together in a residential home for older people.
Lemony Snicket
A bleakly comic instalment about three siblings facing misfortune while living and working at a lumber mill; the narrator openly signals an unhappy, rather than comforting, reading experience.
Eva Ibbotson
This is a comic-sounding ghost adventure built around two children trying to protect rare cattle and help their elderly relatives. The rescue effort involves both a castle attraction and sinister opponents.
Nick Cannon
Expect playful rhymes mixing imaginary creatures and comic everyday characters, alongside poems of tribute. The collection’s range may appeal to readers who enjoy humour in verse.
Hairy Growling
A comic introduction to sports history, using canine puns and altered athlete images to make real sporting figures and moments playful.
A playful reworking of familiar fairy-tale plots, with modern settings and comic reversals. The contents list ten separate stories by different contributors.
Coleen Hefley
This true animal tale follows backyard turkey-raising and the particular personalities attributed to Royal, Snuggles and other animals. Its appeal appears to centre on observing their individual antics rather than on a stated practical guide to animal care.
Shel Silverstein
Expect comic, imaginative poetry rather than one continuous story: the collection moves among unusual characters, situations and drawings.
Dawn McMillan
This is a comic, bodily-themed premise built around an imagined problem and an inventive search. The appeal may depend on whether your child enjoys silly humour about bottoms.
Mac Barnett, Chris Van Dusen
This is a comic imagined episode about Taft becoming stuck in a bathtub, with cabinet members offering advice.
Jim Benton
A comic collection built around attitude and irreverent versions of familiar sayings, rather than earnest advice for life’s challenges.
Jordan Sonnenblick
This is a family story in which Claire’s difficult school and home life is upended by her father’s medical emergency. Humour is presented as one way the characters try to get through a serious situation.
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