My Near Death Adventures (99% True)

With the humor of an 1890’s WIMPY KID and the illustrative component of MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN (minus the creepiness), this is a fresh and very funny debut from a talented new voice in middle-grade fiction

There are many things that 11-year-old Stanley Slater would like to have in life. A bicycle with vermilion tire rims. Another chance to see Conrad McAllister wearing old Mrs Cavanaugh’s huge pink underdrawers on his head. The means of getting rid of his ancient and crotchety Granny, who is as hairy as a Loup Garou and 99.9% evil. But most of all, Stanley would like to have a father.
So when a mysterious envelope, postmarked Texas, arrives at Stanley’s humble home in Manistique, Michigan, he knows something big is afoot. Now it seems Stan’s missing dad isn’t ‘dearly departed’ at all – he’s merely long lost. And who better to find this absent hero/cowboy/explorer/outlaw than intrepid Stanley himself?

Granny says that Stan’s dad could be anywhere. At the North Pole. In a circus. So when Stanley, Mama and Granny set off to spend a few months at Uncle Henry’s logging camp in the Upper Peninsula, Stan knows his chance has come – to become a manly man like his dad or even find the dude himself (or a fair substitute) among the hairy, axe-wielding lumberjacks.

But nothing goes smoothly for Stan out in the chilly forests. Not only must he deal with his impossible cousin Geri (who wears a chicken on her hand), but fend off Mama’s suitors like Cold-Blooded Killer Stinky Pete – and somehow get himself on to the River Drive, the most perilous adventure of all, where even a fellow’s peavey is at risk.

It’s a wild ride for Stanley as he finds out a thing or two for himself about true manliness, but at least he has his Scrapbook to embellish the tale!

Rights details

World English language: Crown, Random House USA (Spring 2015)

• Ages 8 - 12