HENRY CICADA'S EXTRAORDINARY ELKTONIUM ESCAPADE

This solo middle grade debut from David Teague, co–author of Saving Lucas Biggs, features a boy who only wants to be normal, but wackiness follows him wherever he goes.

Ever since his scientist mother died, Henry Cicada has wanted nothing more than to be normal. Not Henry whose mother invented an oddly useless metal called Elktonium, not Henry who has to put up with his dad’s wacky Elktonium inventions, and definitely not Henry who misses his mother and worries his father will never be the same without her.

But un–normalness seems to follow Henry wherever he goes. A three–legged dog named Pim Pom appears on his doorstep. Henry’s only friend at school is a tiny boy named Jurgen, whose main method of evading schoolyard bullies is to hide in a giant trombone case. And Pim Pom’s new doghouse – which is actually just a hollowed–out pyramid made of, yes, Elktonium – has started to glow. But everything changes the minute Henry steps inside the glowing pyramid. He’s suddenly transported into the imagination of Lulu, a girl he’s never met. Lulu just wants to be a ballerina, but is forced to work mindless jobs by her controlling aunt. Henry knows he has to save her, but doing something so heroic, so courageous, so audacious...well, it would mean abandoning his quest to be ordinary once and for all.

David Teague is the author of picture book Franklin’s Big Dreams and a professor at the University of Delaware. He co–authored the middle grade titles Saving Lucas Biggs and Connect the Stars with his wife New York Times bestselling author Marisa de los Santos. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware.