SINK OR SWIM

There's a thief in town, and all signs point to twelve-year-old Charlie Drinkwater.

Once you spontaneously morph into a giant mutant dinosaur in the middle of the school day, people will suspect you of anything. Charlie's teachers decide that all he needs is a little discipline, so they make him join the swim team. The only problem is, Charlie is terrified of the water. (He's terrified of a lot of things.) Charlie and his friends vow to apprehend the real criminal and clear Charlie's name. But when they discover who the actual thief is, they get a lot more than they bargained for.

BOB BALABAN is the author of the popular Mc Growl series. He was inspired to write The Creature from the Seventh Grade because when he was twelve he was something of a creature hirnseif. As he puts it: “I was the shortest, skinniest kid in my class. I wore braces and big black glasses with Coke-bottle thick lenses, and my hobbies were making dioramas and learning Irish folk dances. I didn‘t have scales and an eight-foot tail, but I might as weil have. When he is not writing chiidren‘s books, Bob acts, directs, and produces. He produced and costarred in the Academy Award—winning movie Gosford Park and has been nominated for a few Emmys, some Screen Actors Guild awards, four Golden Globes, and a Tony award. He has appeared in over a hundred movies. Bob is happy to call Bridgehampton, New York, his home.