Lanterna Rally

Author: Frank McKinney

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2010-01-01

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 0757397638

Bestselling author Frank McKinney boldly enters young reader fiction in this deeply imaginative fantasy sure to race and gladden the hearts of all readers. The story was inspired by the more than one thousand walks to school the author has shared with his daughter and her friends in real life. Come along with them into the imaginative world of Dead Fred, Flying Lunchboxes, and the Good Luck Circle! Thirteen-year-old Ppeekk (pronounced 'Peekie') finds a very small, very flat, very dead fish. When he comes to life in her hand, he has an amazing story to tell. In the brilliant underwater world called High Voltage, manatees talk, starfish sing, and practical-joking clownfish encourage children to launch their lunchboxes off the bridge. Now the fiendish Megalodon, a fifty-foot prehistoric shark, has laid siege to High Voltage and dethroned King Frederick the Ninth (whom Ppeekk calls "Dead Fred"). The monster reigns amphibiously under the old drawbridge with his army of crabs and blood-red remora fish, whose suckers drain victims' joy and imagination. Ppeekk hides Dead Fred in the only safe place she can think of: the usher's coat room at church. As she grows to know Fred, she learns to trust and love him. Unlike her parents, he listens to her and counsels her. Dead Fred trusts Ppeekk, too. In fact, he has a big favor to ask. Can she help him save High Voltage from the evil Megalodon? Ppeekk and her friends use everything they've got to lure the evil beast to his demise—exploding coconut bombs, strangler fig lassos, even themselves as human bait—to vanquish Megalodon and his rogue army. In the climactic scene, they fight the battle of their lives in a Category-5 hurricane . . . Will they be able to save Dead Fred and High Voltage? Read Dead Fred, Flying Lunchboxes, and the Good Luck Circle to find out!