Daniel Pinkwater
1) Kat hats
2) Bear in love
3) Lizard Music
Kids ages 9-12 will “delight in [the] oddness” of this Home Alone-style tale set in the 1970s—from a prolific children’s author who captures “a magic that’s not like anyone else’s” (Neil Gaiman).
With Victor’s parents out of town, he is free to investigate the mysterious lizard musicians who have recently appeared on TV . . .
...
When a shipment of imported Italian muffins goes missing, Irving and Muktuk become the key suspects. Everyone knows their weakness for muffins and immediately think they are responsible!
Irving and Muktuk realize that in order to clear their smirched names, they have to find the culprit themselves. They disguise themselves, sniff out some clues, interview possible witnesses, and try to find the thief. As with all good mysteries, the clues lead
...Big Audrey is a girl . . .
with cat’s whiskers . . .
and sort of cat’s eyes.
But is there another cat-whiskered, sort of cat-eyed girl?
Big Audrey waves goodbye to her friends Iggy, Neddie, Seamus,...
In a wonderfully loopy third episode, Nick and Maxine are surprised to meet Captain Noodlekugel, back from the sea with a somewhat untrainable bear.
When their father decides to compete to be speed-knitting champion of the world, Nick and Maxine are happy to stay with their babysitter, Mrs. Noodlekugel, along with her talking cats and four mice who wear glasses. What they don't expect is a dripping-wet, whiskered man in the kitchen
...With signature wit and whimsy, the inimitable Daniel Pinkwater introduces an eccentric, endearing babysitter every child will wish they could have. Nick and Maxine live in a tall building with one apartment on top of another. So when they look out their window and see a little house they never knew was there, of course they must visit (especially when their parents tell them not to!). Going through the boiler room, they're amazed to find to a secret
...Four farsighted mice get glasses—and a talking cat solves a family mystery—as the charmingly eccentric Mrs. Noodlekugel returns. When Mrs. Noodlekugel's four mice make a terrible mess with cookie crumbs at tea, she decides to take them on the bus to visit the eye doctor—and invites Nick and Maxine to come along! The mice ride on Mrs. Noodlekugel's hat, while Mr. Fuzzface, her talking cat, has the indignity of riding in a carrier.
...Irving and Muktuk are cheating each other at cards when their polar bear friend Larry drops by for a visit. The bears eat cake topped with little fishes that Larry has brought, play a spirited game of volleyball, and afterward chat pleasantly until Larry goes home. Visits," Irving and Muktuk decide, are nice."
The next evening, when all is quiet at the zoo, the Bad Bears sneak out to pay a refined visit of their own. When they arrive
...Irving and Muktuk have arrived from Yellowtooth in the frozen North to their new home in the Bayonne, New Jersey, zoo. There they meet another polar bear, Roy, who tells them about his life outside the zoo. Roy goes home every night at six when the zoo closes. After a week of swimming, eating fish and the occasional muffin thrown to them by zoo visitors, playing, and taking naps, Irving and Muktuk feel bored and restless. They decide to explore
...11) Borgel
Once upon a blue moose, there was a little restaurant at the edge of the big woods. Mr. Breton was happy running the restaurant. He liked to cook, but he didn't like it much when winter came and the north wind blew and froze everything solid.
Then one day a blue moose, who also didn't like the cold, came to his door and asked to come in. Mr. Breton said sure, and served the moose some clam chowder. The moose liked the soup, and decided to stay.