It’s here: Volume One of the official Guys Read Library. Jon Scieszka’s Guys Read initiative was founded on a simple premise: that young guys enjoy reading most when they have reading they can enjoy. And out of this comes a series that aims to give them just that. Ten books, arranged by theme, featuring the best of the best where writing for kids is concerned. Each book is a collection of original short stories, but these aren’t your typical anthologies: each book is edgy, inventive, visual, and one-of-a-kind, featuring a different theme for guys to get excited about. Funny Business is based around the theme of—what else?—humor, and if you’re familiar with Jon and Guys Read, you already know what you’re in store for: ten hilarious stories from some of the funniest writers around. Before you’re through, you’ll meet a teenage mummy; a kid desperate to take a dip in the world’s largest pool of chocolate milk; a homicidal turkey; parents who hand over their son’s room to a biker; the only kid in his middle school who hasn’t turned into a vampire, wizard, or superhero; and more. And the contributor list includes bestselling authors, award winners, and fresh new talent alike: Mac Barnett, Eoin Colfer, Christopher Paul Curtis, Kate DiCamillo (writing with Jon Scieszka), Paul Feig, Jack Gantos, Jeff Kinney, David Lubar, Adam Rex, and David Yoo. Guys Read is all about turning young readers into lifelong ones—and with this book, and each subsequent installment in the series, we aim to leave no guy unturned.

A little puppy is turning into a big problem! Nancy's wish has finally come true: she has a dog of her own. She's a chocolate-colored Labrador retriever, and she's fun and friendly and loves to play. But the pup's also in a sticky situation -- and its up to Nancy to save her. Hannah's fresh-baked muffins have vanished, and a food thief is loose in the neighborhood. And guess who's getting blamed? Nancy's new puppy. It's so unfair, and she's going to prove it...by finding the real thief!

After her first day in junior high, Alice McKinley says, "I can think of at least seven things about seventh grade that stink". But after a week, Alice has decided that maybe junior high isn't so bad. In fact, maybe she can go a whole year being friends with everyone, teachers and students alike. This is before she has her first run-in with Denise "Mack-Truck" Whitlock. Alice, who has survived sixth grade and The Summer of the First Boyfriend, soon discovers that it isn't so easy to be Alice the Likeable. Even her best friends get in the way sometimes. And just when she is sure no one has more problems than she does, she is drawn into the ones her twenty-year-old brother and her widowed father are facing, which seem worse. Thinking a favorite teacher may hold the answer to at least one difficulty, Alice ends up with a bigger mess than ever. She realizes, however, that it is possible to overcome disaster and to find a way out of troubles. Most of all, she discovers, it's good to have a father and a brother who love you and look out for you. In fact, sometimes, having family is almost enough.

Luke spots Eve at his dad's funeral. She's hot - and she's the perfect distraction from his messed up family life. There's only one problem - she's got a boyfriend. Still, Luke's not going to give up that easily... When he meets Ryan at a party and hears about 'the Six Steps method' to guarantee success with any girl, Luke determines to put it to the test. Step by step, he begins to get closer to Eve - but one step forward seems to mean two steps back, and when he's hospitalised by the jealous boyfriend, he wonders if any girl - even one as gorgeous as Eve - is really worth it...

In Morristown, New Jersey, there is what is probably the most remarkable school in the world—a school where dogs are educated to liberate physically the blind people of our country. This school is called The Seeing Eye and was founded in 1928 by a woman whose life and wealth has been devoted to this remarkable cause; her name is Mrs. Harrison Eustis. Female German shepherd dogs are chosen for this work because they are not easily distracted from the duties entrusted to them. It takes from three to five months to complete a dog’s education. The first few months are spent with her instructor: she learns to pick up whatever he drops; learns that if she walks off a curb without first stopping, he stumbles and falls; that if she passes under a low obstruction, he hits his head. --This text refers to the Paperback edition. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Frank V. Webster was one of the early 20th century's most prolific authors of kids adventure books and Westerns, but that was due in large part to the fact that Frank V. Webster was actually many authors. Using Webster's name as a pseudonym, the Stratemeyer Syndicate published a number of books tailor made for boys, and they are still popular today.

As Mrs. James Gary Longchamp, Dawn is blissfully happy. But a legacy of deceit and betrayal still haunts her... At last Dawn can create a haven of warmth and love for her beautiful baby girl, Christie, and her darling Jimmy. Dawn is a huge success as the new owner of the Cutler's Cove hotel...and soon she and Jimmy will be blessed with a child of their own. Yet Dawn cannot quell her forebodings of evil. She can sense Grandmother Cutler's presence everywhere...can feel her bitter hatred as if the old lady plotted her vengeance from the grave. When Dawn discovers that her brother, Philip, still clings to his mad, shameful passion for her, she is heartstricken. Her spiteful, jealous sister, Clara, is far easier to ignore...until the day Clara's childish rage explodes into violence, destroying Dawn's most cherished, precious dream. Then Christie's father, debonair singing star Michael Sutton, returns. Now, as the heartaches and scandals of the past threaten to engulf her, Dawn must fight for her steadfast Jimmy...for only with Jimmy's love can she find the rainbow at the end of the storm.

Nancy meets Helene and Henri Fontaine, refugees from Centrovia who own a dancing school in River Heights. Strange circumstances have brought the brother and sister to the United States. When they receive an anonymous note threatening their lives, Nancy offers to help. Encountering numerous puzzles during her investigation, Nancy wonders if the Fontaines are involved with the Centrovian underground. Are they being threatened by their own countrymen? Is a series of paintings by Henri Fontaine being used for a sinister purpose? What is the significance of the scarlet ballet slippers that had once belonged to their mother? The girl detective faces grave danger while looking for answers to these intriguing and intricate questions. This book is the revised text. The plot of the original story (©1954) is similar with minor revisions.

"Master storyteller Sharon Shinn created the thrilling and enchanting world of Welce in her acclaimed novel "Troubled Waters." Return with her to that elemental universe in this tale of secrecy, romance, and a battle for power..." Josetta is a princess of one of the Five Families. But she is far from the throne, so she is free to spend her days working in the poorest sections of the city. Rafe Adova, an outcast since he was born, lives the life of a career gambler in those slums. He has no ambition other than cheating at the card tables—until the night he decides to help a girl named Corene, who looks like she's stumbled into the wrong bar. She, too, is a princess—sister to Josetta, who finds her with Rafe. He fascinates her. Josetta has never encountered anyone like him—someone seemingly devoid of elemental blessings. He is drawn to her, though he thinks they are unlikely to ever meet again—but their connection grows strong when she nurses him back to health after he is assaulted by foreign mercenaries. And when they learn the reason he's being hunted, they know that the truth about his history could endanger not only their love but also their very lives...

Mom says karma always comes around to get you, and I guess it's true. Because last summer I was a total liar, and now, right in the middle of Mr. Pritchard's third-period math class, my whole world is about to come crashing down. That's because while Devon was living with her grandmother for the summer, she told her "summer friend," Lexi, that she was really popular back home and dating Jared Bentley, only the most popular guy at school. Harmless lies, right? Wrong. Not when Lexi is standing at the front of Devon's class, having just moved to Devon's town. Uh-oh. Devon knows there's only one way to handle this -- she'll just have to become popular! But how is Devon supposed to accomplish that when she's never even talked to Jared, much less dated him?! And it seems the more Devon tries to keep up her "image," the more things go wrong. Her family thinks she's nuts, her best friend won't speak to her, and, as if it's not all complicated enough, Jared starts crushing on Lexi and Devon starts crushing on Jared's best friend, Luke. It all has Devon wondering -- who is the real Devon Delaney?

The room smells of sweat, smoke, beer, and longing. The music pulses, the lights flash, and Kata and Ana dance. For a moment the raucous crowd is tamed, and together the two girls soar above their lives. but then the deafening applause sends the dancers crashing down to earth, back to the gang wars, the gunfire, and the only way of life they know. In a neighborhood consumed by violence, every day may be a gang member's last. And sometimes the only life you can hope to save is your own. From the Paperback edition.

Josephine Chase was a popular 20th century author who used the pseudonym Jessie Graham Flower to write a number of books for young girls, especially the very popular Grace Harlowe series.

A classic novel by Mrs. Molesworth, best known as a writer of books for the young, such as Tell Me a Story (1875), Carrots (1876), The Cuckoo Clock (1877), The Tapestry Room (1879), and A Christmas Child (1880).

Martha Finley (April 26, 1828 – January 30, 1909) was a teacher and author of numerous works, the most well known being the 28 volume Elsie Dinsmore series which was published over a span of 38 years. The daughter of Presbyterian minister Dr. James Brown Finley and his wife and cousin Maria Theresa Brown Finley, she was born on April 26, 1828, in Chillicothe, Ohio. Finley wrote many of her books under the pseudonym Martha Farquharson. She died in 1909 in Elkton, Maryland, where she moved in 1876.

This is the Story within the Story.Yes, I, Gwladys, must write it down; the whole country has heard of it, the newspapers have been full of it, and from the highest to the lowest in the land, people have spoken of the noble deed done by a few Welsh miners. But much as the country knows, and glad and proud as the country is, I don’t think she knows quite all—not exactly what mother and I know; she does not know the heart history of those ten days. This is the story within the other well-known story, which I want to write here.On a certain sunny afternoon in September, 1876, I was seated up in the window of the old nursery. I say in the window, for I had got my body well up on the deep oak seat, had flattened my nose against the pane, and was gazing with a pair of dismal eyes down on the sea, and on some corn-fields and hay-fields, which in panoramic fashion stretched before my vision.Yes, I was feeling gloomy, and my first remark, after an interval of silence, was decidedly in keeping with my face and heart.“Gwen,” I said, “what is it to be buried alive?” Gwen, who was singing her charge to sleep to a lively Welsh air, neither heeded nor heard me.“Gwen!” I repeated in a louder key.“Men are false and oft ungrateful, Derry derry dando,”sang Gwen, rocking the baby, as she sang, in the most dexterous manner.Gwen had a beautiful voice, and I liked the old air, so I stayed my impatient question to listen.“Maids are coy and oft deceitful, Derry derry dando, Few there are who love sincerely, Down a derry down.Say not so, I love thee dearly, Derry derry down down, Derry down down derry.”“None but thee torment and teaze me, Derry derry dando,”I shouted in my impetuous manner, and leaving my seat, I went noisily to her side.“Gwen, I will be heard. I have not another soul to speak to, and you are so cross and disagreeable. What is it to be buried alive?”“’Tis just like you, Gwladys,” said Gwen, rising indignantly. “Just after two hours of it, when I was getting the darling precious lamb off to sleep, you’ve gone and awoke him. Dear, dear! good gracious! there never was such a maid!”Gwen retired with the disturbed and wailing baby into the night nursery, and I was left alone.“None but thee torment and teaze me, Derry derry dando,”I sang after her.fiction, classic, novel, boy, action, adventure, childrenCONTENTSThis is the Story within the Story.David, I am Tired of Tynycymmer.Some Day, you will See that he is Noble.Owen is Coming Home.Why did you Hesitate?Gwen’s Dream.Very New and very Interesting.I said I would do much for these Children.Earth Air Fire Water.Little Twenty.They Talked of Money.You are Changed to me.Pride’s Pit.The Eye-Well.That Man was Owen.The Little Lad.Sight to the Blind.Our Father.A Rich Vein of Coal.The Jordan River.The Lord was not in the Wind.The Lord was not in the Fire.After the Fire—A Still, Small Voice.