Humbug Holiday

It's holiday time in Firefly Junction but not everything is sweet sugarplums and glittery tinsel. Sunni Taylor has been too busy to get into the holiday spirit, even with her mom coming to town for a visit. Her festive spirit gets a spark when Detective Brady Jackson asks her to attend the town's production of A Christmas Carol. But when the holiday classic takes a grim turn, Sunni's date night turns into a murder investigation. And in the middle of a winter festival, Sunni and Jackson must figure out who killed Ebenezer Scrooge. Book 4 of the Firefly Junction Cozy Mystery series. A cozy mystery with a fun paranormal twist! 1. Death in the Park 2. Killer Bridal Party 3. Murder at the Inn 4. A Humbug Holiday 5. Calamity at the Carnival 6. Double Trouble

Tis the season to be jolly--but Devin won't share his food for the school Christmas banquet, and he and Frankie forgot to read "A Christmas carol" for class. Then they meet someone with even less holiday spirit. Ebenezer Scrooge! The library zapper gates have transported the class misfits again, this time into Dickens's own Christmas classic. Frankie and Devin find themselves on a wacky, ghost-guided tour that just might turn around this humbug holiday.

For two sixth graders who feel about school the way Scrooge feels about Christmas, a magical trip into Dickens’s tale is just what their spirits need. It’s Christmastime at Palmdale Middle School, and the sixth grade class has organized a holiday banquet for local families in need. Best friends Devin and Frankie—short for Francine—are excited to eat, but they forgot to bring in food donations. They also didn’t read A Christmas Carol for Mr. Wexler’s English class. While the two fight over the school’s last copy, the library’s magic security gates suddenly transport them straight into Charles Dickens’s timeless tale, where they come face to face with grouchy Ebenezer Scrooge, who’s about to get a wake-up call from some ghosts on Christmas Eve. As the ghosts show the stingy Scrooge the consequences of all the selfish choices he’s made in life, Devin and Frankie come to realize that they too have a few things to learn about kindness and generosity. Reluctant readers “Devin and Frankie are wisecracking underachievers and their characterizations and dialogue ring true” in Tony Abbott’s Cracked Classics series (School Library Journal).

You know MAD. Do you know Humbug? Harvey Kurtzman changed the face of American humor when he created the legendary MAD comic. As editor and chief writer from its inception in 1952, through its transformation into a slick magazine, and until he left MAD in 1956, he influenced an entire generation of cartoonists, comedians, and filmmakers. In 1962, he co-created the long-running Little Annie Fanny with his long-time artistic partner Will Elder forPlayboy, which he continued to produce until his virtual retirement in 1988. Between MAD and Annie Fanny, Kurtzman’s biographical summaries will note that he created and edited three other magazines―Trump, Humbug, and Help!―but, whereas his MAD and Annie Fanny are readily available in reprint form, his major satirical work in the interim period is virtually unknown. Humbug, which had poor distribution, may be the least known, but to those who treasure the rare original copies, it equals or even exceeds MAD in displaying Kurtzman’s creative genius. Humbug was unique in that it was actually published by the artists who created it: Kurtzman and his cohorts from MAD, Will Elder, Jack Davis, and Al Jaffee, were joined by universally acclaimed cartoonist Arnold Roth. With no publisher above them to rein them in, this little band of creators produced some of the most trenchant and engaging satire of American culture ever to appear on American newsstands.

When Frankie and Devin get transported into A Christmas Carol, they take the fastest ghost-guided tour of all time.

Features two seasonal romance novellas linked by a "Twelve Days of Christmas" theme.

Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday stories are adapted to music and performed as a musical drama. The children design the costumes, set decorations, and libretto through various art activities to incorporate all aspects of the production into the curriculum. The book contains songs, music, step-by-step directions for classroom use or performance, and related activities. The CD contains both songs with lyrics, and piano accompaniment only. Material is designed for non-musical teachers.