The Pudding Problem

A boy must untangle the web of lies he’s created in order to prove his innocence in this humorous and cheeky illustrated middle grade novel that’s perfect for “fans of Timmy Failure and Big Nate” (Kirkus Reviews). Sam Lyttle is prone to stretching the truth. Most of his lies are harmless; tall tales and the product of an overactive imagination. So when Sam is summoned to explain a strange discovery—a ping-pong ball in a jar of peanut butter—and denies involvement, no one believes him. Then more seemingly unrelated peculiarities emerge, and Sam categorically denies any knowledge of those, too. In between these mysterious accusations, and with evidence mounting against him, Sam ruminates on the different sorts of lies he has told using examples from his past. Meanwhile, two pounds of potatoes wind up in the washing machine. Sam comes to a decision: he decides it is time to come clean about this latest tangled web. He gathers his family to hear the truth. The whole truth. Or is it? Could it be that this final “truth” is, in fact, another lie?

A boy must untangle the web of lies he’s created in order to prove his innocence in this humorous and cheeky illustrated middle grade novel that’s perfect for “fans of Timmy Failure and Big Nate” (Kirkus Reviews). Sam Lyttle is prone to stretching the truth. Most of his lies are harmless; tall tales and the product of an overactive imagination. So when Sam is summoned to explain a strange discovery—a ping-pong ball in a jar of peanut butter—and denies involvement, no one believes him. Then more seemingly unrelated peculiarities emerge, and Sam categorically denies any knowledge of those, too. In between these mysterious accusations, and with evidence mounting against him, Sam ruminates on the different sorts of lies he has told using examples from his past. Meanwhile, two pounds of potatoes wind up in the washing machine. Sam comes to a decision: he decides it is time to come clean about this latest tangled web. He gathers his family to hear the truth. The whole truth. Or is it? Could it be that this final “truth” is, in fact, another lie?

The delightful adventures of a visually impaired barn cat and his annoying flea, as they set off to experience the world and find themselves participants in some of the most remarkable events of the early twentieth century. Pudding Tat is born on the Willoughby Farm in 1901 — just another one of Mother Tat’s kittens. But it turns out that Pudding is anything but ordinary. He is pure white with pink eyes that, though beautiful, do not see well, and hearing that is unusually acute. He finds himself drawn to the sweet sounds of the world around him — the pattering heartbeat of a nearby mouse, the musical tinkling of a distant stream. Soon the sounds of adventure call to Pudding, too. But before he can strike out into the wide world on his own, he hears a voice — coming from right inside his own ear. A flea has claimed Pudding as his host. The bossy parasite demands that Pudding take him away from the lowly barn and the drunken singing of his fellow fleas. He doesn’t want adventure but a finer life — one where he can enjoy a warm bed and blood flavored not with mice, but with beef tenderloin and cream. Fortunately for this mismatched pair, the world is an extremely interesting place in 1901. Over the next decade and a half, Pudding and his flea find themselves helping to make history — a journey over Niagara Falls in a barrel, a visit to the Pan-American Exposition on the day President McKinley is shot, a luxurious stay in Manhattan with songwriter Vincent Bryan, a terrifying trip on the airship America, and a voyage on the ill-fated Titanic. Through each narrow escape, the call to adventure for the cat, and luxury for his disgruntled flea, beckons them on, right to the devastation of a World War I battlefield. Then Pudding is filled with a new longing, one that brings him, with his flea’s help now, full circle and back home. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.3 Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character's thoughts, words, or actions). CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.7 Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem). CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3 Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.

Sam Lyttle learns that sometimes the truth can hurt just as much as a lie in this follow-up to the humorous and cheeky illustrated middle grade novel The Pudding Problem which Kirkus Reviews calls perfect for “fans of Timmy Failure and Big Nate.” School’s out, and a long, hot summer of endless fun beckons for Sam and Charlie. Except that no sooner has it begun than they’re wishing it away in anticipation of Cry Wolfe, the first Wolfe Stone movie, which opens at the end of the season. Sam’s mom issues him a challenge: if, and only if, Sam can make it through the entire vacation without telling a single fib, he will be allowed to see his crime-fighting hero on the big screen. Six whole weeks, without a single lie?! No problem. Until the small matter of a tray of snowball cakes in the fridge with a Sam-sized footprint in them threatens to end Sam’s dreams of cinema heaven. Can he continue to steer clear of lying, while not having to reveal the actual reason he was in the fridge, in the dark, standing on a table to get to the top shelf to hide ‘the thing that shall never be named?’

One night a puppy,who is always late coming home finds there is no dessert for him. On board pages.

Clifford Allyn Abernathy III (just Cliff, for short) is the oldest of six kids in a family that does everything—fighting, laughing, playing, eating, telling stories, and celebrating the holidays—in a big, often outlandish, and sometimes poignant way. Taking the family from Christmas to Christmas, the chapters of Fig Pudding, narrated by eleven-year-old Cliff, are complete short stories in themselves. Read together, they tell the tale of life in a large, loving family. Besides a fresh look, this edition includes a brand new story.

A little boy learns that he did not cause his parent's divorce because of the mess he made with chocolate pudding, and describes his new life living with his dad and seeing his mom on weekends.

To Sam Lyttle, the truth is like an elephant. It’s heavy, worrying and wrinkly. And when it’s sitting in your way, you can’t go under it or over it. But you CAN skirt round it… So Sam does, every now and then, tell the odd porky-pie, much to the annoyance of his family. But is there more to Sam’s occasional streeeetching of the truth than meets the eye? The first book in this laugh-out-loud series by author and illustrator Joe Berger. ‘… truly funny, with verbal, visual and fart jokes appealing not only to those who find reading heavy going.’ Nicolette Jones, The Sunday Times’ Children’s Book of the Week