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    Alley & Rex
    Alley & Rex
    Alley & Rex
    Ebook128 pages56 minutes

    Alley & Rex

    By Joel Ross and Nicole Miles

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    About this ebook

    Fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Wayside School will love this first book in a new, off-the-wall middle grade series about two boys—one with the heart of a lion and the test scores of a baked potato, the other a shy boy genius in a bunny suit—finding their strengths and true friendship.

    Sixth-grader Alley Katz is innocently trying to help a bunch of kindergarteners when the burrito hits the fan. Literally. A burrito. A ceiling fan. A hail of beans. Now he has to get an A on his science test or he’ll be transferred to the dreaded Steggles Academy.

    An A seems impossible! Alley is kind, intrepid, and well-liked, but for some reason he doesn’t get graded on any of that. So the principal assigns a peer mentor to help: Rex, a fourth-grade genius who wears a bunny suit.

    Alley is totally in favor of both bunnies and fourth graders, but he doesn’t need Rex. He has his own foolproof plan to ace the test. Still, Rex is determined to fulfill his duty as Alley’s mentor—and he may need some help of his own. One boy needs to stay in school, the other needs to get through it. Can this odd couple save the day—and each other?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAtheneum Books for Young Readers
    Release dateSep 28, 2021
    ISBN9781534495463
    Alley & Rex
    Author

    Joel Ross

    Joel Ross is the author of The Fog Diver, which received the Cybils Award and the YouPer Award from the Michigan Library Association and was named to the Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List. He is also the author of The Lost Compass as well as two World War II thrillers for adults (Double Cross Blind and White Flag Down). He lives in Santa Barbara, California, with his wife, Lee Nichols, who is also a full-time writer, and their son, Ben, who is a full-time kid. To find out more information, go to www.fogdiver.com.

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      Book preview

      Alley & Rex - Joel Ross

      1

      This is Blueberry Hill School, home of the Ladybugs. Look at the ordinary trees. Look at the ordinary buses.

      Look at the ordinary kids.

      Well, not that one.

      Look at the ordinary clouds and crowds and flagpole.

      Now zoom in.

      My name is Alex Katz and I don’t make good choices.

      At least, that’s what my parents and teachers say… if they catch me.

      After I slide down the flagpole, I blend into a crowd of fourth graders heading for the front doors. I’m a sixth-grade shape-shifter, blending into the background.

      Stealthy.

      Hidden.

      Invisible.

      I’m home free!

      Then I hear a laugh. A mean, mocking laugh.

      It’s Cameron Sykes! He’s in the seventh grade. When he became a hall monitor, he turned into the King of the Snitches. These days, he spends all his time:

      1) patrolling the hallways wearing a homemade #security badge.

      2) marching around grunting, Hut, hut, hut…

      3) ratting on anyone who brings a phone to school.

      4) posting embarrassing pictures of late kids to the school website.

      Also, he once threw a grapefruit at me for running in the hallway. On cold days, I can still feel the juice stinging my eye.

      And now he’s picking on a little kid in a bunny suit. That’s not a huge surprise. Cameron is a bully, and everyone knows you can’t wear an adorable rabbit onesie to school unless it’s Wear an Adorable Rabbit Onesie to School Day.

      Which, if you check the calendar, it never is.

      So I pause for a second to explain that we shouldn’t pick on littler kids…

      … and from across the yard, Principal Kugelmeyer yells, Alley!

      Which is me, because nobody calls me Alex. How I got the nickname Alley Katz is a long story, though. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.

      It’s only the third day of school, Principal Kugelmeyer says, after dragging me into her office. Why were you climbing the flagpole?

      It’s a tradition, I tell her. Like the Hill Build.

      My school goes from kindergarten through eighth grade. Every year, the new third graders make a model of Blueberry Hill for the Hill Build Contest. For example, when I was a little kid, I convinced my class to slather blueberry jam onto a mound of helium balloons. It was awesome. Well, it didn’t look anything like the school… but three years later, you can still see the stains on the ceiling. I call that a win.

      Nobody ever climbed the flagpole before, Principal Kugelmeyer tells me.

      "That’s because it’s a new tradition," I inform her.

      And I don’t want them to start now, she continues, bulldozing over my excellent point. You know the other kids copy you. Especially when you do something reckless like climbing the flagpole—which is not a tradition.

      "It could be. All traditions have to start somewhere."

      Think about it. A hundred years ago, some kids dressed in costumes FOR ABSOLUTELY NO REASON and pounded on a neighbor’s door, demanding candy.

      The neighbor must’ve been like, What art thou doing? which is how they talked back then.

      Then the kids said, We art making a brande-new tradition called Halloween! Now hand over some Thrice Musketeers Bars, thou dorkfish, or with our TP shall we festoon thy house.

      I explain that to Principal Kugelmeyer, but she’s not interested in history. Honestly, I don’t know how these people keep their jobs.

      This is your one free pass, she tells me, drumming her fingers on her desk. In honor of the new school year.

      Oh! Well, um, I hope you’re sitting down—

      "I am sitting down, Alley," she says.

      "—because I just thought of a way to honor the school year ten times more!"

      By giving you ten free passes?

      I gape at her. How did she guess?

      Alley, she says.

      Here, I report. Present!

      This is your only chance. After last year… She shudders. You’ve been warned.

      I didn’t know the crickets would do that.

      She exhales. Just remember what we said about making better choices.

      I will, I promise.

      And I’ll keep that vow, because I have a…

      Last year, I made a few bad choices (also, I learned that you can order thousands of live crickets online) and almost got expelled.

      So this year, I’ll make lots of choices. Dozens and dozens of choices. That way, I’m sure to make some good ones, which will balance things out.

      See? Foolproof!

      Except Principal Kugelmeyer says, I’m glad to hear that, Alley. And I’m calling your parents in for a talk, to make sure you don’t forget.

      That’s why my dad meets me after school, in the principal’s office. He’s holding

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