What has gotten into Brewster the rooster? The Macintosh family can't understand why their barnyard pet is crowing at the darnedest things. "I'm worried about Brewster," Magnolia said, mixing carrot cake batter with raisins. "Something has changed. It seems so strange but he's crowing at the oddest occasions." Whether it's the children playing catch in the yard, Zeb painting the barn red, or Grandma Pearl flipping hotcakes, Brewster can't stop from letting out an earsplitting cock-a-doodle-doo that sends the Macintosh family head over heels. When the barnyard brouhaha gets too much, even Doc Sawyer is consulted. But can he figure out how to help Brewster? Readers young and old will be charmed by the perfect solution to Brewster's problem.Devin Scillian is an Emmy-award-winning broadcast journalist with the NBC affiliate station in Detroit. Brewster the Rooster is his ninth book with Sleeping Bear Press. He also wrote the bestselling A is for America: An American Alphabet. Devin lives with his family in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan. Lee White graduated from the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. In addition to illustrating children's books, he also exhibits his art in galleries. Lee currently lives in Portland, Oregon. Brewster the Rooster is his first project with Sleeping Bear Press.

Fiction, Reading Recovery Level 20, F&P Level M, DRA2 Level 28, Theme Problem/Solution, Stage Transitional-Early Fluent, Character N/A

When a Depression-era southern town suffers a series of inexplicable tragedies, life is interrupted for its denizensincluding a womanizing mayor, the abused wife of a sullen locomotive engineer, an honest but compromised police chief, a minister that seems to levitate, a dying junk dealer, a Black preacher caught between two worlds, a brutal company guard, a diminutive railroad executive and master manipulator, and a group of church ladies prone to gossip. Seventy years later, in Southern California, these stories are interwoven into the social trials of Taylor Bedskirt, a solitary widower with an obsession for trains, who falls desperately under the spell of an aggressive and careworn waitress, earns cautious acclaim from like-minded enthusiasts, and attempts to ward off a sister intent upon giving him a normal life. What ensues is a trenchant and often humorous exploration of the fictions we create and how we come to believe them.

A boy tries to stop a rampaging robot in this “deliciously wicked fun” tale by the author of The House with a Clock in Its Walls (School Library Journal) When feared Yankees slugger Cliff Bullard goes barnstorming around the northeast, offering $10,000 to any local pitcher who can strike him out, Professor Childermass and Johnny Dixon get a sneaky idea. There’s a local legend about a crackpot inventor who once built a robot capable of throwing a baseball 110 MPH, and the professor thinks that if they find the machine, they can win Bullard’s prize. They discover the rusted old monstrosity in an abandoned workshop and put it back together, piece by piece. But when they screw in the robot’s eyes and it comes to life, they realize they have made a terrible mistake. As soon as it’s activated, the robot attacks, trying to kill Johnny and the professor. Was it made to be a killing machine, or have its circuits been corroded? To save the town and get a crack at the $10,000, Johnny and the professor will have to tame the steel beast. The adventure stories featuring Johnny Dixon, from the award-winning author of The House with a Clock in Its Walls, are a delightfully imaginative treat, and this book in the popular series features “a unique plot, marvelous characters, and non-stop suspense” (School Library Journal).

After Brewster Rooster discovers he can crow, nobody on the farm can get any sleep as Brewster practices his crowing all day and night.

In an attempt to achieve his dream of escaping a hectic life, Farmer Mac moves with his wife, Mrs Mac, to a rural property in a beautiful little valley. Here, the Macs continue to experience a hectic life of a different nature, full of adventure and humour. Each chapter, in turn, brings with it characters and events worthy of sustained interest. Farmer Mac, the main character in these tales, is a deep and lateral thinker whose somewhat impetuous nature is moderated by his lovely lady, Mrs Mac.