Amanda and the Scleeberry Tree

A delightful story, filled with word play, "Amanda and the Scleeberry Tree" tells the tale of a spunky, young adventurer with a unique problem: She's weird. Actually, the scleeberries from her scleeberry tree have made her weird. And she could stop being weird if she would just stop eating scleeberries.

But... Amanda really doesn't mind being weird. Yes, it bothers some of the neighbors in her little village of Bonny Weald. Yes, it can be inconvenient at times. For instance, the story opens with Amanda reading a note, learning that her all-time, best-ever friend will be gone for the whole summer. It makes Amanda very sad. For Amanda, sad looks like this:

"When Amanda finished the note, her countenance fell. It bounced three times. Thankfully, it landed face-up."

Don't worry. Amanda quickly feels around and finds her face. It isn't long, though, before she's in the middle of a great adventure: Her flowers are on the rampage; her carefully-planned, practical joke goes terribly wrong; and a machine appears in the village, one that makes her neighbors act even stranger.

Phil Farrand is the author of the Nitpicker's Guides.