Out from Boneville by Jeff Smith

We meet the Bone threesome in Book#1 under very trying circumstances. Due to one of Phone Bone's financial swindles, the three Bone cousins have been exiled from Boneville and they are lost and disheartened. Fone, the goodhearted hero, tries to lead the group on to find water and whatever else can be had, while looking out for his cousins. Turns out, the valley is populated by bugs, rats, a dragon, and even humans! Thorn and her Cow Racing Gran'ma take Fone Bone under their wings. We soon get the idea that something is not quite right as Gran'ma gets the "gitchy" feeling that's an omen of bad things to come....

Watch the video where Jeff Smith takes us to the setting for

Bone #6 Old Man's Cave

http://www.scholastic.com/bone/index.htm

Book Suggestion: Shredderman Series #1: Secret Identity, by Wendelin Van Draanen

If you need a step up from Diary of a Wimpy Kid, you need to check out Wendelin Van Draanen's realistic fiction Shredderman series. There's the unlikely but likeable protagonist, Nolan, his very real-life problems (bullying), and the stroke of genius which inspires his unusual solution: he creates his own super-powered cyber secret identity. Fortunately, this is the first of a series of five, and you're going to want to read each one (best in order, of course). The illustrations by Brian Biggs are hysterical.

If you're really curious, I'll save you some time with the sequels:

#2 Attack of the tagger

#3 Meet the gecko

#4 Enemy spy

#5 (stay tuned! Coming out May, 2009)

Related links:

Shredderman's own extremely fun website

http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/vandraanen/shredderman/

The author's website

http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/vandraanen/shredderman/clean/about.html