Product Description

Thirteen-year-old Ppeekk (pronounced "Peekie") finds a very small, very flat, very dead fish. When he comes to life in her hand, he has an amazing story to tell.

In the brilliant underwater world called High Voltage, manatees talk, starfish sing, and practical-joking clownfish encourage children to launch their lunchboxes off the bridge. Now, a fiendish, fifty-foot, prehistoric shark has laid siege to High Voltage and dethroned King Frederick the Ninth (whom Ppeekk calls "Dead Fred"). Megalodon, the morphed monster, reigns amphibiously under the old drawbridge with his army of vicious crabs and blood-red remora fish, whose suckers drain victims' joy and imagination.

Can Ppeekk save High Voltage from the evil Megalodon and return Dead Fred to his rightful throne?

Ppeekk and her friends use everything they've got--exploding coconut bombs, strangler fig lassos, even themselves as human bait--to vanquish the terrifying beast and his rogue army. Their adventures culminate in the battle of their lives, fought in a Category-5 hurricane.

Best-selling author Frank McKinney boldly enters young reader fiction in this fantasy novel that is sure to race and gladden the hearts of readers of all ages. The story was inspired by the more than 1,000 walks to school the author has shared with his daughter and her friends in real life. Come along with them into the imaginative world of Dead Fred, Flying Lunchboxes and the Good Luck Circle!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #477975 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

Review
"An engaging and uplifting tale with more interesting characters than a Narnia adventure."
Steve Alten, New York Times bestselling author of the Meg series

About the Author

Frank McKinney is a two-time international bestselling author, philanthropist, and extreme risk-taker who's best known for his unprecedented success as a real-estate 'artist' and visionary. Renowned for his deep creativity, he introduced his gift to a broad audience of children and the young at heart through his first fantasy novel, Dead Fred, Flying Lunchboxes, and the Good Luck Circle, charging it with fairy-tale wonder, enthralling magic, and page-turning suspense. He and his wife, Nilsa, make their home in Delray Beach, Florida, where he has walked his daughter, Laura, and her friends (sometimes up to 40 adventurers at a time!) to school more than one thousand times and counting. Laura has never been driven to school and, with her fellow 'Dead Fredians,' engages them in adventures, stories, and wildly imaginative games. Visit Frank-McKinney.com and Dead-Fred.com  

Proceeds from all book sales go to benefit the good works of McKinney's Caring House Project Foundation, which provides a self-sustaining existence for some of the most desperately poor and homeless families around the world.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter Eight
The Strangler Fig Battle

Peekk woke, her nostrils flaring to the faint smell of fish. It wasn't a strong odor, but it was unmistakably fishy. She glanced at the alarm clock on her bedside table: 6:03 am, time for her usual pancakes and bacon—not fish. Still half asleep, she turned her head, cracked open one lid, and stared directly into the eye of a small fish lying right on her pillow.

Whoa! How did a little fish get onto her pillow? Maybe she was still asleep. But the fish stared at her, too. Then it all came rushing back to her—finding him on the bridge, hiding him in the usher's coatroom in the church, and finally stashing him in her backpack and hurrying home with him.

She'd placed him in between her pillow and the pillowcase, right at the edge so he could have a bit of air, as if that made any sense. Somehow he'd wiggled out. Now propped up on his two long side fins, he looked sort of like someone leaning on his elbows. He smiled from gill to gill. "Rise and shine."

©2008. Frank McKinney. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Dead Fred, Flying Lunchboxes and the Good Luck Circle. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the written permission of the publisher. Publisher: Health Communications, Inc., 3201 SW 15th Street, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442

Customer Reviews

A story any aquatic-loving kid will relish
Freedom from tyranny is something that drives many beings, even fish. "Dead Fred, Flying Lunchboxes, and the Good Luck Circle" tells the story of young Ppeekk (pronounced "Peekie"), a young human girl who is faced with the challenge of saving the underwater world known as High Voltage from the emergence of a vicious prehistoric monster. A unique children's adventure of standing up for the happiness of others, "Dead Fred, Flying Lunchboxes, and the Good Luck Circle" is a story any aquatic-loving kid will relish.

Imaginative and highly entertaining
As a teacher who has homeschooled my own three sons, and now as a teacher with my own classroom of physically disabled students, I highly recommend this novel for people of all ages to read. My students thoroughly enjoyed their teacher reading to them this delightful book, on a daily basis. They would ask for their teacher to read to them again the next day. The novel ranks on up there with the likes of Harry Potter and Alice in Wonderland as it is quite entertaining with the use of words that create vivid imagery as the reader is taken into a wild and imaginative world that entertains readers of all ages. Such vivid imagery led our class to making wonderful collages using mixed media. This book also provides for thought provoking discussions as the child characters are empowered as they go along with their adventures facing dilemmas that have positive results, teaching powerful messages as it so successfully helps to engage the reader. Dead Fred and the Flying Lunch Boxes and the Good Luck Circle is truly a highly appealing book, which has enthralled my classroom readers.

A fun, entertaining read
Another great book by Frank McKinney. This book is full of fun imaginative adventures great for kids as well as adults.