Melonhead [Hardcover]

Katy Kelly (Author), Gillian Johnson (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up | Series: Melonhead

Melonhead is my preferred name. Preferred by me, not my mom. She likes people to call me by my real name, Adam Melon. Luckily, it’s too late for that because when my friend, Lucy Rose, invented Melonhead, it caught
on fast.

Usually I am the one doing the inventing. All my life, which is 10 years, great ideas have been popping in and out of my melon head. Sometimes they work. This year they’d better, because our class is entering an inventing fair. My friend Sam and I are dreaming up plans. And Capitol Hill has a ton of places to find invention parts. We just have to make sure to get home on time, with no excuses. If we get first place at school, it will be Chantilly, Virginia Regionals, here we come!

The first book in an all-new series by Katy Kelly is nonstop adventure—and trouble. Meet Melonhead!

Katy Kelly lives and writes full-time in Washington, D.C. Melonhead is her fifth book for young readers.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 2–5—Adam Melon, Melonhead to his friends, brings his own brand of logic to his endeavors. The 10-year-old concocts grand plans that never quite come off as intended. His climb up a tree requires the Jaws of Life to free him, a first for the Washington, DC, fire department. His essay on head lice wins him the Homework of the Week award and his mother's consternation. When Adam and his friend Sam catch a snake, Sam's baby sister carts it around at night and drops it in her parents' bed. Adam struggles with the right idea for his science project; his experiments with plaster of Paris (never pour it down a drain), diapers, and mosquitoes produce typical Melonhead disasters. The final invention will entertain and educate readers. This is the first book in the series, a spin-off of the author's "Lucy Rose" books (Random). It is laugh-out-loud funny, rivaling Stink and Fudge in its troublemaker quotient. Adam never quite understands consequences until it is too late, but young readers will see potential trouble ahead while appreciating his ingenuity. The capital setting and a unique cast of secondary characters round out this strong chapter-book offering.—Caitlin Augusta, The Darien Library, CT
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Library Binding edition.

From Booklist

Adam Melon (Melonhead) from Kelly’s Lucy Rose books begins his spin-off series, and if Lucy Rose is an older Junie B. Jones, then Adam is a nine-year-old Stink, from the eponymous series by Megan McDonald. Adam is at that growing-up stage where possible consequences take a backseat to enthusiasm, resulting in a lot of learning, a lot of parental bafflement, and a lot of laughs. Other than getting his leg stuck in a tree, cutting open a saturated diaper, and scouring the kitchen for lost reptiles, Melonhead enters the school reinvention fair and trades creative rhyming phrases with his best friend, such as Don’t be silly, Willie and You’re smart, Fart. The everyday adventures, set in Washington, D.C., and relative lack of conflict are precisely what provide the appeal here, and readers will enjoy meeting an average kid. Grades 3-5. --Andrew Medlar

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (March 10, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385734093
• ISBN-13: 978-0385734097
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.8 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,108,635 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Katy Kelly- Here's the Thing About Me!

I was born in Washington, DC and grew up on Capitol Hill, four blocks away from the capitol of the United States. I still live in Washington, DC.

Before I wrote books for kids I was a features reporter for USA Today. I've also worked at People magazine. The best thing about being a reporter is getting to meet all kinds of different people.

I have an artist husband and two fabulous daughters. Some of the things in the Lucy Rose and Melonhead books actually happened to our family. Like when the guinea pig gets stuck in the wall. Only in real life it was a hamster.

Melonhead is based on my brother and my five Melonheaded nephews.

Melonhead's friend, Sam, is a real boy.

I work at home in my pink ffice. It is decorated with pictures by children's book artists. When I am tired of being at home, I work at Politics & Prose, a completely excellent bookstore near my house.

I am not very sporty. And I am not very organized. Mostly, I like to draw and read books and take long walks with my friends, some of whom are children.

I have one brother and two sisters.

My favorite food is ice cream.

You can e-mail me if you want. My address is [e-mail] I'll write back.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enchanting Review: Melonhead, April 28, 2009

By 

Enchanting Reviews "Lisa" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Melonhead (Hardcover)

MELONHEAD
KATY KELLY

Rating: 4 Enchantments

What can I say about MELONHEAD? It's an entertaining, at times truly hilarious read. Adam Melon aka Melonhead isn't exactly your typical ten year old boy. Not only is he a budding inventor, but it seems he's a magnet for trouble. Within moments of the reader first meeting him, he finds himself stuck up a tree with his foot lodged in a hole, and nothing seems to be able to free him--until the jaws of life get involved. But that's nothing for Melonhead, as he's used to this type of thing, including the press coverage an event like this causes.

When the science teacher at school comes in to speak to his class about the school-wide reinvention challenge of taking two old inventions and blending them together to make something brand new, Melonhead and his best friend Sam quickly partner up to come up with the best reinvention ever. Only along the way they find themselves adjusting their planned project when they discover the reflection pool isn't as deep as they thought, hence no need for the submarine they were thinking of making.

Written in an easy to read style, MELONHEAD is a book that'll keep your attention the whole way through. Ms. Kelly creates a fun world, filled with interesting characters. I especially enjoyed the way she describes the characters, from the way Melonhead talks about his mom's breathing in the first chapter when she comes racing up to the tree he's stuck in to the introduction of how he met his good friends Madam and Pop. MELONHEAD is a good kick-off to what should no doubt be a humorous, fun filled series.

Katy Kelly lives and writes full-time in Washington, D.C. with her artist husband and their two daughters. MELONHEAD is her fifth book for young readers.

Gillian Johnson is a UK-based author/illustrator who lives in Oxford with her husband and two sons.

Lisa
Enchanting Reviews
March 2009

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars pretty darn perfect, June 29, 2009

By 

E.K.B. "EKBofNYC" (Manhattan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Melonhead (Hardcover)

i love this book! there are few times that you can read a kids book and find your grown up self laughing out loud. this author has also written a girl-series (Lucy Rose) and this boy oriented series is refreshing and fun- a perfect opposite to Lucy Rose. loved it!

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Percy Potter, 9-year-old book worm, June 26, 2009

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Melonhead (Hardcover)

I liked this book because I thought the inventions in the end were cool. I didn't like this book there wasn't enough action. I would recommend this book to people who like creative books.