The Aldo Zelnick Comic Novel
8 primary works • 10 total works
Book 1
Aldo Zelnick is not an athlete like his older brother or a rock collector like his best friend; he's just a regular kid who likes to draw. One summer Aldo's grandma, Goosy, gives him a sketchbook in which to record all of his ideas and adventures, and Aldo quickly discovers how much fun cartooning is. From petitioning for a neighborhood pool slide to his passion for slushies, Aldo illustrates his summer vacation, wacky friends, and loving family in this charming comic novel that blends text with illustrations on every page. Engaging and entertaining, the story and drawings in this book will captivate both enthusiastic and reluctant young readers. This first installment in an A-to-Z alphabet series includes a glossary of words to help kids broaden their vocabulary.
Book 2
Ten-year-old Aldo Zelnick has decided it's fun to be artistic, and when his grandma Goosy gives him a second sketchbook, Aldo fills it with more comic drawings, fun words, and accounts of his extraordinary adventures in everyday life. When Aldo and his best friends, Jack and Bee, find a diamond ring, they can't decide if it's real or fake; but real or not, they can't seem to hold on to it. As the trio hunts for the misplaced ring, they also learn about other countries and cultures. This second installment in an A-to-Z alphabet series includes a glossary of words to help kids broaden their vocabulary.
Book 3
As summer draws to a close, 10-year-old Aldo Zelnick travels to the Anderson farm in Minnesota for a family vacation. Aldo's mom is eager for him to experience her favorite childhood pastimes such as shucking sweet corn, milking cows, gathering eggs and best of all enjoying fresh air and living off the land. But Aldo suspects that farm life isn't all it's cracked up to be, and his worst fears are confirmed. The rooster wakes him at dawn, the chores exhaust him, and the cousins identical twin pranksters are in cahoots against him. Even the creepy old portrait of his great-grandfather seems to be watching these shenanigans from the frame on the wall. Aldo must endure all this without the consolation of TV or computers, because the farm is (gasp!) technology free. The humorous plot turns and lively drawings in this book will captivate both enthusiastic and reluctant young readers. This third installment in an A-to-Z alphabet series features a vocabulary-building glossary of cool words starting with the letter C, including conniption, charisma, and cattywampus.
Book 4
Ten-year-old Aldo lives with his family in Colorado. He's not athletic like his older brother; he's not a rock hound like his best friend; and he is none too fond of the outdoors--but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a passion. Aldo is passionate about bacon. Back at school adjusting to life in the 5th grade, Aldo is embarrassed about his artistic abilities. He has always underplayed his creative talent at school; but when he is around his cute new art teacher he suddenly finds himself behaving strangely. He loses the ability to speak when she's around, volunteers to skip recess so he can clean paintbrushes, and finds himself working harder than ever before in a daring attempt to win the school art contest. The humorous plot and lively drawings in this book will captivate both enthusiastic and reluctant young readers who will identify with Aldo's all-too-familiar predicaments. This fourth installment in an A-to-Z alphabet series features a vocabulary-building glossary of fun and challenging words starting with the letter D, such as debacle, doofus, and defenestrate.
Book 5
It's October, and Aldo thinks he's Einstein. Gloating over his epic first-quarter grades and test scores, he even decides to dress as the iconic scientist for Halloween. But his bubble bursts when he realizes he's not living up to expectations in one class, Espanol, and that the consequences may be more hurtful than a bad grade on a report card. Is Aldo's friendship with his bilingual best friend, Jack, at stake? Egghead is, in part, an homage to Madeleine L'Engle's classic children's novel A Wrinkle in Time, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2012. It was a dark and stormy night...Look for enigmatic, eclairs, eureka and lots more fun, challenging "E" words used throughout Egghead!
Book 7
The Zelnick family likes Christmas a lot, but Aldo -- whose plan to get presents galore may be running into a glitch -- does not. He thinks that "giving being better than receiving" is gobbledygook and doesn't understand what the "Adopt-a-Family Tree" at the mall has to do with him. Guinness World Records, holiday gnomes, a glass-blowing grandma, and generous helpings of goofiness abound in this seventh installment in the series. A vocabulary-building glossary of fun and challenging words that start with the letter G, such as gumption, gloat, and gadzooks, is also featured.
Book 8
Just how humdrum is 10-year-old Aldo Zelnick's life right now? So humdrum that he sets out to measure which January day will be the most boring. So humdrum that Jack and Bee succeed in getting him to try some weird hobbies. So humdrum that his recurring Hawaiian dream has become way more enticing than real life. So humdrum that even unathletic Aldo agrees to downhill ski with his superjock brother, Timothy--and finds that hotdogging it on the slopes can be hazardous to your health. The humorous plot and lively drawings in this book will captivate enthusiastic and reluctant readers alike. This eighth installment in an A-to-Z alphabet series also includes a glossary of fun and challenging "H words," such as harbinger, hyperbole, and hogwash.
Book 9
If there's a more inopportune date for an elementary school boy to have a birthday than February 14th, Aldo Zelnick wants to know what it is. With his 11th birthday and Valentine's Day fast approaching, Aldo plans a guys-only party with absolutely no pink, lace, or hearts, thank you very much. But what will happen if the girls, who all seem to have a crush on Aldo's friend, Danny, crash the party? In this story, told in part by Aldo's friend-who-happens-to-be-a-girl, Bee, Aldo learns early that love means always having to say you're sorry. The humorous plot and lively drawings in this laugh-out-loud book will captivate enthusiastic and reluctant readers alike. This ninth installment in an A-to-Z alphabet series also includes a glossary of fun and challenging "I words," such as inkling, irk, and impervious.
It's June, and Aldo's mom has decided to drag him—together with his classmate Marvin and Marvin's mom—on a camping trip. After a stop at majestic Mesa Verde National Park, the foursome strap on their backpacks and head into the Utah wilderness in search of a rare spotted owl and other natural wonders. Will Aldo muster the self-sufficiency to survive when disaster strikes? This thirteenth installment in an A-to-Z alphabet series also includes a glossary of fun and challenging "M" words, such as malarkey, moonstruck, and mumbo-jumbo.
When a warm March day beckons Aldo and his best friend, Jack, outdoors to their fort under the giant pine tree, stick-in-the-mud Aldo gets, well, stuck in the mud. As they dig Aldo's sneakers out from the embankment, they unearth a humungous bone, which rock-hound Jack believes to be a dinosaur fossil from the Jurassic period. Their hilarious quest to figure out the bone's origin and value takes them to the nearby university, the local pawn shop, the famous dino dig site a few hours away, and finally, over spring break, to Dinosaur National Monument. Meanwhile, Aldo discovers the Indiana Jones movies, writes a book report on Journey to the Center of the Earth, starts in on a jumbo jawbreaker, and tolerates Bee, whose newfound passion for journalism could make or break him. This tenth installment in an A-to-Z alphabet series also includes a glossary of fun and challenging "J words," such as juju, jocular and jinx.