Book 1

The Flinkwater Factor, 1

by Pete Hautman

Published 1 September 2015
Ginger must save her high-tech hometown from robots gone rogue in this "quirky, dryly funny" (Booklist) science fiction novel from National Book Award-winning author Pete Hautman.

Welcome to Flinkwater, Iowa, home of the largest manufacturer of Articulated Computerized Peripheral Devices in the world. If you own a robot, it probably came from Flinkwater.

Meet Ginger Crump, the plucky, precocious (and somewhat sarcastic) genius who finds herself in the middle of a national emergency when Flinkwater's computers start turning people into vegetables. Mental vegetables, that is. In Ginger's words, they've been "bonked."

When Ginger's father is bonked, she recruits her self-declared future husband, boy genius Billy George, to help her find the source of the bonkings. Soon they're up against a talking dog, a sasquatch, and a zombie, while Flinkwater is invaded by an army of black SUVs led by the witless-but-dangerous Agent Ffelps from Homeland Security. Can Ginger get to the bottom of the bonkings, or will computer chaos reign forever?

Book 1

The Flinkwater Factor

by Pete Hautman

Published 20 September 2016
Ginger must save her high-tech hometown from robots gone rogue in this "quirky, dryly funny" (Booklist) science fiction novel from National Book Award-winning author Pete Hautman.

Welcome to Flinkwater, Iowa, home of the largest manufacturer of Articulated Computerized Peripheral Devices in the world. If you own a robot, it probably came from Flinkwater.

Meet Ginger Crump, the plucky, precocious (and somewhat sarcastic) genius who finds herself in the middle of a national emergency when Flinkwater's computers start turning people into vegetables. Mental vegetables, that is. In Ginger's words, they've been "bonked."

When Ginger's father is bonked, she recruits her self-declared future husband, boy genius Billy George, to help her find the source of the bonkings. Soon they're up against a talking dog, a sasquatch, and a zombie, while Flinkwater is invaded by an army of black SUVs led by the witless-but-dangerous Agent Ffelps from Homeland Security. Can Ginger get to the bottom of the bonkings, or will computer chaos reign forever?


Book 2

The Forgetting Machine

by Pete Hautman

Published 20 September 2016
People all over Flinkwater are losing their memories-and it's up to Ginger to figure out what's going on-in this sequel to the "quirky, dryly funny" (Booklist) The Flinkwater Factor from National Book Award-winning author Pete Hautman.

Absentmindedness in Flinkwater, a town overflowing with eccentric scientists and engineers, is nothing new. Recently, however, the number of confused, forgetful citizens has been increasing, and no one seems to know why. Ginger Crump figures it's none of her business. She has her own problems. Like the strange cat that's been following her around-a cat that seems to be able to read. And the report for school due Monday. And the fact that every digital book in Flinkwater has been vandalized by a fanatical censor, forcing Ginger to the embarrassingly retro alternative of reading books printed on dead trees.

But when Ginger's true love and future husband Billy Bates completely forgets who she is, things suddenly get serious, and Ginger swings into action.