Book 2

In the second book in this wry series, award-winning author Patrick Ness explores school anxiety and the highs and lows of friendship with sidesplitting honesty—and pits our heroes against a slippery new supervillain.

On what should be a normal school day at their normal school—recently rebuilt at great expense by the town’s supervillain after her son destroyed it with a giant robot pelican suit—things begin to spin out of control for monitor lizards Zeke, Daniel, and Alicia and Meil the hawk the moment they board the school bus. For no good reason, Zeke is deeply unsettled by Daniel’s new pink hat. The tower sprouting on the town’s tallest hill surely contains a Death Ray of Death. And Meil’s predator instincts have kicked in: what if he accidently eats his friends or their new classmate, Peggy the flounder, in her portable aquarium? At school, Zeke suspects the new guidance counselor—who hails from the same pelican crime family as their nemesis—of turning Daniel and Alicia against him. Or was it something Zeke said? With lively graphic illustrations, breakneck action, and a big heart, book two blends droll satire with belly laughs to prove that when life turns up the heat ray, you get to choose who to be. Even unlikely reptilian heroes need the courage to say they’re sorry.

Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody

by Patrick Ness

Published 3 September 2024

Master storyteller Patrick Ness turns to middle grade in a hilarious adventure about a mismatched group of animals attending school together, brought to life by brilliantly funny illustrations.
Zeke and Daniel have just been made hall monitors by Principal Wombat. This has nothing to do with the fact that they are monitor lizards. And never mind the fact Alicia, the only other monitor lizard in the school, is also a hall monitor.
Somehow, the three hall monitors must impose order on arrogant lions, excitable seals and super-relaxed pandas. And worst of all, there is Pelicarnassus! A pompous giant pelican and the son of a major supervillain, who inexplicably has it out for the lizards. Can the hall monitor lizards and their new friend, a blind, fearsome red-tailed hawk, protect their school from all manner of outlandish threats?
Zeke and Daniel have just been made hall monitors by Principal Wombat. This has nothing to do with the fact that they are monitor lizards. And never mind the fact Alicia, the only other monitor lizard in the school, is also a hall monitor.
Somehow, the three hall monitors must impose order on arrogant lions, excitable seals and super-relaxed pandas. And worst of all, there is Pelicarnassus! A pompous giant pelican and the son of a major supervillain, who inexplicably has it out for the lizards. Can the hall monitor lizards and their new friend, a blind, fearsome red-tailed hawk, protect their school from all manner of outlandish threats?