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

The 336-page story of Dead Fred, Flying Lunchboxes, and the Good Luck Circle was born from real-life Laura McKinney’s imaginative adventures on more than one thousand walks to school. Over the last 7+ years, since she was in pre-kindergarten, she has never been driven to school.

With her friends and her father, author Frank McKinney, she walks from their historic 75-year old beach cottage through a dense grove of trees, past a eerie nature preserve, and over a rickety drawbridge on the Intracoastal Waterway. These one-mile odysseys occur every single school day of her life.

Let Ppeekk, all her friends, Dead Fred, the evil Megalodon and his army of vicious crabs and blood-red remora fish take you on this fantastical journey...

"I had a wonderful time reading this along with my 10yr old Johanna. We made it even more fun by making different voices to go along with the characters. Johanna didn't want to stop reading and was disappointed to have to wait until the next night to continue.  To hear her yell with joy when Dead Fred came back to life was really a joy to me and I think it tells a story about life in general for children (and adults) about the challenges we all face in everyday life. From interacting with each other in the family, to making new friends, overcoming adversity, triumphs and the fact that there are always new challenges (megalodons) down the road." - Randell L. Grant 

...When thirteen-year-old Ppeekk (pronounced "Peekie”) Rose Berry moves from rural Indiana to sunny south Florida, she is forced to walk to school on her first day.

So what if her aloof father walks behind her? As an only child, she’s used to boring adults, or “coprolites” as she privately calls them.

Her walk turns into an eagerly anticipated adventure---rain, shine or hurricane.

Early in the school year, her favorite sandy path is being paved over with concrete. But hanging off the back of the concrete truck is a little old man no bigger than she is. He’s puffing on a pipe and, if the character on the Lucky Charms cereal box had a grandfather, the little man would be him.

As he climbs into the truck to drive away, he smiles and blows a smoke ring toward  Ppeekk. This smoke ring sparkles like a wreath of diamonds before it vanishes.

There at her feet is a strange petrified twig. She picks up the twig and draws a sweeping circle in the wet cement, trying to recall the brilliance of the smoke ring. 

The next day, after tossing a water balloon into what becomes the Good Luck Circle and then dancing inside, everything changes.

On the drawbridge over the Intracoastal Waterway, she 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 of High Voltage, manatees talk, starfish are the gate keepers, and practical-joking clownfish encourage children to launch their lunchboxes off the bridge.

Now the fiendish Megalodon, a 50-foot prehistoric shark, has laid siege to High Voltage and dethroned King Frederick the Ninth (whom Ppeekk calls “Dead Fred”).

The monster reigns amphibiously under the old drawbridge with his henchmen, the blood-red crabs and devil-like remora fish, whose suckers drain victims’ joy and imagination.

Worse yet, the same forces threatening the water are now seeping out, destroying the happiness, the sense of wonder, and the imaginations of their schoolmates, teachers, and families.

As she grows to know Dead Fred, she learns to trust and love him. Unlike her parents, he listens to her and counsels her.

Dead Fred trusts Ppeekk, too. In fact, he has a BIG favor to ask. Can she help him save High Voltage and the coveted Eternal Life Circle from the evil Magalodon?

Ppeekk and her friends use everything they’ve got to lure the evil Megalodon to his demise—exploding coconut bombs, strangler fig lassos, even themselves as human bait—to vanquish the beast and his rogue army.

In the climactic scene, they fight the battle of their lives in a Category-5 hurricane . . . Will they be able to save Dead Fred and High Voltage? Will they succeed in killing Megalodon and protect the life force represented by the Eternal Life Circle?

Will Bridget the nasty, cigar chomping bridgekeeper raise the mountainous drawbridge to keep her away from High Voltage, or lower it and allow her to pass?

Can she, sweet and gentle Ppeekk Rose Berry, who has never done anything overly adventurous, summon the courage to descend into this underwater world? Can she and her friends, rambunctious Mini Romey, brainy Quatro, Firecracker, Little Feet, G.J., Frizz, Mcflyo, Danimal do what Dead Fred needs her to do? 

Read Dead Fred, Flying Lunchboxes, and the Good Luck Circle to find out!