Kirjahaku

Welcome to Wise Acres, where the sassy kids go. In the seventh installment of Heck, Dale E. Basye sends Milton and Marlo Fauster to Wise Acres, the circle reserved for kids who sass back. In Wise Acres, the cleverest, snarkiest, put-downiest kids debate and trade insults in Spite Club. But the new vice principal, Lewis Carroll, has some curious plans to raise the profile--and the stakes--of the competition. Now a full-fledged War of the Words will be broadcast through the afterlife. The winner will get the heck out of Heck and go straight to heaven. And the loser? Well, the loser goes down . . . all the way down to the real h-e-double-hockey-sticks. And Milton and Marlo are on opposite teams. Can they find a way out of Lewis Carroll's mad-as-a-hatter scheme? Or is one Fauster about to pay a permanent visit to the Big Guy Downstairs?

In his second novel in the popular series Heck, Dale E. Basye takes Milton and Marlo Fauster on a journey that is as full of clever, dark humor and laugh-out-loud silliness as the first. Welcome to Rapacia, where the greedy kids go. When her brother, Milton, escapes the otherworldly reform school Heck in a soul balloon made of old clothes, Marlo is the only Fauster child left to take the blame. Bea Elsa Bubb, the Principal of Darkness, sends her straight to Rapacia, the circle of Heck where greedy kids are tormented by glimpses of a just-out-of-reach, glittering shoppers' paradise called Mallvana. Marlo soon falls under the sway of Rapacia's vice principal, a grinning metal rabbit known as the Grabbit that seems to have plans of its own. Marlo is torn between wanting to find a way out and wanting to do . . . whatever the Grabbit asks her to do.Meanwhile, back on the Surface, Milton has his own problems. He is determined to get in touch with Marlo and help her find a way out of Heck. But it's hard to concentrate when his body and soul don't seem to hold together the way they used to. Will Milton ever reach Marlo? And if he does, will they both end up as pawns in the Grabbit's mysterious game?

With more clever, dark humor and zany silliness, Dale E. Basye sends Milton and Marlo Fauster back for thirds in another laugh-out-loud installment of the popular series Heck. After his second escape from Bea "Elsa" Bubb, the Principal of Darkness, Milton Fauster makes his way to Blimpo--the circle of the otherworldly reform school, Heck, where he's sure his friend Virgil is sentenced. Virgil's only crime is being, well, plump. Milton has to wonder if that's really enough to justify eternal darnation. And what Milton finds in Blimpo horrifies him. The overweight dead kids spend most of their time running on giant human hamster wheels called DREADmills that detect and exploit their deepest fears. The rest they spend eating Hambone Hank's barbecue--mystery meat that is delicious, but suspiciously (to Milton, anyway) haunting. Every classroom has a huge TV screen showing happy thin people who taunt Blimpo residents with a perfection they will never attain. Meanwhile, at her new job in the devil's Infernship program, Milton's sister, Marlo, knows all about trying to achieve perfection. And failing miserably. Can Milton get himself and Virgil out of Blimpo in time to rescue Marlo, too? Or is Fauster the next delicacy on Bea "Elsa" Bubb's menu?

Dale E. Basye's most over-the-top (the Big Top, that is) adventure yet is now available in paperback. When Marlo Fauster claims she has switched souls with her brother, she gets sent straight to Fibble, the circle of Heck reserved for liars. But it's true--Milton and Marlo have switched places, and Marlo finds herself trapped in Milton's gross, gangly body. She also finds herself trapped in Fibble, a three-ring media circus run by none other than P. T. Barnum, an insane ringmaster with grandiose plans and giant, flaming pants. Meanwhile Milton, as Marlo, is working at the devil's new television network, T.H.E.E.N.D. But there's something strange about these new shows. Why do they all air at the same time? And are they really broadcasting to "the Surface"? Soon Milton and Marlo realize that they need each other to sort through the lies and possibly prevent the end of the world--if Bea "Elsa" Bubb doesn't catch them first.

After Marlo loses the War of the Words against her brother, she is whisked away to the deepest bowels of the underworld. Guilt-ridden, Milton agrees to work for Principal Bubb in hopes that he can locate his sister and somehow free her. But his nefarious mission--to "character assassinate" the reigning vice principal of Sadia: Where the Really Mean Kids Go--runs afoul when he learns the true identity of this mysterious individual. Meanwhile, Marlo wakes up to teenage paradise: a veritable You-Topia where everything seems to revolve around her. Marlo soon dis- covers, however, that she is being built up only to be torn down in the cruelest way possible by the Mother Superiority--ruler of the Shunnery--and her cold-shouldering, shade-casting denizens. There's also a mutiny brewing in Heaven while the underworld is turned into a tourist destination for the living. Can Milton follow through with his mission: navigating a nest of history's cruelest tyrants in the process? Can Marlo hold on to her identity amidst a nuclear self-esteem assault? Will they discover the secret history of Sadia before it is used as a weapon against none other than the Big Guy Upstairs?