Books with author James M. Deem

Once, no humans lived on the continent of North America; then they began to journey, the first migrants arriving perhaps 15,000 to 20,000 years ago. When a skeleton from long-ago centuries is discovered, scientists want to study it for information about the person’s life and death, about her or his time and place in history. Sometimes artists are asked to reconstruct faces from the past using copies of their skulls. Then these nameless, unknown people can be "brought back to life"--remembered, and honored. Now, when their skeletons are discovered, their stories can be told.

A cockroach wakes up one morning and discovers that he has turned into a boy. Shoebag likes his life as a cockroach. Like the others in his "tribe", he was named for the place of his birth - in his case, a white summer sandal. He enjoys living in a Boston apartment building with his parents, Drainboard and Under The Toaster, although they've lost countless relatives to jumping spiders, water bugs, beetles, and the deadly fumes of the dreaded exterminator. So when Shoebag discovers that he's been transformed into a person, he's horrified. But the worst is yet to come. Shoebag is adopted by the Biddle family and renamed Stu Bagg. Mr. Biddle enrolls him in Beacon Hill Elementary School, and every night for one hour before bedtime, he watches television with Eunice "Pretty Soft" Biddle, his new seven-year-old sister, who loves the color pink and is the star of toilet paper commercials. At school, Shoebag tries to fit in as a human, while back home he tries to protect his insect family from spiders, cats, and the Zapman. Then Shoebag discovers a secret formula that could change him back into a roach. All he has to do is choose.