The Boy on the Bench and Other Stories
Kathleen Pennell, Lauren Pennell
language
(Paddock Publishing, Feb. 11, 2018)
Lancelot Maddox hides a family photo of himself and his discouragingly athletic brothers before leaving for the park everyday. His backpack brims with difficult puzzles and his shirt pocket is stuffed with mechanical pencils . Safely hidden behind shrubbery on an isolated bench, Lancelot works his puzzles, and practices the art of bench warming which he will surely need come soccer season this fall. He's bending over a particularly challenging puzzle when a woman looms over him and whispers that she's being followed. And, if that isn't disquieting enough, she asks him to deliver a coded message to an obscure building cowering between two skyscrapers. Naturally, it's a matter of life and death. Lancelot finally agrees if only to be rid of her. However, when he arrives at the address, there's no handle on the massive door. An intercom interrogates him and the door slides eerily open. All the decoders have left for the day, so with grave reservations, Chief asks Lancelot to decode the secret message. With the success of the decoded message under his belt, Lancelot joins the agency's ranks as a part-time decoder after school this fall. Suddenly, Lancelot graduates from the degradation of bench warmer to the lofty position of part-time decoder. Lancelot appears in five of the ten delightful short stories. Middle-school boys and girls share top billing in the remaining five stories.