Books with title Humbug Holiday:

For two sixth graders who feel about school the way Scrooge feels about Christmas, a magical trip into Dickens’s tale is just what their spirits need. It’s Christmastime at Palmdale Middle School, and the sixth grade class has organized a holiday banquet for local families in need. Best friends Devin and Frankie—short for Francine—are excited to eat, but they forgot to bring in food donations. They also didn’t read A Christmas Carol for Mr. Wexler’s English class. While the two fight over the school’s last copy, the library’s magic security gates suddenly transport them straight into Charles Dickens’s timeless tale, where they come face to face with grouchy Ebenezer Scrooge, who’s about to get a wake-up call from some ghosts on Christmas Eve. As the ghosts show the stingy Scrooge the consequences of all the selfish choices he’s made in life, Devin and Frankie come to realize that they too have a few things to learn about kindness and generosity. Reluctant readers “Devin and Frankie are wisecracking underachievers and their characterizations and dialogue ring true” in Tony Abbott’s Cracked Classics series (School Library Journal).

Early one morning, a strange visitor arrives ― a visitor whose name is Holiday. “I’ll be taking over for you today!” Holiday tells Monday. And before long, Holiday has met the other days, even Saturday and Sunday, who usually sleep all week.With each introduction, Monday becomes more and more upset. She is used to starting the week, and she’d like to keep it that way. When Holiday announces how much fun he’s having, and that he’d like to stay, Wednesday and Friday admit that they are a little worried, too. Meanwhile, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday are completely smitten by this exciting new day. Finally, Monday (with Wednesday and Friday in tow), asks Holiday to kindly pack his things and go. Then just in time, Tuesday comes up with a solution that will work for everyone. Natalie Nelson’s ingenious characterizations of the days of the week will delight readers young and old, as will her story that pokes fun at how set in our ways we can be and how we might instead choose to be open to change and embrace the unexpected.

Hugh van Lewen, an ESL teacher working in South Korea, travels to the Philippines for some R&R. But immediately after landing at the Puerto Princesa airport on the island of North Palawan something seems to be wrong. All flights have been cancelled. Everyone is crowded around a flickering TV. A super typhoon has emerged out of nowhere and - to everyone's horror - is barreling right towards the island. As the waters rise and the walls move in Hugh (and Stella, a teenage girl) batten down the hatches. But surviving a single storm on the island is not the end of the game. It's the beginning. As the world seems to be unraveling around them, Hugh must make a choice. Should he take Stella under his wing, which could slow him down in getting to a place of safety or should he go it alone? And where is safe with all communications down, and everywhere seemingly in crisis? Is there any point to getting off the island, and going anywhere, because the problems on the world's mainlands have just begun...