Milo Speck, Accidental Agent

Gr 4–6—Because he's small for his age, Milo's grandmother (she calls him "scrawny") buys him discounted clothes in the "barely boys" section. Embarrassed, he saves his most hated items, like his ducky sweatshirt, for days when he is not at school to avoid getting picked on. Milo is living an ordinary life folding socks, when he discovers a portal to another world, Ogregon, via the clothes dryer. While small in his world, he is absolutely tiny in this strange new land. What is even more amazing to Milo than coming across a land full of ogres is that his father, who he thought was a door-to-door fencing salesman, is actually employed by the top-secret Tuckerman Agency. Milo uses the books he read with his father as inspiration to find the courage within himself to help his father and his bossy friend, Tuck, save a bunch of children and escape Ogregon without getting squashed. Narrator L.J. Ganser does an especially great job with the silly parts, voicing the occasional gobbles from turkey Gilgamesh and the sweatshirt ducky's "quanks."