Arthur looked. It was true. He’d gone down into the basement fat, and he’d come back thin. Gloriously, triumphantly thin. Well, not thin exactly, but not fat, either. Certainly not fat.
“It worked,” he said, and his eyes were big and full of surprise. “It really worked!”
“What worked, dear?” his mother asked.
“Everything. I learned to do stuff like pull-ups, and row a boat, and fly, and ride the giants, and save the universe.”
“What?” his mother asked, as if she hadn’t heard him clearly. “What did you say?”
“Oh, nothing,” said Arthur.
And he went out into the world, the real world, his own world, and he knew in his heart that he wasn’t Biscuit Butt, or Goodyear the human blimp. From this day on, he had a new name, one he’d earned for himself.
Arthur Courage.
About this Scholastic Signature Author
RODMAN RHILBRICK is an award-winning author of books for both adults and young readers. Writing since the age of sixteen, he has published more than a dozen novels and numerous short stories, articles, and reviews. His first novel for young readers, Freak the Mighty, published by the Blue Sky Press in 1993, was named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, a Judy Lopez Memorial Award Honor Book, and an ALA Quick Pick. Freak the Mighty was made into the 1998 Miramax feature film The Mighty. Philbrick’s sequel, Max the Mighty, received starred reviews, and his novel The Fire Pony received the 1996 Capital Choice Award. His most recent book for the Blue Sky Press, The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg, was chosen by the American Library Association as a 2010 Newbery Honor Book. He will be publishing a new novel in 2014 about a boy named Zane Dupree and his dog, Bandit, who become trapped in New Orleans just as Hurricane Katrina hits the city. Mr. Philbrick divides his time between Maine and the Florida Keys. You can visit him on his website: www.RodmanPhilbrick.com.
Other Signature Titles
Freak the Mighty
Rodman Philbrick
The Fire Pony
Rodman Philbrick
Afternoon of the Elves
Janet Taylor Lisle
Somewhere in the Darkness
Walter Dean Myers
The Classroom at the End of the Hall
Douglas Evans
Bad Girls
Cynthia Voigt
Praise for RODMAN PHILBRICK’S REM World
“Non-stop action and adventure abound in this otherworld fantasy.”
—Childhood Education
“Imaginative characters and a string of cliffhangers make Philbrick’s science-fiction novel a fun and fast-paced read….These vivid personalities will usher readers quickly through the chapters.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A fast and furious journey into an alternative universe….Young Harry Potter fans…will recognize the misfit hero in a strange, new world.”
—Booklist
“Philbrick’s narrative voice is exciting and pulls the right strings.”
—School Library Journal
This book was originally published in hardcover by the Blue Sky Press in 2000.
Copyright © 2000 by Rodman Philbrick
Cover illustration copyright © 2001 by Greg Call
All rights reserved. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
First Scholastic trade paperback printing, March 2002
Cover art by Greg Call
Cover design by Jennifer Rinaldi
e-ISBN 978-0-545-66860-6
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
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