The Scooby-Doo Lunch Box by Quinton Bradley, 2021
The magic trick:
Upending expectations with a plot development that gets surprisingly extreme
Q is for Quinton.
This one might surprise and shake you. It has lots of gentle, comedic touches throughout that keep you assuming the tone is akin to a school sitcom. But that assumption gets upended in a big way by the last page when things take a turn.
And that’s quite a trick on Bradley’s part.
The selection:
Leaning in as close as he could without the tips of their noses touching, Howie bent down in Bobby’s face and whispered, “Make me.”
Bobby could smell the remains of Howie’s lunch on his breath: pizza, apple juice and (maybe) Cool Ranch Doritos.
There was no response. Bobby simply looked at the ground in defeat.
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