For Ages
6 to 9

Sky High is a part of the Zigzag Kids collection.

Charlie has lots of ideas. Need something to go sky high? Ah-ha! The zinger-winger! Need to launch a cheese popper into soup? The amazing popper-upper! But the zinger-winger zings more than wings and the popper-upper plops. Charlie isn't allowed to invent for a week. Meanwhile, the afterschool invention fair is coming up. He needs time to make something special. Good thing he has his friends and Mr. Redfern, another inventor, to help him out.

An Excerpt fromSky High

Chapter 1
Friday
It was time for the Zigzag Afternoon Center. Charlie couldn’t wait.
It was the first time for him this week. He’d been home sick with double earaches.
Borrrring!
Nana stayed home with him while Mom went to work. Nana vacuumed all day.
“Hoo-hoo,” she said. “Borrrring!”
Nana wanted to be an inventor. Just like Charlie.
And that was the one thing good about being home. Charlie could invent all day.
He liked to invent all kinds of things.
But most of all, he wanted to invent something that would fly.
He’d look out at the clouds. He could almost see himself up there.
Sky-high!
Nana wanted to be sky-high, too. “Someday, we’ll rocket ourselves right into space, Charlie,” she said. “Hoo-hoo.”
And right now he had two minutes to try his new invention: the Zinger-Winger.
On the way out to the school yard, he counted ceiling tiles. Maybe he could invent something with them.
He’d sit on one. There’d be a rocket underneath. Zoom!
Oof!
He bumped into someone. Someone he’d never seen before.
The man had a whoosh of tan hair.
It looked like a pigeon’s nest.
“Counting ceiling tiles?” The man…

Under the Cover