Penelope "channels the quirkiness of Ramona Quimby!"— Shelf Awareness Penelope Crumb is not having a very good week. First she accidentally comes to school dressed as an elephant (dress like an animal day is  next  week), and then in gym class she's forced to square dance. With a boy who is known as Lippy Gordon because of how sweaty his lip is. All the time. Penelope is mortified. And then is extra mortified when she discovers that Lippy doesn't want to dance with her either! When Grandpa tells Penelope that he sings to the moon when he’s having trouble, Penelope grabs onto this plan. But sometimes you need more than the moon to fix things. Another sweet and funny Penelope book. Equal parts humor and heart, this is a character not to be missed. Perfect for fans of Ramona Quimby, Judy Moody and Clementine, and for fans who have just outgrown Junie B. Jones and Katie Kazoo.   Praise for PENELOPE CRUMB: *** " Penelope Crumb ...channels the quirkiness of Ramona Quimby and the detective skills of Cam Jansen...Penelope will delight children and parents alike."—STARRED REVIEW, Shelf Awareness *** "Penelope is an intrepid heroine...kids who have outgrown the Junie B. Jones series will enjoy Penelope's equally comical narrative style."— The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books "Readers will root for and relate to this fresh-voiced young heroine who joins the likes of Ramona, Judy Moody and Clementine."— Kirkus Reviews Praise for PENELOPE CRUMB IS MAD AT THE MOON: " Stout’s series about this tween’s worries, insecurities, quirkiness and wit deserves a space in library collections looking for precocious, independent girl characters who might not be perfect but are something else: realistic."— School Library Journal Praise for the PENELOPE CRUMB series: * "Penelope Crumb... channels the quirkiness of Ramona Quimby and the detective skills of Cam Jansen... Penelope will delight children and parents alike."— Shelf Awareness *STARRED*   "Penelope is an intrepid heroine... kids who have outgrown the Junie B. Jones series will enjoy Penelope's equally comical narrative style."— The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books   "Readers will root for and relate to this fresh-voiced young heroine who joins the likes of Ramona, Judy Moody and Clementine."— Kirkus Reviews Shawn K. Stout (www.shawnkstout.com) has held many jobs, including ice cream scooper, dog treat baker, magazine editor, waitress and, of course, author. She received her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Shawn now lives with her husband, her daughter Opal and her two dogs named Munch and Laverne in Frederick, Maryland, where she once won a ribbon for her Peach Pie at the Great Fredrick Fair. Follow Shawn on Twitter @shawnkstout. Chapter 1 Today I am an elephant. In a costume that I made all by myself out of my mom’s old gray sweat suit stuffed with pillows because it’s Be an Animal Day at school. I painted a lion on the back of the shirt because when you’re in the fourth grade you never know what’s going to leap out at you from behind the bushes. As I put on my paper-towel-tube elephant nose, plump my ears, and paint my hair and face gray, I think how nice it is to be something else in the mirror for a change. When my mom pokes her head in my room and tells me I’m going to be late and asks what’s the deal with the lion, I say, “Portwaller Elementary can be a real jungle.” Walking to school from our apartment is only a couple of blocks, but when you’re an elephant, for some reason, it seems to take a long time to get there. Plus there’s all the strange looks you get on the way. The kind of looks that say Do You Know What You Look Like? I just smile at them in a way that means Yes Indeed I Am Supposed to Look This Way, I’ve Done So on Purpose And Not by Accident. More than a couple of people shout at me and offer me peanuts, but I just pretend they are the strange ones. I’m an excellent pretender. But when I finally get to Portwaller Elementary, I know something is wrong as soon as I step inside: I’m the only animal at the zoo. All of the other kids, and I mean ALL of them, are in normal, everyday school kind of clothes without a single tail or paw or beak. I start to elephant-sweat as everybody begins to stare at me, and when I wipe my forehead, some of the gray paint comes off on my fingers. Good gravy. I see my used-to-be-best-friend, Patsy Cline Roberta Watson, at the drinking fountain. We’re still friends, just not best ones anymore, mostly because of a girl called Vera Bogg who doesn’t wear anything but pink. Which is something I will never understand. When I go up to Patsy Cline, my elephant nose brushes against her hair and she screams and spits water all down her shirt. I tell her it’s me, it’s me, Penelope Crumb, but her shirt is already soaked and she’s got a look on her face that says Don’t You Know I’m Allergic to Things with Tails? “Why aren’t you dressed like an