As heard by kids everywhere on the Echo Dot Kids Edition, the Classroom 13 books are a hilarious new chapter book series-perfect for reluctant readers and fans of Roald Dahl, Captain Underpants, and Sideways Stories from Wayside School. The Unlucky Lottery Winners of Classroom 13 is the first title in a series about the students of a very unlucky classroom. The easy-to-read chapters are full of humor, action, secret codes, and fun-and will prompt hours of conversation among friends, families, and classmates. The final chapter encourages young readers to write their own chapter and send it in to the author, Honest Lee. When unlucky teacher Ms. Linda LaCrosse wins the lottery, she shares her winnings with her class-giving each student over a BILLION DOLLARS! You might think this was nice, but it was not. It was a nasty idea. With great money comes awful allergies, terrible taxes, violent volcanoes, and other pesky problems. As the students of Classroom 13 are about to learn, winning the lottery is not always lucky. Gr 2–4—Twenty-eight billion dollars seems like a ridiculous amount of money to win and spend. When unusually unlucky teacher Linda LaCrosse wins the lottery and agrees to share the winnings with her students, one would think her luck was about to change for the better—except it doesn't. Told in short chapters, with each one devoted to a winner, the story of how the characters spend their wealth gets more outrageous as the plot progresses. From buying all the cats in the state to accidentally freeing the money in a hot-air balloon, most of the kids somehow manage to burn through their cash rather quickly and rather unluckily. Even the class hamster is in on the action. Elementary schoolers will find the humor in each situation, though it may not give them a strong grasp of how much a billion dollars is really worth. VERDICT This first installment in a new series is a light and funny pick for confident chapter book readers.—Vivian Ho, Port Washington Public Library, NY "The short, easy-to-read chapters and wry humor will appeal to fans of Captain Underpants and Wayside School."― Kirkus Reviews "...these brief and funny fantasies revel in the tantalizing possibilities of insta-wealth."― Publishers Weekly Honest Lee is a liar! You can't trust a thing he writes. He insists that his stories are true. And they're totally not! Then again, I could be Honest Lee, which would mean I'm lying and my stories are true. What's the truth? I have no idea. Honestly. Matthew J. Gilbert is one of many Matthew Gilberts. Seriously. There's like a trillion of them. This particular Matthew Gilbert writes stories and has a nearly perfect mustache. When he's not writing about Classroom 13, he's watching monster movies, eating tacos, and singing made-up songs about his cats. Joelle Dreidemy spent her childhood in the countryside among cows and books, and has been drawing since she learned to walk. She lives in France, where she makes art for books, magazines, greeting cards, and more. When she's not illustrating, she sings and plays guitar in a rock band.