The "Steinbeck of middle school" as a colleague calls him, does it again with a memoir of the insane adventures he drew upon in writing his adventure fiction. I couldn't stop laughing when I read the part about him tossing his entire dog team one by one towards the front of the small plane they were misbalancing--each dog would crash into the pilot, then immediately run back to Gary. My students were somewhat apalled at how funny I found this image.