Scurvy Goonda

Author: Chris McCoy

First line: On a black night, beneath a canopy of dense trees determines to prevent the moon from illuminating his route, Ted Merritt furiously pedaled his bike to his summer job at the local Stop to Shop supermarket.

Why you should read this book: In a really imaginative take on the kingdom of the imagination, this book posits the origins and conclusions of "abstract companions" or ab-coms, the really real imaginary friends of the world's children. At fourteen, Ted Merritt realizes that the bacon-eating pirate who follows him everywhere may be negatively impacting his social life, but when he agrees to let a psychiatrist cure him of his ab-com, Scurvy Goonda, he unearths a plot that threatens the very existence of creativity in human children along with the fate of a world he never expected. Along with a flawless ballerina, a talking Narwhal, an Olympic-medal wearing hamster, and an army of made-up creatures, Ted and Scurvy must outwit a giant, arrogant parrot skeleton in an endlessly inventive fantasy story.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You are a programmer of violent, first-person shooter games or a publisher mindless celebrity tabloids.