Monday, March 25, 2013

Stu and the Stupid Stew





 Stuart, an inquisitive nine-year-old boy, lives in a village full of people so stupid that after falling in love with a delicious stew, the local philosophers come up with the Thought of thoughts: build a gigantic pot, fill it with stew, jump in and live happily ever after.


Only there's a problem: As the villagers stuff their faces, the stew becomes less. If they don’t escape, everyone will be trapped and burned at the bottom of the pot. Before long, the only way to the rim will be to build a human ladder. Stu sets out to warn everyone.


However there’s another problem: the villagers have forgotten they’re in a pot and demand proof - that Stu bring this so-called pot or mythical bottom to them. The philosophers force Stu to go to the bottom in a box where he meets a bizarre character called Archibald, Lord of Soup Sharks with 36 brains, who the philosophers have slanderously called the devil. However, a few begin to believe Stu's legend of the Bottom, calling him a prophet. Then a ridiculous war breaks out between the philosophers, and Stu wonders if they will ever escape in time.


This is an allegorical/satire middle grade silliness. Sample chapters available at  Authonomy.