What Would Joey Do? (Joey Pigza Books)

City life is all Teddy Blue has ever known — until the cravenmurder of his brother, a Chicago policeman, changes his world overnight. Determined to hunt down the killer, he joins the Pinkerton Detective Agency and buries all thoughts of his old life along with his slaughtered sibling. But the former law student needs experience — and Teddy's about to get more than he bargained for in the wide open West, acting as bodyguard to the famous William Hickok. Irascible and unpredictable, "Wild Bill" more than lives up to his name. And now that his eyesight is failing and his taste for opium is increasing, his enemies are preparing to put a permanent end to his fabled career. Suddenly Hickok's survival depends on an untested young man from Illinois — who's about to learn quick that, in Wyoming, justice isn't won with law and reason . . . but with a loaded Colt and a lightning draw.

With his new self-assumed role as "Mr. Helpful," Joey's on a mission to make everything and everyone better. Can Joey accomplish all this or will his wild, wired behavior spin him out of control all over again?

Jack Gantos is the celebrated author of Joey Pigza Loses Control, a Newbery Honor Book. He is also the author of the popular picture books about Rotten Ralph, and Jack's Black Book, the latest in his acclaimed series of semi-autobiographical story collections featuring his alter ego, Jack Henry. Mr. Gantos lives with his wife and daughter in Boston, Massachusetts.