The Underdog Parade

“[Protagonist] Peter . . . is appealing, and readers will applaud his small triumphs.” —Booklist



“I fell in love with Michael Mihaley’s band of misfit characters. They show us anything is possible with a little bit of faith and a whole lotta heart.” —Barbara J. Taylor, author of All Waiting Is Long

It’s the summer of the drought, but thirteen-year-old Peter “Nemo” Grady has bigger problems on his mind than the weather. He hates his new home in the exclusive golf club community Willow Creek Landing. His parents are always fighting and he can’t escape the memory of his last seizure—when he flopped around the gymnasium floor like a fish out of water—earning him his dreaded nickname. To top it all off, Peter has no friends, but he receives plenty of unsolicited attention from Chipper, the boy scout super-bully who also happens to be a resident of Willow Creek. His only companion is his little sister, CJ, who thinks she is Wonder Woman.

Peter is all too aware that you don’t need rain in the forecast to have dark clouds overhead.



Things change when he meets his new neighbor, the mysterious Joshua, who predicts the drought will end with a storm of biblical proportions. Peter looks to his visiting, wheelchair-bound Uncle Herb, and his neighbors, Mr. James and Mr. Terry, for guidance as Josh prepares for imminent doom. With each passing day, Peter realizes that sooner or later he will have to rely on the strength of the lamest, most jelly-weak individual he knows—himself.



Part of Akashic’s Oddities Kaylie Jones Books imprint. Oddities Kaylie Jones Books is our experimental line that focuses on unconventional, edgy, risk-taking novels that boldly defy the traditional forms and conventions of the literary novel, with a focus on YA, horror, and mystery. While our primary emphasis is fiction, we will make space for exceptional memoirs with nontraditional elements and themes.