S.O.S.: Society of Substitutes #3: Food Fight!

By Alan Katz and Alex Lopez

If there’s a problem in school, there’s no substitute for the world-saving substitute teachers of the S.O.S.! This is the third book of this hilarious, highly illustrated early chapter book series.

Oh, no! Noah, the classroom’s evil pet ferret, has stolen everyone’s lunch—and worse yet, he’s done it on a day when Milton’s mom, the class’s go-to super-sub, is off on another assignment.

Will Milton be able to foil Noah’s most fiendish plot yet or will they lose their lunches for good in the gooiest, stickiest, biggest food fight ever?

HarperChapters build confident readers one chapter at a time! With short, fast-paced books, art on every page, and milestone markers at the end of every chapter, they're the perfect next step for fans of I Can Read!

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jul 13, 2021
• ISBN: 9780062909428

Alan Katz

Alan Katz has written more than forty highly acclaimed children’s books, including Take Me Out of the Bathtub and Other Silly Dilly Songs, The Day the Mustache Took Over, OOPS!, Really Stupid Stories for Really Smart Kids, and the New York Times bestseller Misty the Cloud, with Dylan Dreyer. Alan has received many state awards for children’s literature, and he frequently visits schools across the country.  Alan is also a six-time Emmy-nominated writer for series including The Rosie O’Donnell Show, Taz-Mania, Pinkalicious & Peterrific, numerous Nickelodeon shows, and more. He hosted a long-running game show on SiriusXM’s Kids Place Live channel, and he’s also created comic books, trading cards, theme park shows, and hundreds of other special projects for kids and their parents. 

Book preview

Milton Worthy always looked forward to his teacher’s funny Monday signs. He didn’t even mind when the weekend was ending, because he knew on Monday there’d be a new sign.

This sign made him laugh so hard, he misjudged the doorframe while reading it—and banged into the door. Fortunately, his backpack shielded him from injury.

Great going, kid, his best friend, Morgan Zhou, said. Keep practicing. Someday you’ll make it through the door on your first try!

Milton laughed as he entered the classroom. He shoved his unusually large backpack into his cubby. But still it stuck out—a lot—because it held his Rocks of All Nations collection. (Well, really, it was just rocks of two nations. Milton had just started collecting. But the official collector case he had was gigantic.)

Milton brought the rocks to school because it was Tell & Show Day. (Mrs. Baltman called it Tell & Show instead of Show & Tell because, well, anyone can show something. She said that it’s the telling that’s really important.)

Then Milton took his lunch box from his backpack and placed it in the classroom’s brand-new lunch cooler. Everyone’s lunch boxes went in there. It kept vegetables fresh, drinks cold, and prevented egg salad sandwiches from smelling like feet.

Goodbye, lunch, he told his bologna and cheese sandwich. I’ll eat ya later!

Are you talking to your food, Milton? Morgan asked.

It’s good to talk to food, Milton replied. My left sneaker told me that this morning.

Listening to your shoes?