The Magnificent 12 #1: The Call by Michael Grant

Mack is a very ordinary boy with an extraordinary number of phobias and fears. As a matter of fact, he has a phobia of phobias! He saves the life of a school bully, and they team up after seeing a strange, magical man appear from nowhere. It seems Mack is supposed to travel the world to find eleven other kids, and they will join together to save the world. Of course, he has no idea what this is all about, but he knows there have been several attempts on his life. A golem shows up to take Mack's place while he's out of the country, so he sets off with his new bully buddy to Australia. Hopefully, he'll learn how to fall from a plane, five miles up, without dying in the middle of the ocean.

This book tells a strange story and was a 2010 finalist for a Cybils award in middle grade speculative fiction. Mack is an unlikely, reluctant hero, and he becomes partners with a school enemy. I'm pretty tolerant of weird humor, and this book is full of it. The golem tells Mack about trying pizza for the first time. He needs to spit it back out, because he doesn't have a stomach. The plot is told in two settings, as the author also shares the story of the first Magnifica's fight against the Pale Queen. Gridlock was another reluctant hero, but he became the leader of the Magnifica. The golem kept an amusing diary for Mack, sharing how he "devoured" a book at school and how he learned you can't eat cats. If you have a tolerance for unusual humor, this book may be for you.