Summer kid lit has solutions to every possible kid catastrophe, from stir craziness to pirate envy. Plus your li'l readers might even learn something.

If your kids are bored with the beach: Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Sharks and Other Sea Monsters by Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart (ages 5 and up). Chain-saw-like jaws fly out of the pages of this pop-up compendium.

If they're bored with home: Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City by Kirsten Miller (12 and up). To Ananka Fishbein, New York City is the boring place she lives--until she discovers tunnels beneath the city and an odd girl named Kiki Strike, sometimes mistaken for a crime-fighting leprechaun.

If they're still bored with home: The Monstrous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless by Ahmet Zappa (9-12). Once Minerva and her brother discover their dad is a monsterminator, they too get sucked into the world of battling icky meanies. Happily, they have strange potions (recipes included) to ward 'em off.

If they want to be Superman: Melvin Beederman Superhero and the Curse of the Bologna Sandwich by Greg Trine (4-8). The Superhero Academy grad can't fly on the first try, sees underwear everywhere thanks to faulty X-ray vision, and is rendered helpless by lunchmeat.

If they want to talk like pirates: Shiver Me Letters by June Sobel (2-5). Pirates like to say, "Rrrrr." But this captain wants more, so his crew must plunder an island to find the elusive letters.

If they want to be pirates: Pirates by John Matthews (4-8). The skull-and-crossboned volume is a how-to manual: "Damn your eyes" is a choice insult; (gun) powder monkey is a good entry-level job.

If they want to fight pirates: Fergus Crane Far-Flung Adventures by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddel (9-12). When his school (which happens to be a boat) vanishes, Fergus realizes it was a pirate ship. Now it's up to him--and a mechanical winged horse--to save his classmates.

If their attention span is short: Poetry for Young People: Langston Hughes edited by David Roessel and Arnold Rampersad (9-12). No way they'll think poetry is lame with lines like, "When Susanna Jones wears red, a queen from some time-dead Egyptian night walks once again."

If they bug you for McDonald's: Chew on This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson (12 and up). McNuggets aren't the only junk food to get fried in Schlosser's teen-friendly version of his best-selling Fast Food Nation. Your picky eater will learn, for example, that lots of Eskimos are toothless, mostly because of drinking soda.

If they say you're too strict: Rash by Pete Hautman (12 and up). In this version of the future, kids who don't toe the line, like our hero Bo (accused of starting a rash outbreak), are sent to Canada to make pizzas as punishment.