Midnight Mayhem

By Christina Uss

Kaz Jakobsen can't sleep.
Ever again.

Kaz Jakobsen knows things will never be the same after his family's sudden move to Philadelphia. He'll have to make new friends, which isn't his strong suit. But an even bigger change arrives at a restaurant where he orders a bagel sandwich. Kaz eats a potent combo of the world's greenest mustard and rootiest rootbeer and loses his ability to sleep.

Scientifically, brain + no sleep = kablammo. The longest a human insomniac has gone without sleep is eleven days. What will happen to Kaz without sleep for more than seventy years? How will he survive the lonely boredom?

Kaz luckily meets Floyd, a fellow non-sleeping kid, at a sleep study lab. Floyd thinks being sleepless is a super-power, a chance to try a million new things. He takes Kaz on madcap midnight adventures, introducing him to all the things kids are allowed to do at night in Philadelphia. And a few things they aren't. The bad news: his ideas always seem to lead to mayhem.

Kaz wants to keep Floyd's friendship but lose the mayhem. When he learns there's an antidote to a lifetime awake, he has a tough choice to make. If Kaz cures his sleeplessness, will he lose the best friend he's ever had?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0823463605
• ISBN13: 9780823463602
• Release Date: March 2026
• Publisher: Holiday House
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7