Outcast genius Johnnie creates a toy jetpack that actually works... Just in time to help Mr. Claus with a few problems of his own.

Jetpack Johnnie kicks off a planned middle-reader series featuring an oddball assortment of genre-spanning characters. The first in the series isn't so much a Christmas piece, as it is a sci-fi story featuring a new spin on well-known Christmas favorites.

     Johnnie whirled around frantically, running at the wall of children, hoping to break through and make it home. But something different happened. Something that no one, least of all Johnnie, expected. A thunderous roar erupted from the chrome chambers strapped to Johnnie’s back. The confused children spun this way and that, looking to see where it was Johnnie had run to in the middle of all the smoke and noise. Eventually, however, it became apparent that Johnnie had not run anywhere. Johnnie was not behind them. Johnnie was not in front of them or beneath them.

     He was over them.

     Johnnie looked down past his feet and saw the earth fall away. The children became smaller and smaller until they looked like ants so tiny even a magnifying glass would not make them bigger. Surprisingly, Johnnie was not scared. He was not sick. The Jetpack seemed to hum a song to him that could be heard just above the roar of fire and smoke. This song comforted him and even though he was now far, far above the ground, he didn’t feel the need to come back down like most children would. He was among the clouds and could feel the fluffy mist break upon his face like soft snow. He giggled and laughed and somersaulted and twisted and danced across the sky, his chrome friend tightly hugging his back. You know that tickle feeling you get when you tilt your head all the way back and then forward when you’re on the swing? That was the feeling Johnnie had, except it didn’t go away. Above the clouds, that feeling stayed with him for as long as The Jetpack sang, and its song lasted a long time.