It's back to school time for Cleo and her friends, Albert and Sara in Cleo's Big Ideas: Onward and Upwards! and Cleo is less than excited about it. She wanted Winston, her pet tortoise, to go to school with her, but without his E. E. W. (Eco-Enviro-Warmer) in working order he'll have to stay home. And what's worse, Cleo's found out that Ms. Mason (who's never liked any one of Cleo's big ideas) is going to be her teacher for this term. The only thing good about being in Ms. Mason's class is that Sara is in the same class.

When Ms. Mason announces a contest for school mascot, Cleo's begins to feel things might get better. Winston is a shoe-in to win, so Cleo thinks, though he's up against some tough competition: Kim's Persian kitten, Tiffany and Emmies' hamster, King Richard.

But all thoughts of the contest are put on hold when, Albert, who has been tracking space junk on NASA TV, announces that he's spotted incoming junk headed straight for Humble Elementary.

Even though a group of scientists from NASA have set up a space junk deflector base right in Humble Elementary, Cleo, Albert and Sara figure it's a good idea to have a plan B, so they put their heads and inventions together and create Winston II, a rocketing robotic recycler. Will their plan B be needed? Will Winston II work?


"Zowie!" says Cleo. "Read the book to find out!"


Between chapters there's fun DIY activities like making your own owl spectacles, creating a binary birthday bracelet and more . . .