Christopher Paul Curtis is the bestselling author of Bud, Not Buddy, winner of the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Medal, and many other honors. His first novel, The Watsons Go to Birmingham?1963, also won awards, among them a Newbery Honor and a Coretta Scott King Honor. Curtis and his wife, Kay, have two children and live in Windsor, Ontario.

Mr. Chickee, the genial blind man in the neighborhood, gives 9-year-old Steven a mysterious bill with 15 zeros on it and the image of a familiar but startling face. Could it be a quadrillion dollar bill? Could it be real? Well, Agent Fondoo of the U.S. Treasury Department and his team of Secret Government Agents are determined to get that money back! But Steven and his best friends, Russell and Zoopy the giant dog, are more than a match for the Feds. After all, Steven is the president of the Flint Future Detectives Club, and the inventor of fantastic spying and detecting equipment such as the Snoopeeze 9000!