Amber Brown is excited and a little nervous about starting second grade. What if the new teacher doesn’t like her? With best friend Justin and her new bear backpack, Amber decides she’s ready for whatever happens. But is second grade really for Amber Brown?
Amber, her parents, her best friend, Justin, and his family are in the Poconos on vacation and she is ready for a perfect day at the county fair. The morning goes almost as planned until her mom and dad get into a fight, and a perfect day at the fair turns into just a fair day.
Moongobble has completed his three Mighty Tasks, and Edward begins to fear that their adventures might be over. But before life can become too quiet an annoying little monster named Snelly comes bounding into their lives. As if Snelly wasn't trouble enough, Moongobble's magic has gone wrong again, causing his faithful toad, Urk, to undergo a very embarrassing change. Soon Moongobble, Edward, Urk, and Fireball the Dragon must begin a fearful journey to return Snelly to her home. They'd like to bring along the Rusty Knight, but he's gone missing! How the threads of the story come together make for another merry, magical listening experience that will delight Moongobble's legions of young fans!
In his celebrated novels A Year Down Yonder and A Long Way from Chicago, Richard Peck carried us happily back to the Midwest of the 1930's. Now he's ready to transport us all the way back to 1893, to the Chicago World's Fair and its breathtaking mix of personalities and glimpses of the future. Here is a tour de force that combines the real people of the time with an enormously engaging new fictional family, spinning them all into a whirlwind of humor, misadventure, and charms beyond measure.
On the brink of adulthood (not to mention a whole new century), Rosie makes her first trip to the big city, along with her wide-eyed siblings and their rascally old granddad. There, amidst the wonders of the fair, Rosie discovers the world and herself, while also coming face-to-face with some of the era's most famous people-including showgirl Lillian Russell and Colonel William F. Cody (a.k.a. Buffalo Bill).
Are they flirting or fighting? This is Joey Pigza's question when the fireworks suddenly start to explode between his long-separated mom and dad, whom he's never really had a chance to see together. The more out of control his parents get, the less in control Joey feels and the more he wants to help make things better. But Joey's ailing, tell-it-like-it-is grandmother wants her grandson to see it like it is with his unpredictable parents. Knowing that she is fading fast, she needs Joey to hurry up and show that he can break the Pigza family mold by making a friend in the outside world. The only potential candidate, however, is Olivia Lapp-Joey's blind home schooling partner, who brags that she is "blind as a brat" and gets meaner to Joey the more desperate he gets for her friendship-even if Joey senses there's more to her than meets the eye.
In this dazzling conclusion to the Joey Pigza trilogy, Jack Gantos's acclaimed hyperactive hero is discovering that settling down isn't good for anything if he can't find a way to stop the people he cares about from winding him up all over again.
The barnyard animals are tired of being cold in the winter. Since Farmer Bean doesn't have enough money to patch the holes in the barn or heat the chicken coop, they are migrating to Florida for the winter. Travelling to the beat of Freddy the pig's funny songs, they meet with one adventure after another. They find gold treasure to take home to Farmer Bean in the spring. Florida is fun, except for the time when alligators try to eat them for lunch. Only Freddy's cleverness lets them escape with their lives. Writing during the first half of the 20th century, Walter R. Brooks captured the idyllic America that disappeared with the 1950s. Fans remember him as the creator of Mr. Ed, the talking horse of television fame. His tour-de-force was his set of 26 Freddy books, all espousing the values that people still want for their children: loyalty, sharing, and forgiveness. John McDonough's delightful voice captures the humor and genius of this timeless creation.
For Jason, entering the seventh grade is like walking into a dangerous new world. Now that he's in junior high school, he's a small fish in a big pond stocked full of ninth-graders. It's so scary that he won't even go to the bathroom if there's a ninth-grader in there-no matter how badly he has to go! But it isn't all bad. He's working on a model space station in shop class, and he's beginning to notice things he never paid attention to before, like body hair-and girls. Especially one girl: the beautiful, hair-flicking cheerleader Debbie Breen. This wonderfully realistic audiobook, written by Newbery Award-winning author Jerry Spinelli, attracts teen-aged readers with its combination of honesty and embarrassingly funny situations familiar to every teenager. Johnny Heller captures Jason's emotional roller coaster ride as his boggled mind tries to keep pace with his friends, family, school, and his changing body.
The Navajo tribe's forced march from their homeland to Fort Sumner by white soldiers and settlers is dramatically and courageously told by young Bright Morning. Bright Morning was happy as she gazed across the beautiful valley that was the home of her tribe. She turned when Black Dog barked, and it was then that she saw the Spanish slavers riding straight toward her.
P.C. Hawke and his partner Mackenzie are two cool, teenaged sleuths. In The Scream Museum, they find themselves on their toughest case yet. P.C. and Mackenzie's friend, Tom the janitor, has been accused of murdering the head biologist at New York City's Museum of Natural History. But they know Tom couldn't be the real killer, so they begin investigating. Exploring the crime scene and digging deep, they uncover a strange, precious artifact and a huge arachnid at the heart of the mystery. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Paul Zindel has written spine-tingling tales for young adults such as The Doom Stone, Loch, and Rats. With a tense, suspenseful reading by narrator Jeff Woodman, Zindel's story will stick to you like glue until the final scene.
To get away from his chaotic, often violent parents, 17-year-old Jesse has moved into an apartment with his brother. They are both taking community college courses in Fresno. But to pay for them, they must take whatever jobs they can find, even backbreaking field work. The path to a good education isn't going to be an easy one for these two young Mexican-Americans. As Jesse absorbs information in his classes, he learns harsher lessons from the people around him. Watching them and the choices they make, Jesse begins to understand the limits of his world. Gary Soto, a poet and novelist, has won prizes and awards for his work. Filled with wry humor and realism, Jesse reflects Soto's own experiences growing up in California. Robert Ramirez' lightly accented voice captures the thoughts and emotions of a young man on the threshold of an uncertain adulthood.
Eighth-grader Linc Mendoza has moved from a dusty San Francisco barrio to a well-groomed suburb and a new junior high school. Suddenly he's in the minority, a Mexican-American in a mostly white school. The basketball coach is tough on him. Classes are even tougher. And his best friend is back in the old neighborhood. To make things worse, the basketball team is scheduled to play against Linc's old school in a league game. How can Linc play his best when he's shooting against his former teammates? To find an answer, Linc will need to sort through a maze of emotions and some tricky moves on the court. It is a journey that will teach him much about choices and change. Narrator Robert Ramirez's tones capture each of Linc's frustrations and joys. This is a gripping story by an award-winning author noted for realistic tales of Mexican-American life and culture.
Unfortunately, Roy's first acquaintance in Florida is Dana Matherson, a well-known bully. Then again, if Dana hadn't been sinking his thumbs into Roy's temples and mashing his face against the school-bus window, Roy might never have spotted the running boy. And the running boy is intriguing: he was running away from the school bus, carried no books, and, here's the odd part, wore no shoes. Sensing a mystery, Roy sets himself on the boy's trail. The chase introduces him to potty-trained alligators, a fake-fart champion, some burrowing owls, a renegade eco-avenger, and several extremely poisonous snakes with unnaturally sparkling tails.Roy has most definitely arrived in Carl Hiaasen's Florida.
