For thirteen-year-old Sam it's not easy being the son of known civil rights activist Roland Childs. Especially when his older brother (and best friend), Stick, begins to drift away from him for no apparent reason. And then it happens: Sam finds something that changes everything forever. Sam has always had faith in his father, but when he finds literature about the Black Panthers under Stick's bed, he's not sure who to believe: his father or his best friend. Suddenly, nothing feels certain anymore. Sam wants to believe that his father is right: You can effect change without using violence. But as time goes on, Sam grows weary of standing by and watching as his friends and family suffer at the hands of racism in their own community. Sam begins to explore the Panthers with Stick, but soon he's involved in something far more serious - and more dangerous - than he could have ever predicted. Sam is faced with a difficult decision. Will he follow his father or his brother? His mind or his heart? The rock or the river?
Old Ms. McMartin is definitely dead. Now her crumbling Victorian mansion lies vacant. When 11-year-old Olive and her dippy mathematician parents move in, she knows there’s something odd about the place—not least the walls covered in strange antique paintings. But when Olive finds a pair of old spectacles in a dusty drawer, she discovers the most peculiar thing yet: She can travel inside these paintings to a world that’s strangely quiet...and eerily like her own. Yet Elsewhere harbors dark secrets—and Morton, an undersized boy with an outsize temper.
As she and Morton form an uneasy alliance, Olive finds herself ensnared in a plan darker and more dangerous than she could have imagined, confronting a power that wants to be rid of her by any means necessary. It’s up to Olive to save the house from the dark shadows, before the lights go out for good. Jacqueline West weaves a tale at turns haunting, moving, and darkly.
A celebration of a child's growing self awareness, and a prime example of how books can contribute to this. Whether brave or shy, strong or weak, in the end the young boy celebrates all different, apparently contradictory parts of himself.
A Child's Play audio production.
The sun shines on Tom Sawyer. The idealized childhood of this fictional hero, based on Mark Twain's own early life along the banks of the Mississippi, is filled with robust good humor and high-spirited adventures. Yet there is also an in-depth experience of the central South of the 1840s'its dialects, superstitions, and social values. While romping through fun-filled fantasy, Tom Sawyer shows how morally complicated real life can be.
From #1 New York Times bestseller Mike Lupica!
Nick Crandall feels like he doesn't belong anywhere. He doesn't fit in with his new foster parents. They don't know the first thing about sports - and he's not exactly the model student they want him to be. It's only a matter of time until they realize he's not the right kid for them. And Nick certainly doesn't belong playing varsity baseball. He's only twelve years old! His teammates want a catcher their own age. But Nick needs to prove that he belongs - to his parents, to his team, and to himself.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
In Jennifer L. Holm's New York Times bestselling, Newbery Honor winning middle grade historical fiction novel, life isn't like the movies. But then again, 11-year-old Turtle is no Shirley Temple
She's smart and tough and has seen enough of the world not to expect a Hollywood ending. After all, it's 1935 and jobs and money and sometimes even dreams are scarce. So when Turtle's mama gets a job housekeeping for a lady who doesn't like kids, Turtle says goodbye without a tear and heads off to Key West, Florida to live with relatives she's never met. Florida's like nothing Turtle's ever seen before though. It's hot and strange, full of rag tag boy cousins, family secrets, scams, and even buried pirate treasure! Before she knows what's happened, Turtle finds herself coming out of the shell she's spent her life building, and as she does, her world opens up in the most unexpected ways. Filled with adventure, humor and heart, Turtle in Paradise is an instant classic both boys and girls with love.
Includes an Author's Note with photographs and further background on the Great Depression, as well as additional resources and websites.
Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews:
'Sweet, funny and superb.'
Starred Review, Booklist:
'Just the right mixture of knowingness and hope . . . a hilarious blend of family drama seasoned with a dollop of adventure.'From the Hardcover edition.
For girls who are fans of Harry Potter and have outgrown the Disney Fairies series and the American Girl books, the Fairy Godmother Academy is the perfect series fantasy books filled with magic and adventure but grounded by contemporary girls and issues.
The series boasts an amazing Web site that allows girls to enter the world they visit in the books. There they can do activities both on- and offline, vote for things they'd like to see in the books, and connect with other Fairy Godmother Academy fans.
Kerka Laine is not one to sit around and let things happen to her. She knows from her adventure with her friend Birdie that she comes from a long line of fairy godmothers and that she's destined to start training as a fairy godmother herself. She just hates waiting for the training to begin! When her dreams take her to Aventurine, the place where girls go to unlock their own special kind of magic, Kerka is more than ready. What she is not prepared for is the quest that the fairies give her: She must find her younger sister's voice before the sun rises on a mountain range called the Three Queens.
Kerka loves a challenge, but how can she find something that is invisible? In this second Fairy Godmother Academy book, Kerka begins the dangerous journey that will determine not only her future as a fairy godmother but also the fate of her sisters.
Join the Fairy Godmother Academy!
Visit the Web site for games, activities, and networking with friends!
www.fairygodmotheracademy.com
Joanna Philbin is the daughter of "Live with Regis and Kelly" host, Regis Philbin. She received her BA from Brown University, and later went on to receive an MFA in Creative Writing from The University of Notre Dame. She wrote feature and television scripts before becoming a full-time novelist. Joanna is currently working on the third title in The Daughters series, due out May 2011.
Although Laurel has come to accept her true identity as a faerie, she refuses to turn her back on her human life and especially her boyfriend, David to return to the faerie world.
But when she is summoned to Avalon, Laurel's feelings for the charismatic faerie sentry Tamani are undeniable. She is forced to make a choice; a choice that could break her heart.
Gerald Wilkins never considered himself a particularly exceptional thirteen-year-old. But that was before he inherited twenty billion pounds, a Caribbean island, a yacht, and three estates from a great-aunt he never knew. With this fortune, however, comes a letter. One from his great-aunt Geraldine. One that tells Gerald that she was murdered, and that it's up to him to find out why.
Along with his friends Ruby and Sam, Gerald embarks on a journey that will lead him from the British Museum to dodgy social clubs for the disgustingly rich to mansions in the English countryside to secret places far underground. Who was Geraldine Archer? And what secrets was she hiding? Unless Gerald, Sam, and Ruby can find out before the killer does, they may be next.
Every school day feels the same for fourth graders Lucy and Henry and Evie and Russell and May. Then Ms. Mirabel comes to their class'bringing magical words and a whole new way of seeing and understanding.
From beloved author Patricia MacLachlan comes an honest, inspiring story about what is real and what is unreal, and about the ways that writing can change our lives and connect us to our own stories'word after word after word.
To ten-year-old Keeper, this moon is her chance to fix all that has gone wrong...and so much has gone wrong. But she knows who can make things right again: Meggie Marie, her mermaid mother who swam away when Keeper was just three. A blue moon calls the mermaids to gather at the sandbar, and that's exactly where she is headed -- in a small boat, in the middle of the night, with only her dog, BD (Best Dog), and a seagull named Captain.
When the riptide pulls at the boat, tugging her away from the shore and deep into the rough waters of the Gulf of Mexico, panic sets in, and the fairy tales that lured her out there go tumbling into the waves. Maybe the blue moon isn't magic and maybe the sandbar won't sparkle with mermaids and maybe -- Oh, no..."Maybe" is just too difficult to bear. Kathi Appelt follows up to her New York Times bestseller, The Underneath, with a tale that will pull right at your very core -- stronger than moon currents -- capturing the crash and echo of the waves and the dark magic of the ocean.
