Coretta Scott King Honor winner Brenda Woods' moving, uplifting story of a girl finally meeting the African American side of her family explores racism and how it feels to be biracial, and celebrates families of all kinds. Violet is a smart, funny, brown-eyed, brown-haired girl in a family of blonds. Her mom is white, and her dad, who died before she was born, was black. She attends a mostly white school where she sometimes feels like a brown leaf on a pile of snow. She's tired of people asking if she's adopted. Now that Violet's eleven, she decides it's time to learn about her African American heritage. And despite getting off to a rocky start trying to reclaim her dad's side of the family, she can feel her confidence growing as the puzzle pieces of her life finally start coming together. Readers will cheer for Violet, sharing her joy as she discovers her roots.
When Eben McAllister reads about the Seven Wonders of the World, he longs to escape the small farming community of Sassafras Springs and do some exploring of his own. No one else ever seems to want to leave Sassafras, however–not even his best pal, Jeb–and so, for now, Eben figures he’s stuck on the farm with Pa and Aunt Pretty until he grows up.
All that changes when his pa, tired of Eben’s moping, challenges him to find Seven Wonders in Sassafras Springs that can stand up to the real Seven Wonders of the World. And if he does? Then Eben will get the adventure he’s been craving for–a trip out West. Eben doesn’t reckon he’ll have any luck–he can’t think of even one thing that could be called “interesting,” let alone wondrous, in Sassafras, but he figures he’ll give it a try.
Told in a down-home narrative with glimmers of magical realism woven throughout, Betty G. Birney’s tale about a boy’s journey of discovery reminds us all that extraordinary things can happen in the most ordinary of places . . . even in Sassafras Springs.
To save her father's future, she'll have to change the past.
The one thing thirteen-year-old Margaret O'Malley is sure of is that her father is innocent. So when the unthinkable happens and he's sentenced to death by the cruel Judge Biggs, Margaret is desperate to save him. She'll do whatever it takes, even if it means using her family's secret, and forbidden, ability to travel through time.
Margaret's only hope is to stop the chain of events that turned Lucas Biggs into a corrupt and jaded man. With the help of her best friend, Charlie, and his grandpa Josh, Margaret jumps back in time to a year when everything in her town was going wrong, a year that changed Lucas Biggs forever. Together with a then-thirteen-year-old Josh, Margaret sets out to change the past. But the rules of time travel are strict, and as the forces of history resist, Margaret is running out of chances before she will be pushed back to a present where her father is doomed.
Written by New York Times bestselling author Marisa de los Santos and her husband, picture book author David Teague, this spellbinding story proves that sometimes good needs a little extra help to triumph over evil.
Hold on to your umbrella and stock up on marshmallows — Elmer is coming to town! Hurricane Elmer, that is. Whoooo! Judy and Stink and the whole Moody family hunker down with beans and batteries, ready to wait out the storm. Along with massive rain and strong winds, Elmer throws down ghosts, squirrels, and aliens. Spooky! Just when things couldn’t possibly get any freakier — flicker, flicker, gulp! — the lights go O-U-T out. The Moodys are smack-dab in the middle of a big bad blackout!
Nothing's been easy since Amp crash-landed his spaceship through Zack McGee's bedroom window. Now Amp has built a quantum radio to alert his commanders to call off the invasion of Earth. Unfortunately, instead of contacting Erdian Central Command, Amp's radio accidentally broadcasts Amp's messages all over Zack's hometown. Now it's up to Zack and his best friend, Olivia, to save their alien friend from being discovered and to save the planet from panic.
Like every book in the Alien in My Pocket series, Radio Active mixes Common Core- aligned science and safe, hands-on experiments with hilarious stories that young readers will love.
Allie's excited about her class field trip. Sure, it's to a historic one-room schoolhouse, built back before there was the Internet or even cell phones, and Allie's teacher is encouraging everyone to dress up in old timey costumes, which some of Allie's friends are actually doing. GAH! But at least she gets to ride on a bus, which she's never gets to do, living so close to school that she actually has to walk there every day!
But then Mrs. Hunter announces that every student in Room 209 has been assigned a buddy for the day--from Allie's old 4th grade class at Walnut Knolls Elementary School, with whom Pine Heights Elementary is pairing up for the trip. And Allie's buddy just happens to be her ex-best friend Mary Kay, who betrayed Allie right before she moved! Allie is going to have to spend a whole day sharing an old-timey desk with a big crybaby!
As if things aren't bad enough, with renovations going on at Allie's house--there's a hole in the wall that her kitten, Mewsie, keeps disappearing into. What if Allie's mom and dad and Uncle Jay make a mistake, and Mewsie gets trapped inside the wall forever?--and with Cheyenne O'Malley and Brittany Hauser getting assigned to be buddies together, it looks like this is one blast from the past Allie may not survive. In fact, she's had enough with old-timey things. It might be time to employ some new rules!
Everybody gets angry sometimes. And for children, anger can be very upsetting. In this Caldecott-honor book, children will see what Sophie does when she gets angry. People do lots of different things when they get angry. What do you do?
B's first mission with the Angels --sentient, do-gooder zombies-- went horribly wrong when vicious members of the Ku Klux Klan attacked New Kirkham, a stronghold of precious human survivors. B is not about to let the racist thugs persecute innocent people, but while saving the town, one of B's oldest friends is kidnapped by the Klan.
The Angels are prepared to do what it takes to save him, but B will have to make some very hard decisions about loyalties--to old friends, to the Angels, and to new families and old.
Angus is black and white and strong.
Sadie is reddish brown and white and small.
"They don't look much alike," says Missus.
"They don't act much alike," says Mister.
Angus and Sadie are brother and sister. Angus is bigger. He is a good, brave, and clever dog -- and he likes that. Sadie isn't as quick to learn -- or to obey. When cats jump at her, she yelps and runs away. Angus thinks that means she's scared of everything. But Sadie isn't so sure that's true.
Newbery Medalist Cynthia Voigt's story of border collie puppies growing up on a farm in Maine is for animal lovers of all ages, and for anyone who's ever had--or wondered what it would be like to have--a brother or sister just like themselves, but very, very different.
Donna Cooner establishes herself as our own Jodi Picoult in this timely tale of sisters, loss, and redemption.
Torrey Grey is famous. At least, on the Internet. Thousands of people watch her popular videos on fashion and beauty. But when Torrey's sister is killed in an accident--maybe because of Torrey and her videos--Torrey's perfect world implodes.
Now, strangers online are bashing Torrey. And at her new school, she doesn't know who to trust. Is queen bee Blair only being sweet because of Torrey's Internet infamy? What about Raylene, who is decidedly unpopular, but seems to accept Torrey for who she is? And then there's Luis, with his brooding dark eyes, whose family runs the local funeral home. Torrey finds herself drawn to Luis, and his fascinating stories about El dio de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead.
As the Day of the Dead draws near, Torrey will have to really look at her own feelings about death, and life, and everything in between. Can she learn to mourn her sister out of the public eye?
Class is back in session...
Sophronia continues her second year at finishing school in style--with a steel-bladed fan secreted in the folds of her ball gown, of course. Such a fashionable choice of weapon comes in handy when Sophronia, her best friend Dimity, sweet sootie Soap, and the charming Lord Felix Mersey stowaway on a train to return their classmate Sidheag to her werewolf pack in Scotland. No one suspected what--or who--they would find aboard that suspiciously empty train. Sophronia uncovers a plot that threatens to throw all of London into chaos and she must decide where her loyalties lie, once and for all.
Gather your poison, steel tipped quill, and the rest of your school supplies and join Mademoiselle Geraldine's proper young killing machines in the third rousing installment in the New York Times bestselling Finishing School Series by steampunk author, Gail Carriger.
