"'The Magic Castle' is a superb high quality meditation recording by Heather Bestel. Heather is a very experienced psychotherapist who has worked with children developing and building their self esteem and confidence since 1994.
This MP3 Download is a lovely and safe way for 8-11 year old children to feel calm & confident, increasing feelings of happiness and pride and helping to build a belief in being amazing and talented. With the use of these MP3s children learn to develop their own inner resources to cope with the big, wide world."
"'The Magic Garden' is a superb high quality meditation recording by Heather Bestel. Heather is a very experienced psychotherapist who has worked with children developing and building their self esteem and confidence since 1994.
This MP3 download is a lovely and safe way for 8 to 11 year old children to relax and switch off. They will love visiting their own special quiet place where they can develop a sense of wonder and feel: calm and peaceful, happy and relaxed, safe and loved. With the use of these MP3s children learn to develop their own inner resources to cope with the big, wide world."
"Edgar nominee Zilpha Keatley Snyder is a three-time Newbery Honor winner, and her book The Unseen was named as both a School Library Journal Best Book and Parents' Choice Silver Honor Winner. In William S. and the Great Escape, Snyder pens a middle-grade adventure sure to be ranked with her very best."
"'When it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it. You can't sugarcoat it. You have to take a stand and say, 'This is not right.'' - Claudette Colvin
On March 2, 1955, an impassioned teenager, fed up with the daily injustices of Jim Crow segregation, refused to give her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Instead of being celebrated as Rosa Parks would be just nine months later, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin found herself shunned by her classmates and dismissed by community leaders. Undaunted, a year later she dared to challenge segregation again as a key plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle, the landmark case that struck down the segregation laws of Montgomery and swept away the legal underpinnings of the Jim Crow South.
Based on extensive interviews with Claudette Colvin and many others, Phillip Hoose presents the first in-depth account of an important yet largely unknown civil rights figure, skillfully weaving her dramatic story into the fabric of the historic Montgomery bus boycott and court case that would change the course of American history.
Claudette Colvin is the 2009 National Book Award Winner for Young People's Literature and a 2010 Newbery Honor Book."
"Life is hard for 12-year-old Lucas. First Uncle Asa dies of consumption, then Lizy and Pa. Now Mama is sick. And Lucas is the only one left to take care of her and their Connecticut farm. By the time his neighbor tells him of a strange, new cure, it is too late-Mama has just died. Reeling with sorrow, Lucas wanders until he sees a 'help wanted' sign for a doctor's apprentice. He feels better while he is helping to pull teeth, visit the sick, and bury the dead. When he discovers townspeople are dying of consumption here, too, he wants to help them. Should he try the macabre cure? Novelist for young readers, Cynthia DeFelice bases her gripping tale on actual practices of the mid-1800s to cure victims of the disease we now call tuberculosis. Narrator John McDonough will hold listeners spellbound as Lucas heroically attacks a mystery that even the adults can't solve."
"Mrs. Pepper, a widow, and her five children lived in a plain little brown house where she struggled to feed and clothe her lively brood. The family had little in the way of luxury and hardly any of the things that many of us today take for granted. But they had such fun and good times together and loved one another so dearly that when a very rich little boy discovered the warmth and happiness that flooded the little brown house he felt himself lucky to be in it. And as it turned out, his coming brought luck to the Five Little Peppers too.
The adventures of this poor but loving Pepper family—Ben, Polly, Joel, Davie, and the adored youngest, Phronsie—have charmed young audiences for more than a century. Overflowing with warmth, suspense, and many delightful surprises, this classic remains as compelling as ever."
"What's harder to deal with than a group of boys who act like dogs? How about a clique of catty mean girls? Annabelle has just figured out how to survive in junior high school. She's made great friends, her teachers are nice, and she's got lots of tricks up her sleeve for taming those pesky boys. But now she and her friends must confront a whole new brand of headache— the mean girl clique. At first Taylor and her friends were out to get Annabelle's bff Rachel, but soon the whole group is involved. Their friendship is getting tenser by the minute—unless Annabelle can save the day again?"
"Could Amy and Dan's biggest enemy be . . . a friend? Book 6 in the bestselling The 39 Clues series challenges everything you thought you knew about the Clue race.
Fourteen-year-old Amy Cahill and her younger brother, Dan, head to the Land Down Under to discover what their own mother and father knew about the hunt for the 39 Clues. But following in their parents' footsteps brings up lost memories for Amy so awful that she can't share them . . . even with Dan. Haunted by the ghosts of their past, chased by deadly competitors, Dan and Amy can't see who is an enemy and who is a friend. Their blindness leads to a terrible mistake . . and the death of a hidden ally."
"A famous Hollywood director comes to the Brookline Movie House to run a special New York Film Academy film camp, and Maeve couldn't be more excited -- especially when she finds out this director is bringing her dreamy actor son!
Maeve's quest for the spotlight is interrupted by Madeline, the beautiful, talented, and ultra-rich daughter of the famous Krupcake King. She wants to star in the movie, too.
Will Maeve be the center of attention for both the dreamy actor son AND the film camp? Or will it be curtains for her dream of becoming a famous actress?"
"For precocious twelve-year-old Eugene Smalls, growing up isn’t easy. His bad reputation precedes him, public school considers him a lost cause, and his own family seems out to get him.
He’s got a temper, so don’t dare call him “Genie!” He insists on being called “Huge,” and though small, he is tough and hard-boiled, just like his heroes, pulp detectives Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade, who taught him everything he knows about crime solving.
When the nursing home where his grandmother stays is vandalized, she hires him to solve the case. But he misreads clues, misinterprets motives, and mistakes mundane incidents for diabolical schemes, as only an inexperienced adolescent with a restless imagination can.
His search for “whodunit” turns into a search for self in this coming-of-age story set in 1980s suburban New Jersey."
"Mattie, Ariel, and Nicki are fast friends facing the pitfalls of life at thirteen. Mattie's kitschy pig collection and agoraphobic mother might completely derail her social life. Ariel's attempts to follow in Rachel Ray's culinary footsteps have landed her in hot water. And Nicki is carrying a secret that threatens to cut her off from her best friends. After discovering a mysterious book of spells and performing a ritual, the girls leave their troubles far behind-or so they think.
Julie Crabtree's wonderfully funny novel captures the everyday lives of three quirky, engaging girls, and shows that some wishes may be better left unfulfilled."
"In a house full of sadness and secrets, can young, orphaned Mary find happiness?
Mary Lennox, a spoiled, ill-tempered, and unhealthy child, comes to live with her reclusive uncle in Misselthwaite Manor on England’s Yorkshire moors after the death of her parents. There she meets a hearty housekeeper and her spirited brother, a dour gardener, a cheerful robin, and her willful, hysterical, and sickly cousin, Master Colin, whose wails she hears echoing through the house at night.
With the help of the robin, Mary finds the door to a secret garden, neglected and hidden for years. When she decides to restore the garden in secret, the story becomes a charming journey into the places of the heart, where faith restores health, flowers refresh the spirit, and the magic of the garden, coming to life anew, brings health to Colin and happiness to Mary."
