Animal Friendships

When Mia moves to Vermont the summer after seventh grade, she's recovering from the broken arm she got falling off a balance beam. And packed away in the moving boxes under her clothes and gymnastics trophies is a secret she'd rather forget. Mia's change in scenery brings day camp, new friends, and time with her beloved grandmother. But Gram is convinced someone is trying to destroy her cricket farm. Is it sabotage or is Gram's thinking impaired from the stroke she suffered months ago?

It's the summer before eighth grade and Flor is stuck at home and working at her family's mattress store, while her best friend goes off to band camp (probably to make new friends). It becomes even worse when she's asked to compete in the local honey pageant. This means Flor has to spend the summer practicing her talent (recorder) and volunteering (helping a recluse bee-keeper) with Candice, her former friend who's still bitter about losing the pageant crown to Flor when they were in second grade. And she can't say no.

Kit-with-a-small-k is navigating middle school with a really big, really strange secret: When she's stressed, she turns into a naked mole rat. It first happened after kit watched her best friend, Clem, fall and get hurt during an acrobatic performance on TV. Since then, the transformations keep happening - whether kit wants them to or not. Kit can't tell Clem about it, because after the fall, Clem just hasn't been herself. She's sad and mad and gloomy, and keeping a secret of her own: the real reason she fell.

When Santa's best friend, Peppermint Bark, gets left in a chimney on Christmas Day, it's up to Chris, Holly, and Ivy to return the pup to the North Pole before it's too late.

Magnolia Grace never wanted to leave Georgia. She never wanted to move with her mama to the farm her daddy owned before he died. But now here she is - in a tiny Vermont town where everybody sings the praises of the father she never knew. Then Maggie meets the Parker family - two moms, six kids, plus a pony. The Parkers are loud and wild, ask lots of questions, and don't follow any of the rules Maggie grew up with in Georgia.

Sam traut seinen Augen nicht: Ein riesiges Eichhörnchen streift durch den Wald hinter der Schule! Aber als eines Morgens das Wissenschaftslabor der Schule zerstört ist, glaubt niemand Sams Geschichte vom Riesen-Eichhörnchen. Stattdessen fällt der Verdacht auf seinen Schützling: den Klassenhamster Hamstersaurus Rex.

Obe Devlin has problems. His family's farmland has been taken over by developers. His best friend Tommy abandoned him for the development kids. And he keeps getting nosebleeds, because of that thing he doesn't like to talk about. So Obe hangs out at the creek by his home, in the last wild patch left, picking up trash and looking for animal tracks. One day, he sees a creature that looks kind of like a large dog. And as he watches it, he realizes it eats plastic. Only plastic. Water bottles, shopping bags...there's never been a creature like this before.

Ten-year-old Perry Owens has learned everything he needs to know from comic books. So when Perry receives a troubling message from his favorite uncle, Zeke, he knows exactly what's wrong. Obviously, evil newts wearing trench coats must have kidnapped Zeke. Now they're holding him hostage somewhere on Bunny Island, the remote vacation destination that Zeke calls home. On his own, Perry travels to Bunny Island, where dozens of bunnies are running wild. One in particular doesn't seem quite right.

K. A. Nuzum - best-selling author of A Small White Scar, delivers clear, crisp prose that's reminiscent of John Steinbeck. The Leanin' Dog tells the bittersweet tale of a girl with agoraphobia, a dog with claustrophobia, and the friendship that saves them both. Dessa really needs a friend. A friend with whom she can confide and share all the joys of Christmas. But with hope almost gone, Dessa hears a scratching sound that changes her life forever.

There's nothing 10-year-old Lily Sinclair likes about her new life in the city with her single mom. She misses her best friend, who seems to have forgotten her and their secret place, Willowood. She never sees her mom, who's working long hours at her new job. She's managed to make an enemy of the class bully. Mrs. Hiller from across the hall, who takes care of Lily after school, keeps preparing yucky healthy snacks for her. And she can't get her mother to tell her anything about her absent father. Her only source of comfort is her beloved pet gecko, Weemis.

Concerned for Benji's health, the doctor offers him two options: wear the world's ugliest padded helmet or get a therapy dog. Benji chooses the dog, of course. But when a massive crate arrives at Benji's house, out walks a two hundred-pound Newfoundland. And that isn't even the strangest thing about the dog. He announces that his name is Parker Elvis Pembroke IV. That's right, this dog can talk!

Is it possible to start afresh when you're thoroughly weighted down? Seventeen pounds. That's the difference between Abigail Walker and Kristen Gorzca. Between chubby and slim, between teased and taunting. Abby is fine with her body and sick of seventeen pounds making her miserable, so she speaks out against Kristen and her groupies - and becomes officially unpopular. Embracing her new status, Abby heads to an abandoned lot across the street and crosses an unfamiliar stream that leads her to a boy who's as different as they come.

The Wind in the Willows is a longtime favorite story that centers around the animal citizens of an English riverbank. Each animal has a different personality, from easy-going Mole to water-loving Ratty, to the wise and wiley Badger, the spoiling-for-a-fight Weasels, and of course boastful Toad, the owner of splendid Toad Hall, who has too much money and too little sense to know what to do with it. The education of Toad by his well-meaning friends provides a good lesson.

You would think Petronellas 16th birthday would be cause for celebration. After all, fashionable friends are arriving at her country estate near London, teas are being served, and her coming out party promises to be a resplendent affair. Everything is falling nicely into place, until, suddenly, it isnt. For Petronella discovers that her guardian, Uncle Augustus T. Percival, has developed a most unVictorian compulsion: He must eat bugs.

Westly is a caterpillar who is destined to be a monarch butterfly, but when he emerges from his cocoon, he is not what he expected. He's a spider! Westly flees his home among the butterflies and is eventually adopted by the "dirt eaters".

When Macadoo is just a colt, he challenges his father, a huge Belgian stallion, in order to protect his mother and the rest of the herd. From that moment on, Mac knows that his purpose in life is to help and serve others however he can. Though Macadoo endures much adversity - leaving the only home he’s ever known, being separated from his dam, and surviving an auction that for many horses is their final stop before the slaughterhouse - he finds the courage to "walk on" through even the most difficult circumstances.

Emmy was a good girl. At least she tried very hard to be good. She did her homework without being told. She ate all her vegetables, even the slimy ones. And she never talked back to her nanny, Miss Barmy, although it was almost impossible to keep quiet – some days. Honestly, Emmy really was a little too good. Which is why she liked to sit by the Rat. The Rat was not good at all.

When a big, lovable, does-it-her-way dog wiggles her way into the heart of a loudmouth pipsqueak of a boy, wonderful things happen that help him become a bigger, better person. With its diverse cast, authentic narrator, and perfect blend of spot-on middle-grade humor, drama, and wisdom, this powerful debut is relatable, funny, bittersweet, and full of heart.

In short diary entries, this quick, heartwarming book follows 11-year-old Ava as she learns patience and persistence are all part of growing up.

Twelve-year-old Pavi Sharma is an expert at the Front Door Face: the perfect mix of puppy dog eyes and a lemonade smile, the exact combination to put foster parents at ease as they open their front door to welcome you in. After being bounced around between foster families and shelter stays, Pavi is a foster care expert and runs a "business" teaching other foster kids what she's learned. With a wonderful foster family in mom Marjorie and brother Hamilton, things are looking up. Then Pavi meets Meridee: a five-year-old, who's getting placed at Pavi's first horrendous foster home.