Growing Library

Eleven-year-old Willodeen adores creatures of all kinds, but her favorites are the most unlovable beasts in the land: strange beasts known as “screechers”. The villagers of Perchance call them pests, even monsters, but Willodeen believes the animals serve a vital role in the complicated web of nature. Lately, though, nature has seemed angry indeed. Perchance has been cursed with fires and mudslides, droughts and fevers, and even the annual migration of hummingbears, a source of local pride and income, has dwindled.

Freya wants to make the perfect birthday present for her unicorn, Honey. If Honey loves her present enough, maybe she and Freya will finally bond. But Freya's friends need help planning the best party ever, and Freya doesn't have time to do both. Then someone tries to ruin the party before it can even happen! Can Freya finish Honey's present in time, and save the party?

Twelve-year-old Natalie Nelson has written a powerful school story. It's a short novel called "The Cheater," and her best friend Zoe is certain it should be published. All Natalie has to do is give the manuscript to her mom, an editor at a big publishing house. However, Natalie doesn't want any favors from her mom. Still, Zoe won't drop the idea.

Nan was all the family Mo ever needed. But suddenly she’s gone, and Mo finds herself in foster care after her uncle decides she’s not worth sticking around for. Nan left her a notebook and advised her to get a hobby, like ferret racing or palm reading. But how could a hobby fix anything in her newly topsy-turvy life? Then Mo finds a handmade cookbook filled with someone else’s family recipes. Even though Nan never cooked, Mo can’t tear her eyes away. Not so much from the recipes, but the stories attached to them.

Meet nine-year-old Iggy Frangi. He's not a bad kid, he's really not. Okay, so he's done a few (a few is anything up to 100) bad things. And okay, he's not very sorry about most of them. People make a big deal about nothing. What's a little pancake here and there? Is that something to get mad about? Iggy doesn't think so. No one got hurt, so there's no problem. No one got hurt except for that one time, that one time when the Best Idea Ever turned into the Worst Idea of All Time.

After a lifetime of humiliating sports experiences, Bea Mullins knows the best way to survive middle school is to stick to the sidelines. When PE is suddenly canceled, though, Bea is forced to join an after-school activity...which is how she ends up as a member of the Glenwood Geese, her middle school's first all-girls hockey team. Bea would be happy sitting on the bench, but she doesn't want to let down her best friend, Celia. Plus, the more time Bea spends on the rinks, the more she comes to enjoy her teammates, especially the incredibly talented—and incredibly cool—co-captain Gabi.

In a world where magic is illegal, Cassel Sharpe has the most deadly ability of all: With one touch, he can transform any object - including a person - into something else entirely. And that makes him a wanted man. The Feds are willing to forgive all his past crimes if he’ll only leave his con-artist family behind and go straight. But why does going straight feel so crooked? For one thing, it means being on the opposite side of the law from Lila, the girl he loves.

Fifth grade is off to a terrible start when Frederick is sent to a disciplinary camp for troublesome boys. His fellow troop mates - Nosebleed, Specs, The Professor, and little-yet-lethal Ant Bite - are terrifying. But in between trust-building exercises and midnight escape attempts, a tenuous friendship grows between them. Which is lucky, because a category 5 hurricane is coming, and everyone will have to work together to survive! Kate Beasley outdoes herself in this hilarious, whip-smart tale of brotherhood, survival, and what it really means to be a friend.

For a family with four kids, two dogs, assorted cats, and a constant stream of family and friends dropping by, life in the Austin family home has always been remarkably steady and contented. When a family friend suddenly dies in a plane crash, the Austins open their home to an orphaned girl, Maggy Hamilton. The Austin children - Vicky, John, Suzy, and Rob - do their best to be generous and welcoming to Maggy. Vicky knows she should feel sorry for Maggy, but having sympathy for Maggy is no easy thing.

Twelve-year-old Sumiko feels her life has been made up of two parts: before Pearl Harbor and after it. The good part and the bad part. Raised on a flower farm in California, Sumiko is used to being the only Japanese girl in her class. Even when the other kids tease her, she always has had her flowers and family to go home to. That all changes after the horrific events of Pearl Harbor.

Alex Frankovitch is the smallest kid on his team. But he has a MAJOR-LEAGUE sized mouth. And it gets him into MAJOR-LEAGUE trouble! Alex knows he's gone too far when he brags his way into a pitching contest with the best player - and BIGGEST jerk - in the whole school. Can Alex talk his way out of this mess? Or is he in for the GRAND SLAM of all humiliations?

This collection contains The Orange Outlaw, The Panda Puzzle, The Quicksand Question, and The Runaway Racehorse. Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose are visiting Dink’s Uncle Warren in New York City when several paintings are stolen from his apartment building. Do the kids have enough clues to catch this crafty—and hungry—crook?

This spring, Mia's determined to have a good time, despite the fact that the student government over which she presides is suddenly broke. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it) Grandmere has an elaborate scheme to simultaneously raise money, catapult Mia to theatrical fame, and link her romantically with an eligible teen bachelor, not her boyfriend. It's no wonder that Michael, the love of her life, seems to think she's a psycho, or worse: not much fun.

Lottie lives in Vivelle, a vibrant city where life exists in brilliant technicolor and nearly everyone is born with magic, including Lottie. But when tragedy strikes, color is stripped from Lottie’s heart and from the world around her. Taken in by her reclusive uncle, Lottie moves into Forsaken, a vast manor located in the gray wasteland between the Land of the Living and the Land of the Dead. There, Lottie discovers more secrets and mysteries than she ever dreamed possible. Even so, she is filled with nothing but despair.

Nicola Berry's life is turned upside down the day a man from another planet comes to Earth on a strange mission. He's looking for somebody to travel back to his home planet and convince their stuck-up princess not to turn Earth into her planet's giant garbage dump. When Nicola is chosen as the Earthling Ambassador, she's not sure that she's up to the task. Can Nicola and her friends save the planet in time? Or will the nasty Princess Petronella cover Earth in a galactic ton of garbage?

How do we raise "good sons"? Traits we've always considered masculine - like, being a tough guy and not showing emotion - are no longer what we want for our boys. As we try to raise caring, thoughtful, respectful young men, this book will lead the pack, teaching them to become humans of a higher standard who embrace their emotions and feelings.

Meet the Beacon Street Girls...They're real, they're fun-they're just like you! Who will be the next seventh grade class president at Abigail Adams Junior High? Mr. Popular, Dillon Johnson, is running, and making a lot of promises that are sure to get votes. The Yurtmeister’s in the race, too, but his campaign is a joke, right? Class president seems like a good place for Avery to start her political career. The trouble is, Katani’s in the race, too. Can the Beacon Street Girls survive the growing tension between these two super competitive friends?

When JJ Jacobson convinced his mom to accept a surprise invitation to an all-expenses-paid weekend getaway at the illustrious Barclay Hotel, he never imagined that he'd find himself in the midst of a murder mystery. He thought he was in for a run-of-the-mill weekend ghost hunting at the most haunted spot in town, but when he arrives at the Barclay Hotel and his mother is blamed for the hotel owner's death, he realizes his weekend is going to be anything but ordinary.

It's been five years since Livy and her family have visited Livy's grandmother in Australia. Now that she's back, Livy has the feeling she's forgotten something really, really important about Gran's house. It turns out she's right. Bob, a short, greenish creature dressed in a chicken suit, didn't forget Livy, or her promise. He's been waiting five years for her to come back, hiding in a closet like she told him to. He can't remember who-or what-he is, where he came from, or if he even has a family. But five years ago Livy promised she would help him find his way back home.

Cynthia Voigt crafts a novel about discovery, perspective, and the meaning of home - all through the eyes of an affable and worried little mouse. Fredle is an earnest young fellow suddenly cast out of his cozy home behind the kitchen cabinets - into the outside. It's a new world of color and texture and grass and sky. But with all that comes snakes and rain and lawnmowers and raccoons, and a different sort of mouse (field mice, they're called) not entirely trustworthy. Do the dangers outweigh the thrill of discovery?