Kids Library

What is it with Olivia and ghosts? No matter where Olivia Kidney goes, they follow. Even when she and her klutzy handyman father start over in a new brownstone in New York City - owned by the mad, bad, and dangerous Ansel Plover - there is no escape from the weirdness that is Olivia's life. Their new living room is entirely submerged underwater, and Olivia needs a boat to navigate past the bobbing furniture and snapping turtles just to get to her bedroom. And then, there are the ghosts. The house holds secrets, lots of them - Olivia can feel it. Why, she wonders, was she invited to live there?

Ten-year-old Babo has grown up on an abandoned circus camp in a war-torn country. She sleeps in the old lion cage and takes care of the other parentless "leftover kids" telling them fantastical stories about the old circus days and finding ways to make them laugh. They need her. So Babo is not one single bit happy when an American couple wants to adopt her and change her name to Betti. How will her real parents ever find her all the way in America?

A lonely 12-year-old boy spends his days “stuck” at the deserted Hollow Pines Plantation in Georgetown, South Carolina, with no recollection of his name, how long he’s been there, and no idea how to leave. Things never change much for the lost souls at Hollow Pines and time is strange when you’re dead.

Lily Horne is a drama queen. It's helped her rise to stardom in the school play, but it's also landed her in trouble. Her parents warn her that Florida has to be different. It's a fresh start. No theatrics. But this time, the drama is coming for her. The Hornes' new house is awful. The pool is full of slime; the dock is rotten; and the swamp creeps closer every day. But worst of all, the house isn't empty...it's packed full of trash, memories, and, Lily begins to fear, the ghost of the girl who lived there before her. And whatever is waiting in the shadows wants to come out to play.

Tess has always understood her role in her family. She is supposed to be the "okay" one. The one no one has to worry about. But all Tess does is worry, constantly picking at her fingers every time a new worry arises. Still grieving her best friend's death, she is consumed by the fear that everything was her fault and her sadness that Colette is never coming back. When her mom decides a change of location might do her good, Tess finds herself on an airplane bound for her aunt's house in a small town in Wyoming and a summer vacation attending art camp.

When 12-year-old Lara Finkel starts her very own detective agency, FIASCCO (Finkel Investigation Agency Solving Consequential Crimes Only), she does not want her sister, Caroline, involved. She and Caroline don't have to do everything together! But Caroline won't give up, and when she brings Lara the firm's first mystery, Lara relents, and the mysteries start piling up. But Lara and Caroline’s truce doesn’t last for long. Caroline normally uses her tablet to talk, but now she's busily texting a new friend.

Tonight is Brie’s chance to finally be accepted by the Ems—the most popular girls at school. If she can just keep one potentially reputation-ending secret under wraps, she’ll have the best night of her life, screaming on scary rides and running the Wildwoods amusement park with her new friends. But when the Ems take a game of truth or dare too far, Brie ends up alone in a creepy abandoned section of the park. There, she meets a group of cool older teens that invite her to join them.

For as long as they can remember, Mac, Lina, Milo and Avery have celebrated Family Week together in "the smallest, gayest town in the world"—Provincetown, Massachusetts. But this summer, their big rented beach house feels different. Avery’s dads are splitting up, and her life feels like it’s falling apart. Milo’s flunked seventh grade, which means everyone is moving on to bigger and better things except for him. Mac’s on his way to a progressive boarding school that lets transgender kids like him play soccer, but it means leaving his twin sister, Lina, and his moms behind.

J—’s life is consumed by the roller coaster video game Coaster Boss, and by the power she exerts over the pixelated theme park attendees. Her life outside the game, however, is less controllable. Me. I’m such a big space. I break the universe, a glitch. She's navigating ADHD, the loneliness of middle school, and an overwhelming crush on a girl named Junie. J— is convinced that Junie sees her as who she really is, a person who isn’t “bad” just because she doesn't stay quiet and sit still in class. As a person who is realizing that the name she's been given doesn’t really fit her.

Eleven-year-old Roya is the superintendent’s kid in her regal Brooklyn apartment building, so she knows pretty much everything there is to know about its residents. An aspiring reporter, she even hosts a secret podcast about the lives of the building’s tenants. It’s a good distraction from the problems in her own life. But when Katya Petrov, one of her favorite tenants, goes missing, Roya discovers an eerie connection to Grandmother’s Predictions, an antique fortune-telling machine at Coney Island.

Lamar can’t wait to start his filmmaking career like his idol Spike Lee. And leave behind his small town of Morton, Louisiana. But for now, Lamar has to learn how to be a filmmaker while getting to know his grandfather. When Gramps talks about his activism and Black history, Lamar doesn’t think much about it. Times have changed since the old Civil Rights days! Right? He has a white friend named Jeff who wants to be a filmmaker, too, even though Jeff’s parents never let him go to Lamar’s Black neighborhood. But there’s been progress in town. Right?

Isaiah is now the big man of the house. But it's a lot harder than his dad made it look. His little sister, Charlie, asks too many questions, and Mama's gone totally silent. Good thing Isaiah can count on his best friend, Sneaky, who always has a scheme for getting around the rules. Plus, his classmate Angel has a few good ideas of her own - once she stops hassling Isaiah. And when things get really tough, there's Daddy's journal, filled with stories about the amazing Isaiah Dunn, a superhero who gets his powers from beans and rice. Isaiah wishes his dad's tales were real.

Clover O'Reilly is super psyched to run for class president. As the second oldest of five sisters, she struggles to be heard in her ginormous family. But when you are president of the seventh grade, everyone has listen to you! Comedy magician Mike the Unusual feels confident onstage. Offstage, life can be tricky. It's okay that his classmates don't understand him, but it bugs him when his dad suggests he needs more friends. Is he willing to give up his passion to win friends...and votes? Clover and Mike compete to rule their school in this uproariously funny sequel.

Nicola Berry and her friends have barely caught their breath from their last trip to space when they are called on another intergalactic adventure! This time, they're on their way to Shobble, a beautiful snowy rainbow planet where nothing bad ever happens - or so they say. It turns out there is trouble brewing beneath this glittery exterior, and Nicola is put in a tough position. Should she risk defying the planet's dangerous commander-in-chief to help the people of Shobble?

The year is 1966. The Vietnam War rages overseas, the Beatles have catapulted into stardom, and 12-year-old Rhode Island native Trudy Mixer is not thrilled with life. Her best friend, Michelle, has decided to become a cheerleader, everyone at school is now calling her Gertrude (her hated real name), and the gem of her middle school career, the Beatles fan club, has dwindled down to only three other members - the least popular kids at school. Determined to regain her social status, Trudy looks toward the biggest thing happening worldwide: the Beatles.

While attempting to solve the mystery of a stolen jewel, Seikei, a merchant's son who longs to be a samurai, joins a group of kabuki actors in 18th-century Japan.

Growing up in a remote part of Alaska, Ivan and September Crane know that autumn is an unpredictable season - days of clear blue skies can give way to fierce, sudden storms in a blink. They know the trouble signs: changes in the wind, the temperature, or even the color of the dawn. But somehow, this time, left alone when their fisherman father is delayed at sea, even their keen sense of their surroundings and the lessons they've been taught fail them.

The year is 1926. Dave's beloved father is dead and his stepmother doesn't want him. Only the HHB will take him in. "Hebrew Home for Boys" better known as the "Hell Hold for Brats". But Dave is tough and a troublemaker. He can take care of himself. If he doesn't like the Home, he'll run away and find a better place. Only it's not that simple.

Cody Parker may be overweight (he prefers the word "burly"), but he plays third base like a dream. Too bad no one knows it yet, because he’s new to Baltimore, where he’s a target - okay, a big target - for brutal teasing. Even worse, he’s competing for the starting job on the Orioles of the Dulaney Babe Ruth League against budding hoodlum Dante Rizzo, who vows to squeeze Cody’s head like a grape if Cody beats him out. Life gets even more complicated when York Middle School is beset by a rash of mysterious thefts, a crime wave that threatens to sideline Cody....

Long before they became famous writers, Truman Capote (In Cold Blood) and Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird) were childhood friends in Monroeville, Alabama. This fictionalized account of their time together opens at the beginning of the Great Depression, when Tru is seven and Nelle is six. They love playing pirates, but they like playing Sherlock and Watson-style detectives even more. It’s their pursuit of a case of drugstore theft that lands the daring duo in real trouble. Humor and heartache intermingle in this lively look at two budding writers in the 1930s South.