Library History

The summer Grace turns thirteen is when everything changes. The Vietnam War is raging, and Grace's brother, Collin, is drafted. But Collin decides to take a stand and burn his draft card, igniting a war within the family. Grace suddenly finds herself bewildered and angry, thrust into a turbulent...

Winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction They tell Jip he tumbled off the back of a wagon when he was small, and no one ever came back for him. He never had a reason to question this tale--but then a stranger shows up and begins asking about him around town. Who is this man, and...

Newbery Medalist Christopher Paul Curtis brings his trademark humor and heart to the story of a boy struggling to do right in the face of history's cruelest evils. Twelve-year-old Charlie is down on his luck: His dad just died, the share crops are dry, and Cap'n Buck--the most fearsome man in...

The United States of America is almost 250 years old, but American women won the right to vote less than a hundred years ago. And when the controversial nineteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution-the one granting suffrage to women-was finally ratified in 1920, it passed by a mere one-vote...

From Gold Star father and beloved Democratic National Convention speaker Khizr Khan comes a book for young people about the Constitution—what it says and why it matters for everyone. Our Founding Fathers created the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights as a blueprint for American government...

Although he is underage, Homer P. Figg’s beloved older brother, Harold, is illegally sold into the Union Army by their ruthless guardian. Now Homer must run away from Pine Swamp, Maine, and his wretched home to find his brother and save him from the war, before it’s too late. In a story...

Bat 6–that’s the softball game played every year between the sixth-grade girls of Barlow and Bear Creek Ridge. All the girls–Beautiful Hair Hallie, Manzanita who gets the spirit, the twins Lola and Lila, Tootie, Shadean–they’ve been waiting for their turn at Bat 6 since they could...

Two tiger cub brothers are torn from the jungle and taken to Rome. The stronger cub is trained as a killer at the Coliseum. Emperor Caesar makes a gift of the smaller cub to his beautiful daughter, Aurelia. She adores her cub, Boots. Julius, a young animal keeper, teaches Aurelia how to earn...

Author Sumbul Ali-Karamali offers her personal account, discussing the many and varied questions she fielded from curious friends and schoolmates while growing up in Southern California—from diet, to dress, to prayer and holidays and everything in between. She also provides an academically...

It was the last place anyone should have called Home, the last place for kids to live — 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 — Hell Hold for Brats. But Dave is tough and a troublemaker. He...

School is out in the summer of 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee. For Frances Robinson, a fifteen-year-old daydreamer with a crush on her teacher, John T. Scopes, summer vacation promises tennis, and Coca-Colas from her father's drug store. But when Frances's father, the school board chairman, has...

Side-splittingly funny, spine-chillingly spooky, this companion to a Newbery Honor–winning anthology The Dark Thirty is filled with bad characters who know exactly how to charm. From the author's note that takes us back to McKissack's own childhood when she would listen to stories told on her...

In this special edition of the #1 New York Times bestselling Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jon Meacham, young listeners will learn about the life and political philosophy of one of our Founding Fathers. Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the...

Though Richard Peck is best known as a novelist, he has been writing short stories—rousing, provocative, and thoroughly entertaining—throughout his career. “Priscilla and the Wimps,” his first, is perhaps the most-read children’s short story of all time. Others have inspired his...

Jarrett is sixteen--man enough to reject the railroad job his father wants him to take, man enough to court Lizbeth Whitcomb, man enough to join the fight against the forest fires that are destroying Idaho and Montana But the flames are faster than anyone has dreamed, and soon the fire has come...

From acclaimed author of A Wolf Called Wander and Heart of a Shepherd comes another sensitive portrayal of military families, this time stationed abroad, in the city of Berlin at that historic time just after the Wall came down. When 13-year-old Jody and her friends save a badly beaten Russian...

BONUS FEATURES: Exclusive author interview and a profile of Lewis Hine! 1910. Pownal, Vermont. At 12, Grace and her best friend Arthur must leave school and go to work as a “doffers” on their mothers’ looms in the mill. Grace’s mother is the best worker, fast and powerful, and Grace...

Sadie doesn’t want a new life; her old one suits her just fine. But times are hard in drought-plagued Missouri, and Daddy thinks they’ll be better off in Texas. It’s tough for Sadie to give up her beloved home for this strange place, where even children clean shrimp at the cannery to help...

"I'm obsessed with abandoned things." Siena's obsession began a year and a half ago, around the time her two-year-old brother Lucca stopped talking. Now Mom and Dad are moving the family from Brooklyn to Maine hoping that it will mean a whole new start for Lucca and Siena. She soon realizes...

"This is a powerful tale of family, forgiveness, and acceptance of what life throws in our paths - but ultimately, with its almost painful realism, this is the finest depiction of war we've yet seen for young readers." — KIRKUS REVIEWS (starred review) AMARYLLIS. It was the name of the ship...