Primary For Children

Hattie Owen prefers to be steeped in the familiarity of her small-town life than to think about the vast world beyond her own. Her family's boarding house is where she feels most at home, with its eccentric tenants and predictable routines, so different from the controlling and repressive home of her well-to-do grandparents who live nearby.

A hungry fox with a toothache begs a mouse dentist to relieve his pain in this modern-day fable.

Kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk! Sal and her mother are picking blueberries to can for the winter. But when Sal wanders to the other side of Blueberry Hill, she discovers a mama bear preparing for her own long winter. Meanwhile Sal's mother is being followed by a small bear with a big appetite for berries! Will each mother go home with the right little one?

Peter Pan, the mischievous imp who refuses to grow up, lands in the Darling's proper middle-class home to look for his shadow. He befriends Wendy, John, and Michael and teaches them to fly (with a little help from fairy dust). He and Tinker Bell whisk them off to Neverland where they encounter the Red Indians, the Little Lost Boys, pirates, and the dastardly Captain Hook.

Jack and Annie set off to find an original copy of an ancient Chinese myth. Armed only with their magic library cards, they must take on a book-burning emperor. But with the help of a scholar and a silk weaver, they triumph again.

It's science-project time, which is bad news for Hank. He loves doing science experiments, but writing a whole report is another story. Finally, Hank comes up with a science project: he'll take apart the cable box and figure out how it works. But Hank wasn't counting on his sister Emily's iguana laying 18 eggs inside the cable box! How will Hank finish his project now and will he ever be able to watch TV again?

Molly Moon is back, and this time she's hypnotizing her way to the Academy Awards in Los Angeles. Along with Rocky and Petula the pug, Molly is tracking the sinister activities of American billionaire Primo Cell, who wants to become president and take over the world. He has all the Hollywood celebrities in his power, but Molly Moon has an amazing power of her own, which even she doesn't know about.

From the vast and colorful imagination of Mary Engelbreit springs a Mother Goose world bursting with warmth and humor. All the favorite time-honored characters are here: Little Bo-Peep, Humpty Dumpty, Old King Cole, Jack and Jill, and many, many more, along with such treats as a mouse running up the clock, piggies going to market, and children dancing round the mulberry bush.

Every morning, Judy measures Stink, and it's always the same: 3 feet, 8 inches tall. Stink feels like even the class newt is growing faster than he is. Then one day, the ruler reads 3 feet, 7 and 3/4 inches! Can it be? Is Stink shrinking? Stink tries everything to look like he's growing, but wearing up-and-down stripes and spiking his hair don't seem to be fooling anybody into thinking he's taller.

L is for Lucky. . . . And that's just how Lucky O'Leary feels when the lottery ticket his grandfather sends him for Christmas turns out to be a million-dollar winner! But before Lucky can cash it in, someone sneaks into his house and steals it. Now it's up to Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose to track down the thief and return the ticket . . . before Lucky loses out!

Sewing! NO ONE could hate it more than Dina Kirk. Endless tiny stitches, button holes, darts. Since she was tiny, she's worked in her family's dressmaking business, where the sewing machine is a cranky member of the family.

Watchmaker Hermux Tantamoq is a hardworking mouse who is thankful for ordinary things: donuts, coffee, peaceful evenings at home with his pet ladybug. But his quiet life takes a dramatic turn when Ms. Linka Perflinger, dashing daredevil aviatrix and adventuress, bursts into his watch shop, drops off a broken watch and steals his heart.

kira-kira (kee' ra kee' ra): glittering; shining

Glittering. That's how Katie Takeshima's sister, Lynn, makes everything seem. The sky is kira-kira because its color is deep but see-through at the same time. The sea is kira-kira for the same reason. And so are people's eyes. When Katie and her family move from a Japanese community in Iowa to the Deep South of Georgia, it's Lynn who explains to her why people stop them on the street to stare.

Wondering when to expect baby's first word? Want to get your toddler talking? Worried your child is not speaking as clearly as his peers? When it comes to language acquisition, all parents have questions, and Time to Talk has the answers.

The Herdmans plus Halloween have always spelled disaster. Every year, these six kids, the worst in the history of Woodrow Wilson School and possibly even the world, wreak havoc on the whole town. They steal candy, spray-paint kids, and take anything that's not nailed down. Now the mayor has had it. He's decided to cancel Halloween. The Herdmans manage to turn the worst Halloween ever into the best Halloween ever in this uproarious sequel to The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

Primrose Squarp simply knows her parents did not perish at sea during a terrible storm, despite what the other residents of Coal Harbour believe. For all practical purposes, Primrose is an orphan, and there's no great clamoring of prospective adopters. After realizing the impracticality of continuing to pay Miss Perfidy (a mothball-scented elderly lady) an hourly wage to baby-sit her, the town council places her with Uncle Jack.

It's not easy being the middle child, especially when your dad is a Navy chief. Meet Piper Reed, a spunky nine-year-old who has moved more times than she can count on one hand. From Texas to Guam, wherever Piper goes, adventure follows, inspired by her active imagination, free-wheeling spirit, and a bit of sister magic.

Was there really a Headless Horseman? This dramatic story will draw you into the life of Ichabod Crane as you ponder the question.

Mary Pope Osborne concludes the exciting adventures of Odysseus, with two new books, each based on episodes from The Odyssey.

Jack and Annie are whisked down under to the land of Australia, where they save a baby kangaroo, a koala, and other animals from a raging wildfire.