Showing results by narrator "Merissa Czyz" in All Categories

Two high school teachers—Amber Dorris and Leticia Laye—become obsessed with a true-crime podcast about the 1999 murder of 12-year-old Sarah Gerlach. Amber’s marriage to her real estate agent husband Gary is on the rocks. As a distraction, she and Letitia become increasingly absorbed by the case against local Blake Wernerhet. Blake was convicted of murdering Sarah, who was the little sister of a friend of his. While he maintains his innocence, everything points to this man being a vicious killer of an innocent girl.

The baseball season has begun, and Zachary Wilson, in his final year of school, is at the pinnacle of his life. Baseball is his passion and his ticket to a promising future. However, a muscle tear during a game leaves him out of the game for months, plunging him into an overwhelming darkness. In the midst of his desperation, he finds a ray of light in an unexpected situation: the mysterious patient Sunny Smith in the hospital. Intrigued, he begins to visit her regularly, sharing with her his deepest and darkest thoughts.

When the Unicornia cupcake contest is announced, the entire kingdom gets baking! Of course, this is Unicornia, so every ingredient is magical. From cotton candy sugar to glittery frosting, there are so many amazing ingredients to be discovered. Can Claudia and her friends master the art of magical baking in time for the competition? Find out in this sparkle-dusted adventure packed with cakes, bakes, and unicorns!

Emily has always excelled at sports, and her athletic abilities have given her confidence on and off the courts. So when she starts to drag during her middle-school volleyball season, she assumes it must be the flu. But after a particularly intense game, she finds herself riding in the back of an ambulance, a paramedic telling her that her life will never be the same. Adjusting to life with type 1 diabetes isn’t easy. Emily is desperate to prove that she’s just as strong and capable as ever, so she jumps at the opportunity to go on a backcountry ski trip with her dad.

There is only one thing better than a birthday party—a birthday party in Unicornia! Here the cakes are enchanted, the candies change flavor, and the theme parks are covered in glitter. But Pippa’s birthday has started off on the wrong foot, and her friends must think quickly to turn disaster into great fun. Luckily for them, they live in the most magical place ever!

What is your secret? Minty's neighborhood is full of mysteries. There's the Witch House, a spooky old farmhouse on the other side of the woods from where Minty and her best friend, Paz, live. There's the Man Bat, a seven-foot-tall half man, half bat who is rumored to fly through the woods. And...

In Rye, Virginia, just outside Washington, DC, people work hard, kids go to school, and football is big on Friday nights. An eighth-grade English teacher creates an assignment for her class to debate whether Rye’s mascot should stay or change. Now six middle schoolers get involved in the issue that already has the suburb turned upside down with everyone choosing sides and arguments getting ugly. At the center of this story about human rights and Native sovereignty, there are six young people.

Zailey has never seen her own face. She's never seen her reflection, or a photo of herself, or even a drawing. In the special community of Gladder Hill, cameras and mirrors are forbidden: it's why everyone's happier here. Nobody talks about anyone else's appearance. You're not supposed to even think about what other people look like, or what you look like. But Zailey does. She knows her superficial thoughts are wrong, and her sketchbook, filled with secret portraits of her classmates and neighbors, could get her in trouble. Yet she can't help but think those thoughts.

Darcy believes in love at first sight. Even though it’s never happened to her, she’s spent her whole life waiting for that perfect, magical moment. But right now, her life is anything but perfect. In the aftermath of a music festival, she’s stranded at a bus station until morning—the day before she leaves for college. Her phone is dead, she has no cash, and she’s convinced nothing good can come of this night...but then she meets Russell.

There is only one thing better than a birthday party—a birthday party in Unicornia! Here the cakes are enchanted, the candies change flavor, and the theme parks are covered in glitter. But Pippa’s birthday has started off on the wrong foot, and her friends must think quickly to turn disaster into great fun. Luckily for them, they live in the most magical place ever!

There is the whole world, and in it, there's a city, and in that city, there's a house, and in that house, there are two half-houses, and in one of those half-houses, there lives a pair of sisters named Stella and Marigold. Stella, who's seven, likes cats and axolotls and second grade. But most of all, she likes Marigold. Marigold, who's four, likes gibbons and red paint and the plumber. But most of all, she likes Stella.

Mason lives in 2023. His parents have just split up, and there's a guy at school who won't get off his case. As part of an assignment, he writes a letter to Albert Einstein and it ends up getting a little too personal. He throws the letter into his closet … and the next day he gets a letter back from a girl named Talia, who lives in 1987. She has problems of her own, including classmates who make jokes because she's Jewish. She thought her friends would have her back. But it ends up the only person she really has to talk to is … a random boy from the future?

Evelyn has a constant need for perfection that’s blown some fuses among her robotics teammates, and she’s worried nobody’s taking the upcoming competition seriously. Allie is new to school, and she’s had a history of short-circuiting on teachers and other kids. So when Allie is assigned to the robotics team as a last resort, all Evelyn can see is just another wrench in the works!

Libby Monroe is great at science, being optimistic, and talking to her famous, accomplished friends (okay, maybe that last one is only in her head). She’s not great at playing piano, sitting still, or figuring out how to say the right thing at the right time in real life. Libby was born with Turner Syndrome, and that makes some things hard. When her big sister Nonny tells her she’s pregnant, Libby is thrilled—but worried. Nonny and her husband are in a financial black hole, and Libby knows that babies aren’t always born healthy. So she strikes a deal with the universe....

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?

A lonely doll helps a child adjust to a blended family in the first of a charming series about library toys and the children who borrow them, written by Newbery Honoree Cynthia Lord.  

It’s early September 2001, and twelve-year-old Abbey is the new kid at school. Tennessee is her family’s latest stop in a series of moves based on her dad’s work in the Army, but this one might be different. For the first time, Abbey has found a real friend: loyal, courageous, athletic Camille. And then it’s September 11. The country is under attack, and Abbey’s “home” looks like it might fall apart. America has changed overnight.

Channeling their own experiences, sixteen exceptional authors subvert mental health stereotypes in a powerful and uplifting collection of fiction.

Rose is a good girl. She listens to her parents and follows every rule. After all, rules are there for a reason … right? And adults always know best. Talia, the new girl from New York City, doesn’t think so. After only a week at school, Talia—who does what she wants, when she wants—is already making enemies. First on the list: Charlotte, Rose’s lifelong best friend. So why can’t Rose stop wondering what it would be like to be Talia’s friend? And why does Rose read a banned book that Talia recommends? Rose doesn’t know. But the forbidden book makes her ask questions she’s never thought of. 

This charming and critically acclaimed early chapter book series follows the everyday adventures of siblings Stella and Marigold. In this second book, Stella and Marigold receive a purple present—a book for them to list all their friends. That’s when they discover they need to make more friends! But how? With magical recipes to make snow fall? With lots of nice Band-Aids? How about a mermaid candleholder? The two sisters are full of ideas and plans.