Grade 6

*Video Booktalk*
Kate, Michael, and Emma have passed from one orphanage to another in the ten years since their parents disappeared to protect them. But now they learn that they have special powers, a prophesied quest to find a magical book, and a fearsome enemy.
417 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Time Travel, Magic

*Video Booktalk*
Two stories, told in alternating sections, about a girl in Sudan in 2008 and a boy in Sudan in 1985. Nya must fetch water from a pond that is two hours' walk from her home. Salva is a refugee from the Sudan war searching for his family and a safe place to stay.
128 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Africa, Refugees, Drought

Sequel to Swindle. When Griffin Bing's class goes to the zoo, they don't expect to see animals being treated so badly. Hilarity ensues as Griffin's team once more pulls off a heist...trying to break the animals back into a (better) zoo!
256 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Burglaries & Heists

Nick and Marta get involved in an environmental who-dunnit when their Biology teacher goes missing in the Black Vine Swamp.
384 pages Grades 6-8
related subjects:  Endangered Animals, Detectives, High School

This edition has been specially adapted for younger readers to tell the remarkable true story of an American man who pledges to build a school for children in Pakistan.
205 pages, Grades 5-8
related subjects:  Middle East

Book 5 of The 39 Clues.
176 pages Grades 4-8
related subjects:  Museum Mysteries, Secret Codes

Book 4 of The 39 Clues.
192 pages Grades 4-8
related subjects:  Museum Mysteries, Secret Codes

Book 3 of The 39 Clues. Amy and Dan follow the trail of clues to Tokyo.
160 pages Grades 4-8
related subjects:  Museum Mysteries, Secret Codes

*Video Booktalk*
Ted and Kat watched their cousin Salim board the London Eye. But after half an hour it landed and everyone trooped offÐexcept Salim. Where could he have gone? Ted and his older sister, Kat, follow a trail of clues across London in a desperate bid to find their cousin.
336 pages, Grades 4-8
related subjects:  Detectives

When 11-year-old Zack moves to Connecticut with his father and new stepmother, they must deal with the ghosts left behind after a terrible accident.
325 pages Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Ghosts

Book 2 of The 39 Clues. Amy and Dan travel to Vienna to find Mozart's diary in search of the next clue.
160 pages Grades 4-8
related subjects:  Museum Mysteries, Secret Codes

Amy and Dan Cahill just found out that they are members of the world's most powerful family. Everyone from Napoleon to Houdini is related to the Cahills, yet the source of the family power is lost. 39 clues hidden around the world will reveal the family's secret, but Amy and Dan have to compete against every other Cahill to assemble them.
220 pages Grades 4-8
related subjects:  Museum Mysteries, Secret Codes

Miranda, a small delicate girl easily carried off by the wind, lands at Bourne Manor and is taken in by the dour widow Wysteria, but she begins to believe rumors that the Manor is cursed and seeks to escape.
150 pages Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Ghosts, Flying People

On a visit to Florence, 13-year-old Elisabetta catches the eye of the great Leonardo da Vinci, and falls for a boy named Giuliano de Medici, but it is a dangerous time for the Medici's. As tragedy and chaos threaten their happiness, "Monna Lisa" faces the bittersweet truth of love.
272 pages, Grades 6-8
related subjects:  14th-15th Century, Love

Sequel to Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos.
400 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Museum Mysteries, Magic

In this retelling of Sleeping Beauty, Prince Sigismund dreams of an enchanted castle that has been alseep for almost 200 years, and learns that he is destined to awaken the sleeping princess.
309 pages, Grades 5-8
related subjects:  Fairy Tales, Witches

*Video Booktalk*
11-year-old James and Marvin, a beetle who lives under James' sink, form an unlikely friendship and help to solve the case of some missing artwork from the Metropolitan Museum.
304 pages Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Insects & Spiders, Museum Mysteries, Burglaries & Heists

Sequel to Inkheart and Inkspell.
656 pages Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Parallel Universe

When Calder Pillay travels with his father to England, he finds a mix of mazes and mystery, including an unexpected Alexander Calder sculpture in the town square. Both the boy and the sculpture seem out of place, and then they dissapear!
379 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Burglaries & Heists, Museum Mysteries

*Video Booktalk*
After a mean collector cons him out of a valuable baseball card, Griffin must put together a band of misfits to recapture the card. There are many things standing in their way, a menacing guard dog, a high-tech security system, a very secret hiding place, but Griffin and his team are going to get back what's rightfully his.
256 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Burglaries & Heists

Smart, practical, and fun things you can do to make your home, school, neighborhood, and planet more environmentally friendly.
112 pages, Grades 4-6
related subjects:  Pollution

On San Francisco Bay in 1866, when a mysterious shipwreck survivor - a young, feverish boy who claims to be a pirate - washes into their cove, secrets that have been tranquilly hidden across generations are suddenly threatened.
207 pages, Grades 5-7
related subjects:  Pirates, 19th Century

Dylan's Scout troop goes camping in Halape, a remote spot below the volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii. That night an earthquake rocks the camp, and then a wave rushes in, sweeping everyone and everything before it. The next hours are an amazing story of survival and the true meaning of leadership.
208 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Survival, Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Volcanoes

*Video Booktalk*
Book 1 of the Seems series. 12-year-old Becker works as a Fixer for The Seems, a secret organization that makes sure our world keeps running and sticks to The Plan that's been made for it. But a Glitch in the Sleep Department could ruin everything if Becker can't Fix it.
288 pages, Grades 4-6
related subjects:  Parallel Universe, Funny

*Video Booktalk*
13-year-old Cap has been homeschooled his whole life, but now he is going to public middle school for the first time. He is not prepared for the kids there, and they are not prepared for him!
224 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Boy Bullies, Popularity

This wordless graphic novel powerfully captures the immigrant experience.
128 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Refugees

Book 8 of the Pendragon series. The leaders of Ibara are keeping a devastating secret from their people, one that gives Saint Dane all the opportunity he needs to launch his final assault on Halla.
560 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Parallel Universe, Warriors

In 1859, 11-year-old Elijah Freeman, the first free-born child in Buxton, Canada, which is a haven for slaves fleeing the South, uses his wits to try to bring justice to the lying preacher who stole money that was saved to buy a family's freedom.
288 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  19th Century, Funny, Slavery

*Video Booktalk*
Theodosia must reverse the black magic that only she can see in the ancient artifacts her archaeologist parents bring back from Egypt.
344 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Museum Mysteries, Magic

Based on the true story of the Danish Resistance. When the Germans occupy Denmark in 1940, Bamse and his brother join the Resistance and help rescue Jews from being taken to concentration camps.
192 pages, Grades 4-6
related subjects:  Jewish Holocaust, World War II

Book 2 of the Grk series.
208 pages, Grades 4-6
related subjects:  Dogs, Spies

Book 1 of the Grk series. A British schoolboy finds adventure when he travels to a dangerous foreign country to return a small dog to its rightful owner.
241 pages, Grades 4-6
related subjects:  Dogs, Spies

Holling's 7th grade year is off to a bad start when he realizes that his teacher hates him - for no reason.
272 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Funny

Book 1 of the Warriors: Power of Three series.
384 pages, Grades 4-6
related subjects:  Cats, Talking Animals

15-year-old J.J. disappears into the fairy world to plug a time leak caused 150 years ago when his great-grandfather disappeared.
448 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Ireland, Fairies, Parallel Universe

When twelve-year-old Hugo, an orphan living and repairing clocks within the walls of a Paris train station in 1931, meets a mysterious toy seller, his undercover life and his biggest secret are jeopardized.
533 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Museum Mysteries, Orphans

Book 3 of the Percy Jackson series.
320 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Mythology

Book 2 of the Chronus Chronicles. Sequel to The Shadow Thieves.
448 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Mythology

Book 2 of the Wave Walkers series.
240 pages Grades 5-7
related subjects:  Sea Adventures, Pirates

Book 2 of the Solomon Snow series.
256 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Foundlings, Funny, 19th Century

*Video Booktalk*
Limpy the Toad has a vision. A world where cane toads and humans play mudslides together. And share their slug sauce and maggot moisturizer. But how does a young cane toad discover the ancient secret of living in peace with humans?
208 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Funny

*Video Booktalk*
Meet the amazing Matschie's tree kangaroo, who makes its home in the ancient trees of Papua New Guinea's cloud forest. And meet the amazing scientists who track these elusive animals.
80 pages Grades 4-8
related subjects:  Endangered Animals

Littlest One is a tiny creature learning her job of giving dreams to humans. When the Sinisteeds go after John, a young boy, with their horrifying nightmares, Littlest One must protect John from the nightmare of his dark past.
176 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Parallel Universe

Yorsh, a young elf orphan, discovers he is part of a powerful prophecy connecting the last dragon and the last elf.
361 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Dragons, Warriors

When the sea called to Sapphy's father, he vanished from her life. When the sea called to her brother, he started disappearing for hours on end. And now the sea is calling to Sapphy, and she feels its pull more strongly than she's ever felt anything in her life. 336 pages, Grades 5-8
related subjects:  Mermaids & Selkies

Twelve-year-old Maud lives in an orphanage until she adopted by an elegant high society con artist who wants to use Maud in her schemes.
389 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Orphans

*Video Booktalk*
11-year-old Silver sets out to find the Timekeeper, a clock that controls time, and to protect it from falling into the hands of two people who want to use it for their own evil ends.
415 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Evil Scientists, Parallel Universe, Time Travel

*Video Booktalk*
Book 1 of the Chronus Chronicles. Thirteen-year-old Charlotte and her cousin Zee must set out to save humankind from denizens of the Underworld, Nightmares, Death, Pain, and a really nasty guy named Phil.
424 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Mythology, Zombies, Evil Scientists

After her mother's death, twelve-year-old Molly learns that her father is a basketball star for the Boston Celtics.
246 pages, Grades 5-7
related subjects:  Fathers, Basketball

Book 1 of the Wave Walkers series. Jolly and Munk, two "polliwogs" who have the ability to walk on water, running for their lives from an evil sea creature, end up on a mysterious pirate ship run by a crew of ghosts.
336 pages Grades 5-7
related subjects:  Sea Adventures, Pirates, Ghosts

After inheriting her uncle's homesteading claim in Montana, sixteen-year-old Hattie travels from Iowa in 1917 to make a home for herself, and describes her difficult new life in letters to her old friend fighting the war in Europe.
289 pages, Grades 5-8
related subjects:  World War I, Wild West Pioneers

Book 2 of the Echo Falls series. Things are amiss in Echo Falls. True to her hero, Sherlock Holmes, eighth-grader Ingrid begins fishing around to find out who's really pulling the strings in Echo Falls. But one morning, while en route to the dreaded MathFest, Ingrid is kidnapped and locked in the trunk of a car.
352 pages, Grades 6-8
related subjects:  Detectives

Fifteen-year-old Giacomo, servant to Leonardo da Vinci, helps his procrastinating master finish painting The Last Supper while also trying to discover who his real parents are in fifteenth-century Milan, Italy.
390 pages, Grades 5-8
related subjects:  14th-15th Century

Fourteen-year-old Clara is invited to Mexico to meet her grandparents for the first time. When she gets there, she's stunned by their life: they live in a simple shack in a small mountain village, very different from suburban Maryland.
272 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Mexico, Grandparents

Book 2 of the Mistmantle Chronicles.
Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Foundlings, Talking Animals

Book 6 of the Alex Rider series. Shot outside the offices of MI6 and left for dead by Scorpia, Alex Rider awakens in a top-secret hospital, glad simply to be alive. But when the boy in the next room is the victim of a kidnapping attempt, it is Alex who saves him, only to be kidnapped himself.
362 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Spies

Book 5 of the Artemis Fowl series.
400 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Fairies, Spies

Book 7 of the Pendragon series. Bobby must save the people of Quillan from being pawns in a cruel game.
496 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Parallel Universe, Warriors

Book 6 of the Pendragon series. Saint Dane's influence has fueled the fire of discontent between two warring tribes: the Rokador and the Batu on Zadaa where the Traveler Loor lives as a member of the Batu. Together she and Bobby must work to thwart Saint Dane's efforts to destroy Zadaa.
416 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Parallel Universe, Warriors

Prequel to Peter Pan. Sequel to Peter and the Starcatchers. On the journey across the sea to London, Peter and Tinkerbell discover the deadly part-man/part-creature Lord Ombra. When Peter reaches London, he and Molly must combat Ombras' forces to protect the Starcatchers and the starstuff, and to rescue Molly's mother from the clutches of evil.
576 pages Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Orphans, Sea Adventures, Pirates, Flying People, Monsters

In a government class, three popular girls undergo a mock trial for their ruthless bullying of a classmate.
176 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  High School, Mean girls, Popularity

Warriors: The New Prophesy: Twilight

Book 5 of the Warriors: The New Prophesy series.
336 pages, Grades 4-6
related subjects:  Cats, Talking Animals

Warriors: The New Prophesy: Starlight

Book 4 of the Warriors: The New Prophesy series. The Clans have finally arrived in their new home, following the prophecies of their warrior ancestors. The future seems uncertain, and more than one cat is harboring sinister plans that could lead to violence and darkness. As all the warriors wait for a sign, some of them begin to realize that the threats they face in the forest may not be as perilous as the threats they face from within.
336 pages, Grades 4-6
related subjects:  Cats, Talking Animals

Warriors: The New Prophesy: Dawn

Book 3 of the Warriors: The New Prophesy series. Something terrifying is happening in the world of the Clans. Amid the destruction of the forest, cats are disappearing, including ThunderClan's beloved medicine cat apprentice, Leafpaw. Now the young cats who set off on a quest many moons ago have returned with a chilling message: The Clans must move to a new home, or risk extermination.
352 pages, Grades 4-6
related subjects:  Cats, Talking Animals

A legendary archer from ancient Korea travels forward in time to twelve-year-old Kevin's bedroom in New York.
176 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Korea, Time Travel

*Video Booktalk*
Three teens and a curator of unclassifiable artifacts at the British Museum match wits with a madman determined to reanimate the dead, both humans and dinosaurs.
336 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  19th Century, Museum Mysteries, Zombies, Evil Scientists

In 1452, a man appears at Gutenberg's home with a mysterious chest which can only be opened when the fangs of its serpent's-head clasp taste blood. Centuries later, in an Oxford library, a boy touches a strange book and feels something pierce his finger. The book is blank, but then words begin to appear on the page, words only the boy can see.
400 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  14th-15th Century, Museum Mysteries, Secret Codes

A retelling of the Snow White story.
336 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Princesses, Fairy Tales, Love, Singing

A brave warrior Beowulf must defeat the monster Grendel in this epic battle based on the Scandinavian tale.
96 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Dragons

Book 3 of the Emily Windsnap series. The magic ring that Emily - half mermaid, half ordinary girl - finds buried in the sand belongs to Neptune, and he wants it back. But the ring, once on, won't come off, and Neptune puts a terrible curse on Emily.
224 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Mermaids & Selkies

Book 2 of the Percy Jackson series. After a summer spent trying to prevent a catastrophic war among the Greek gods, Percy Jackson finds his seventh-grade school year unnervingly quiet. His biggest problem is dealing with his new friend, Tyson, a six-foot-three, mentally challenged homeless kid who follows Percy everywhere.
288 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Mythology

River trolls, rock trolls, blue-wing fairies. The stretch of the Mississippi where Claire lives has rumors of them all, not that she's ever spotted any. But when Claire's cousin Duke takes a swim and sprouts a horn, Claire doesn't have much choice but to believe that something rivery is going on, and she's the only one who can help.
368 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Boy Bullies, Trolls

Fletcher Moon is the youngest qualified private detective in the world. Things are going pretty well until he is caught up in an investigation involving the town's biggest crime family. Grievous bodily harm, arson, dangerous undercover work ensue as Fletcher is framed for several crimes he did not commit.
304 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Detectives

After moving to New Jersey following his parents divorce, Jimmy tries out for the 7th grade baseball team, and has to prove himself as a pitcher in a new town.
105 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Baseball

Michael Arroyo has a dream of pitching in the Little League World Series, and an arm that throws serious heat. But, orphaned after his family fled from Cuba, Michael has no one to watch out for him except his older brother, who is only 17, and if Social Services hears of the boys' situation, they will be separated in the foster care system-or even worse, sent back to Cuba.
220 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Baseball

*Video Booktalk*
Petra and Calder are drawn into another mystery when unexplainable accidents and ghostly happenings throw a spotlight on Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House, and it's up to the two junior sleuths to piece together the clues. Together with Calder's friend Tommy the kids hunt for a coded message left behind by Wright.
318 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Museum Mysteries, Secret Codes

Eight-year-old Henry and nine-year-old Chin love to read about heroes in popular "penny dreadful" novels, until they both experience real courage while trying to survive the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
128 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Earthquakes

Many baseball players claim that Satchel Paige was the fastest pitcher in the history of the game. Stosh and his coach are on a mission to find out. With radar gun in tow, they travel back to 1942 and watch Satch pitch to power hitter Josh Gibson in the Negro League World Series.
192 pages, Grades 4-6
related subjects:  Baseball, Racism

Sequel to Inkheart.
635 pages Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Parallel Universe

As a Navajo boy at American school, Ned Begay was punished for speaking Navajo, but when war broke out with Japan, the navajo language formed an unbreakbale code that saved many American lives.
240 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  World War II, Racism

Oliver is miserable in his new home in the sticks, until he finds a magical amulet that allows him to talk to animals and transform into animals.
284 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Funny, Talking Animals

*Video Booktalk*
Volcano researcher Donna O'Meara's photographs and accounts of treacherous journeys get readers up close and personal with some of the world's most dangerous volcanoes.
56 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Volcanoes

On August 24, A.D. 79, Mount Vesuvius began to erupt. Hundreds of years later, archaeological excavations began to unearth what had been buried under layers of volcanic rubble.
48 pages, Grades 4-8
related subjects:  Ancient Rome, Volcanoes

Tom tries to survive on the rough streets of early-nineteenth-century London.
208 pages, Grades 6-8
related subjects:  19th Century, Boy Bullies

A scarecrow is truck by lightning and comes to life. He hires a young orphan, Jack, to be his servant, and Scarecrow plunges them into terrifying dangers: battles, brigands, broken hearts, and treasure islands.
240 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Funny

Like her idol, Sherlock Holmes, eighth grader Ingrid uses her intellect to solve a murder case in her home town of Echo Falls.
375 pages, Grades 6-8
related subjects:  Murder Mysteries, Detectives

Steven has won a coveted press pass for the Final Four. But the games going on behind the scenes between the coaches, the players, the media, the money-men, and the fans turn out to be even more fiercely competitive than those on the court. Steven and his fellow winner, Susan, overhear a threat to throw the championship game. Now they have just 48 hours to figure out who is blackmailing one of MSU’s star players . . . and why.
256 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Basketball, Detectives

Book 18 of the Redwall series. The otters of Green Isle have long been enslaved to the Wildcat Riggu Felis and his catguards, who torture the otters at every opportunity until the day their savior will arrive—the prophesized High Rhulain, who will lead them in battle and a return to glory.
352 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Talking Animals

*Video Booktalk*
Book 1 of the Percy Jackson series. Twelve-year-old Perseus 'Percy' Jackson, whose mother is mortal and whose father is Poseidon the God of the Sea, lives in the 21st century where the Greek gods are still very much around.
384 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Mythology, Monsters

*Video Booktalk*
Hunky Dory is at the top of her class in charm school. Her family hopes she will be "the wickedest witch wherever the four winds blow", but Hunky is shocked to discover that she might want to be a fairy godmother instead.
176 pages, Grades 4-6
related subjects:  Fairies, Fairy Tales, Funny, Witches

While attending a strict academy for potential princesses with the other girls from her mountain village, fourteen-year-old Miri discovers unexpected talents and connections to her homeland.
250 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Princesses, Love, Singing

Hermes, Prince of Thieves and son of Zeus, relates why the seasons change, the history of the Trojan War, his friendship with Pegasus, and many more adventures.
229 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Ancient Greece, Mythology

While working on a project, Julia, a Korean-American, and her friend Patrick learn not just about silkworms, but about tolerance, prejudice, friendship, and patience.
240 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Korea, Racism

Part of the Royal Diaries series. Fourteen-year-old Sophia travels to Russia where she is renamed Catherine and married to the Empress's son.
176 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  18th Century, Princesses, Russia

Left an orphan after the influenza epidemic in British East Africa in 1919, thriteen-year-old Rachel is tricked into returning to England, where her only dream is to return to Africa and rebuild her parents' mission hospital.
208 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  East Africa, Orphans

Sequel to The Conch Bearer. Anand journeys back to ancient India where he encounters powerful sorcerors, spoiled princes, noble warriors, and evil djinns.
336 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  India, Magic, Genies (or Djinn)

During the 2001 Afghan War, the lives of Najmah, a young refugee from Afghanaistan, and Nustrat, an American-Muslim teacher who is awaiting her husband's return from Mazar-i-Sharif, intersect at a school in Pakistan.
288 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Middle East, Refugees

Warriors: The New Prophesy: Moonrise

Book 2 of the Warriors: The New Prophesy series. Several moons have passed since six cats set out from the forest on an urgent journey to save all their Clans. Now those six are traveling home again, but on their way through the mountains, they meet a tribe of wild cats who seem to have their own set of warrior ancestors . . . and their own mysterious prophecy to fulfill.
320 pages, Grades 4-6
related subjects:  Cats, Talking Animals

Warriors: The New Prophesy: Midnight

Book 1 of the Warriors: The New Prophesy series. The wild cat Clans have lived in peace and harmony for many moons -- but now, strange messages from their warrior ancestors speak of terrifying new prophecies and a mysterious danger.
336 pages, Grades 4-6
related subjects:  Cats, Talking Animals

After being hit by a car, Sam finds himself in Aurobon, a land of giant insects where some of the inhabitants are working to keep Earth's ecology in balance while others are trying to wipe out humankind with a virus spread by mosquitoes.
300 pages Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Insects & Spiders, Parallel Universe, Survival

A cabin boy on a pirate ship finds himself in San Diego in 1846 as war breaks out between the United States and Mexico.
194 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Mexico, Pirates, 19th Century, Wild West Pioneers

Eighteen-year-old Perce Blackborow stows away on board Shakleton's ship bound to explore the Antarctic continent. Within months, the ship, trapped and crushed by ice, sank with no hope of rescue. If the men were to survive in the most hostile place on earth, they would have to do it on their own.
336 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Sea Adventures, Survival

Book 4 of the Artemis Fowl series. Artemis has no memory of the fairy people and has returned to his unlawful ways. He doesn't know that his old rival, Opal, has escaped from prison by cloning herself. She's left her double behind in jail and, now free, is exacting her revenge on all those who put her there, including Artemis.
400 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Cloning, Fairies, Spies

Book 1 of the Jimmy Coates series. 11-year-old Jimmy is on the run. The good news is that he has some sweet new abilities that let him outrun, outjump, and outkick anybody-even adults. The bad news is that the mysterious organization that kidnapped Jimmy's parents is after him and he has no idea why. Except that it might have something to do with his new fighting capabilities. And the fact that he might not be entirely human.
352 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Robots, Spies

Book 5 of the Alex Rider series. When Alex learns that his father may have been an assassin for the most lethal and powerful terrorist organization in the world, Scorpia, his world shatters. Now Scorpia wants Alex on their side, and Alex no longer has the strength to fight them.
312 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Spies

This summer the Penderwick sisters go on vacation to a beautiful estate called Arundel where they discover sprawling gardens, a treasure-filled attic, tame rabbits, and other creatures. But the best discovery of all is Jeffrey, son of Arundel's owner, who is the perfect companion for their adventures.
272 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Sisters

Book 1 of the Mistmantle Chronicles. Orphaned as a baby squirrel, Urchin is raised by the kind animals on the island of Mistmantle, but treachery and murder are about to change Urchin's destiny.
288 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Foundlings, Talking Animals

Uncoordinated Kansas 7th grader, Kirby Nickel, braves his coach's anger and becomes captain of the basketball team in order to help him prove that NBA star Brett McGrew is the father he never knew.
198 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Basketball, Fathers, Funny

Stanford Wong is having a bad summer. If he flunks his summer-school English class, he won't pass sixth grade. If that happens, he won't start on the A-team. If *that* happens, his friends will abandon him and Emily Ebers won't like him anymore. And if THAT happens, his life will be over.
304 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Basketball, Fathers, Funny

Noah's dad is sure that the owner of the Coral Queen casino boat is flushing raw sewage into the harbor, which has made the local beach into toilet. He canÕt prove it though, so he decides to sink the boat. But the boat is pumped out and back in business within days and NoahÕs dad is stuck in jail. Now Noah is determined to prove that the Coral Queen is dumping illegally.
272 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Fathers, Pollution

Sofia's tales of growing up in Texas, full of family traditions: Easter cascarones, her best friend's quinceanera, the Christmas nacimiento, and eating the tequila worm. When Sofia receives a scholarship to boarding school, she longs to explore life beyond the barrio, even though it means leaving her family for a strange world of rich kids.
199 pages, Grades 5-8
related subjects:  Mexico

Two sisters, aged ten and twelve, are accused of witchcraft in Andover, Massachussetts in 1692, and await trial in a miserable prison while their mother desperately searches for some way to obtain their freedom.
211 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  17th century, Sisters, Witches

Naomi Soledad Leon Outlaw's life with Gram and her little brother, Owen, is happy & peaceful until their mother reappears after 7 years of being gone, stirring up questions, and challenging Naomi to discover who she really is.
246 pages, Grades 4-6
related subjects:  Mexico, Mothers

Chronicles the close friendship between two Japanese-American sisters growing up in rural Georgia during the late 1950s, and the despair felt when one sister becomes terminally ill.
256 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Sisters

The adventures of Odysseus, including his encounters with the evil Cyclops, the monsters Scylla and Charybdis, the beautiful sorceress Circe, and the vengeful god of the sea, Poseidon.
128 pages, Grades 5-7
related subjects:  Ancient Greece, Mythology

Twelve-year-old Danny Walker may be the smallest kid on the basketball court--but don't tell him that. Because no one plays with more heart or court sense. But none of that matters when he is cut from his local travel team, the very same team his father led to national prominence as a boy.
288 pages, Grades 5-7
related subjects:  Basketball, Fathers

*Video Booktalk*
Ten-year-old Solomon Snow, a foundling who was discovered with a distinctive silver spoon in his mouth, sets out to find his parents and receives help along the way from an aspiring writer, a precocious young circus star, and several Orphans.
289 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Foundlings, Funny, 19th Century

When strange events start to happen and a precious Vermeer painting disappears, 11-year-olds Petra and Calder combine their talents to solve an international art scandal.
272 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Burglaries & Heists, Museum Mysteries

Twelve-year-old Diana ignores her brother's warnings and befriends the daughter of the new caretaker, setting in motion events that lead to the release of the spirit of an evil crazy woman who once ruled the old Willis place.
208 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Ghosts , Murder Mysteries

*Video Booktalk*
Twelve-year-old Annika was abandoned as a baby and found by two kind servants in a professor's house. They took her in and loved her. Then one day a glamorous stranger arrives, claiming to be Annika's mother. Annika is no servant, she learns, but an aristocrat whose true home is an ancient castle. But at crumbling Spittal, Annika discovers that all is not as it seems in the lives of her newfound family.
416 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Foundlings, 19th Century

*Video Booktalk*
Twelve-year-old New York City twins Meg and Edward have nothing in common, so they are just as shocked as everyone else when Meg's hopes for popularity and Edward's mischievous schemes coincidentally collide in a hilarious showdown.
208 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Twins, Funny, Popularity

The true story of Washington's use of espionage in gathering intelligence to defeat the British in the Revolutionary War.
192 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  18th Century, Spies

Book 4 of the Alex Rider series. Alex investigates pop star Damian Cray whose new video game hides sinister motives involving Air Force One, nuclear missiles, and the international drug trade.
256 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Spies

*Video Booktalk*
Prequel to Peter Pan. In a fast-paced adventure on the high seas and on a faraway island, an orphan boy named Peter and his new friend, Molly, overcome bands of pirates and thieves in their quest to keep a fantastical secret safe and save the world from evil.
480 pages Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Orphans, Sea Adventures, Mermaids & Selkies, Pirates, Flying People

As fighting closes in on the village where Tiger's parents are aid workers, the three of them and native guide set out on a difficult journey to safety.
192 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Survival, Refugees, Drought

Discusses the events and personalities involved in the momentous Allied invasion of France on June 6, 1944.
61 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Survival, World War II

Book 5 of the Pendragon series. The inhabitants of Eelong are in danger of being wiped out by a mysterious plague. But if Bobby chooses to save Eelong he could endanger himself, his friends, and the future of every other being in Halla.
448 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Parallel Universe, Warriors

*Video Booktalk*
The true story of a thirteen-year-old girl whose arm was bitten off by a shark while she was surfing in Hawaii.
213 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Sharks

The wars between Iraq and the US are explained through a history of the region along with descriptions of the conflict, weapons, soldiers, key leaders, major events,a nd challenges in establishing peace.
96 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Middle East

*Video Booktalk*
In a society where boys are more valuable than girls, and parents are only allowed to have two children, 14-year-old Chu Ju decides to run away from home in order to prevent her parents from selling her baby sister. Now she has to find a way to support herself alone. and parents are only allowed to have two children, fourteen-year-old Chu Ju decides to run away from home in order to prevent her parents from selling her baby sister. Now she has to find a way to support herself alone.
240 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  China

This book documents the true story of Long, a Vietnam War orphan, his struggle to survive in war-torn Vietnam, his dramatic escape to America as part of "Operation Babylift" during the last chaotic days before the fall of Saigon, and his life in the United States as "Matt," part of a loving Ohio family.
128 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Vietnam, Refugees

Firedrake, a young dragon, must journey to a place above the clouds called the Rim of Heaven --- which may not even exist. As he embarks on his journey, he meets Ben, a runaway boy. Together, the boy & dragon make their way toward the Rim of Heaven, all the while running a step ahead of Nettlebrand, a monster who will stop at nothing to hunt down Firedrake.
528 pages, Grades 3-7
related subjects:  Dragons

Jack and his little sister Lucy are captured by Viking Berserkers and taken to the home of King Ivan the Boneless and his half-troll queen, leading Jack to undertake a quest to Jotenheim, the home of the Trolls.
480 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Dragons, Trolls

Three stories in one volume: Cinderellis and the Glass Slipper, For Biddle's Sake, and The Fairy's Return.
256 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Fairies, Fairy Tales, Princesses

Book 2 of the Emily Windsnap series. Picture an island paradise, a secret place where humans and merfolk live together. To Emily Windsnap - half mermaid, half human - her new home is perfect. That is, until Emily ruins everything by waking a legendary sea monster known as the Kraken from its hundred-year sleep.
224 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Mermaids & Selkies

Book 17 of the Redwall series. Rakkety Tam, the roguish Highlander squirrel, sets off for Mossflower Wood and must defend Redwall Abbey against Gulo the Savage: a vicious beast-eating wolverine who descends upon the Abbey in search of a relic called the Walking Stone.
384 pages , Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Talking Animals

The 1930s in America will be remembered for twin disasters-the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. This book documents this tumultuous period, beginning with the 1929 stock market crash and continuing with the severe drought in the Midwest, chronicling the everyday struggle for survival by those who lost everything, as well as the mass exodus westward to California on Route 66.
96 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Great Depression, Poverty, Drought

In 17th century England, Susanna, a young Quaker servant girl, falls in love with seventeen-year-old Will, an apprentice from a wealthy family. With Quakers being persecuted and imprisoned, can their bond survive, no matter what?
304 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  17th Century, Love

One night, Meggie's father reads aloud from a book called INKHEART-- and an evil ruler jumps out of the book and lands in their living room. Suddenly, Meggie finds herself in the kind of adventure she has only read about in books.
560 pages Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Parallel Universe

1793, Philadelphia. The largest city in North America is devastated by an incurable disease, cause unknown. This true story describes the illness and the toll it took on the city's residents.
256 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  18th Century, Disease Epidemics

*Video Booktalk*
Book 1 of the Emily Windsnap series. The first time twelve-year-old Emily Windsnap goes swimming, she makes a startling discovery - she's a mermaid!
209 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Mermaids & Selkies

It doesn't take long for Cody Elliot to realize that his new high school is a little different. The other students are supernaturally strong, don't like the sunlight, and are always placing orders at the local blood bank. These kids are vampires! As Cody struggles to fit in, he disrupts centuries of human-vampire segregation, with some serious and some funny consequences.
240 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Funny, High School, Vampires

Determined to be more than just an ordinary witch, Heckie, whose speciality is changing people into animals, settles in a small town determined to use her powers for good purposes.
176 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Funny, Witches

The adventures of Desperaux Tilling, a small mouse of unusual talents, the princess that he loves, the servant girl who longs to be a princess, and a devious rat determined to bring them all to ruin.
272 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Princesses, Talking Animals

Book 1 of the Bartimaeus Trilogy. Nathaniel is a young magician's apprentice, but when a hotshot wizard named Simon Lovelace ruthlessly humiliates him, Nathaniel decides to show Lovelace who's boss. With revenge on his mind, he masters one of the toughest spells of all: summoning the all-powerful djinni, Bartimaeus. But summoning Bartimaeus and controlling him are two different things!
464 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Genies (or Djinn), Magic

Rose has always felt out of place in her family, a wanderer in a bunch of homebodies. So when an enormous white bear mysteriously shows up and asks her to come away with him--in exchange for health and prosperity for her family--she agrees. The bear takes Rose to an enchanted castle, where each night she is confronted with a mystery. A retelling of "East of the Sun, West of the Moon."
400 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Fairy Tales, Love, Witches

Book 16 of the Redwall series. Martha Braebuck, a young hare-maid, wheelchair bound since infancy, wonders about an old poem relating to the ancient abbey of Loamhedge--and whether it may hold the key to her cure.
432 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Talking Animals

On her way to marry a prince she's never met, Princess Anidori is betrayed by her guards and her lady-in-waiting and must become a goose girl to survive until she can reveal her true identity and claim the crown that is rightfully hers.
400 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Princesses, Mean Girls

In India, twelve-year-old Anand must journey to return a magical conch shell to its rightful home in the Himalayan mountains while enemies try to steal it from him.
272 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  India, Magic

When an earthquake creates a tsunami while thirteen-year-old Kyle is babysitting his sister during a family vacation at a Pacific Coast resort, he tries to save himself, his sister, and a boy who has bullied him for years.
160 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Boy Bullies

Sequel to Parvana's Journey. Fourteen-year-old Shauzia dreams of seeing the ocean and eventually making a new life in France, but it is hard to reconcile that dream with the terrible conditions of the Afghan refugee camp where she lives.
176 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Homelessness, Middle East, Refugees

*Video Booktalk*
Details the first documented cases in American history of sharks attacking swimmers, which occured along the Atlantic coast of New Jersey in 1916.
144 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Sharks

Book 4 of the Pendragon series. Fifteen-year-old Bobby Pendragon arrives on this territory in pursuit of the evil Saint Dane, but all is peaceful on Veelox -- because it's deserted. The inhabitants have discovered a way to enter their own personal dream worlds, where they can be whoever they want, wherever they want.
384 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Parallel Universe, Warriors

Book 3 of the Pendragon series. Bobby finds himself thrust beyond the boundaries of time and space into a place that seems somewhat familiar: First Earth. Bobby and the Traveler from Cloral, Spader, have flumed to New York City, 1937. Against a backdrop of gangsters, swing music, and the distant sound of a brewing war, the two must uncover the evil Saint Dane's newest plot.
352 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Parallel Universe, Warriors

Book 2 of the Pendragon series. Can Bobby -- suburban basketball star and all-around nice guy -- help rid the area of marauders, and locate the legendary lost land of Faar, which may hold the key to Cloral's survival?
400 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Parallel Universe, Warriors

Sequel to Hatchet. Two years after having survived a plane crash into the Canadian wilderness, a sixteen-year-old returns to the wild to befriend a wounded dog and hunt a rogue bear.
112 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Survival

A tale of heartbreak, hope, and survival through the bright eyes of a young orphan in Nazi-occupied Warsaw.
224 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Jewish Holocaust, Survival, World War II, Homelessness

Sequel to Hatchet. After his experiences surviving alone in the Canadian wilderness several years earlier, sixteen-year-old Brian finds that he can't seem to fit into "civilization" but must return to the place where he feels he really belongs.
128 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Survival

Nancy Kington, daughter of a rich merchant, suddenly orphaned when her father dies, is sent to live on her family's plantation in Jamaica. Disgusted by the treatment of the slaves and her brother's willingness to marry her off, she and one of the slaves, Minerva, run away and join a band of pirates.
340 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  18th Century, Pirates, Sea Adventures

Book 3 of the Artemis Fowl series. Ever the resourceful young criminal mastermind, Artemis has found a way to construct a supercomputer from stolen fairy technology. Called the "C Cube," it will render all existing human technology obsolete.
320 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Fairies, Secret Codes, Spies

Book 3 of the Alex Rider series. Teenage-spy Alex Rider, on a routine mission at the Wimbledon tennis championships, gets caught up in Chinese gangs, illegal nuclear weapons, and the suspect plans of his Russian host, General Sarov.
240 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Spies

The fate of a small California town rests on the outcome of one baseball game, and Tom Gallagher hopes to lead his team to victory with the secrets of the now disgraced player, Dante Del Gato.
224 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Baseball

Joe Stoshack travels back to 1919, where he meets Shoeless Joe Jackson and tries to prevent the fixing of the World Series in which Jackson was wrongly implicated.
176 pages, Grades 4-6
related subjects:  Baseball

Book 2 of the Alex Rider series. Fourteen-year-old Alex continues his work as a spy for the British MI6, investigating an exclusive school for boys in the French Alps.
215 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Cloning, Spies

Book 1 of the Pendragon series. Bobby Pendragon is a seemingly normal fourteen-year-old boy. He has a family, a home, and a new girlfriend. But before he can object, he is swept off to an alternate dimension known as Denduron, a territory inhabited by strange beings, ruled by a magical tyrant, and plagued by dangerous revolution.
372 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Best Friends, Parallel Universe, Warriors

Book 2 of the Artemis Fowl series. In order to free his father from the Russian Mafiya, Artemis must join forces with the fairy police and his familiar nemesis, Captain Holly Short.
288 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Fairies, Spies

Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy's attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site.
304 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Owls

These new and collected poems of Naomi Shihab Nye describe the Middle East, Jerusalem, the West Bank, family, and being Arab-American.
160 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Middle East

Sequel to The Breadwinner. Kabul, Afghanistan is in ruins. Parvana, separated from the rest of her family, sets out alone to find them. She meets other victims of war: an infant boy in a bombed-out village, a nine-year-old girl who thinks she has magic powers over landmines, and a boy with one leg. The strength of their bond helps them to survive the most desperate conditions.
176 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Homelessness, Middle East, Refugees

Samir, a Palestinian boy, is sent for surgery to an Israeli hospital where he makes friends with an Israeli boy, Yonatan, and travels with him to Mars where Samir finds peace over his younger brother's death in the war.
160 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Middle East

With national pride and also fear, a brother and sister face the oppressive occupation of Korea by Japan during World War II, which threatens to suppress Korean culture entirely.
208 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Japan, Korea, World War II

A young man leaves the troll who raised him, meets an unhappy princess he has loved from afar, and discovers a plot against her and her father the king.
288 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Funny, Love, Princesses

Three stories in one volume: The Fairy's Mistake, The Princess Test, and Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep.
240 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Fairies, Fairy Tales, Princesses

Book 15 of the Redwall series. Triss, Shogg, and Welfo escape from slavery at Riftgard and are pursued across the sea toward Redwall by Princess Kurdah, Prince Bladd, and a band of freebooters who seek the rumored treasure of Brockhall.
400 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Talking Animals

When her father commands that she produce an heir, the huntress Atalanta gives her suitors a seemingly impossible task in order to uphold her pledge of chastity, as the gods of ancient Greece look on.
192 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Ancient Greece, Mythology

Atalanta, Andromeda, and Psyche, three female characters in Greek mythology, tell the stories of their marriages.
200 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Ancient Greece, Mythology

Fourteen-year-old Princess Xenodice tries to prevent the death of her half-brother, the Minotaur, at the hands of the Athenian prince, Theseus, who is aided by Icarus, Daedalus, and her sister Ariadne.
194 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Ancient Greece, Mythology

Anaxandra lives in the castle with King Menelaus and his wife Helen, until Trojan prince Paris comes and has an affair with Helen that starts the Trojan War.
264 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Ancient Greece, Mythology

Ethan Feld, the worst baseball player in the history of the game, finds himself recruited by a 100-year-old scout to help a band of fairies triumph over an ancient enemy.
500 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Baseball, Fairies

*Video Booktalk*
Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is similar, yet disturbingly different from her own, where she must challenge a gruesome entity in order to save herself, her parents, and the souls of three others.
176 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Witches, Parallel Universe, Zombies

14-year-old Donata, disguised as a boy, sneaks out of her noble family's house to roam the streets of late sixteenth-century Venice.
275 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  16th Century

*Video Booktalk*
Book 1 of the Island Trilogy.
129 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Survival, Sea Adventures

Book 1 of the Roman Mysteries series. In Rome in the year 79 A.D., a group of children from very different backgrounds work together to discover who beheaded a pet dog -- and why.
160 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Ancient Rome

Book 3 of the High Seas Trilogy.
256 pages, Grades 5-8
related subjects:  18th Century, Pirates, Sea Adventures

Free-verse poems express the views of various people in a small Vermont town, including a young black girl and a young Jewish girl, during the early 1920s when the Ku Klux Klan is trying to infiltrate the town.
272 pages, Grades 4-8
related subjects:  Racism

When accused of murder in her North Carolina mountain town in 1928, Dovey Coe, a stronged-willed twelve-year-old girl, comes to a new understanding of others, including her deaf brother.
192 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Murder Mysteries, Hearing Impaired

*Video Booktalk*
First-person accounts from both American and Japanese survivors combines with dramatic archival images to paint a vivid portrait of what it was like to have witnessed, participated in, and lived through the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
64 pages, Grades 4-8
related subjects:  World War II

A love-struck mermaid named Aquamarine supplies adventure and insights to two twelve-year-old girls, life-long friends who are spending their last summer together before one of them moves away.
105 pages, Grades 5-7
related subjects:  Best Friends, Love, Mermaids & Selkies

Book 14 of the Redwall series. A young otter, kidnapped in his infancy and raised as a warrior-thief by a band of vermin, leaves the tribe and goes off to seek adventures of his own.
448 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Talking Animals

Rather than marry a cruel king or a seemingly dim-witted prince, an enchanted goose girl endures inprisonment, capture by several ogresses, and other dangers before learning exactly who she is.
224 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Fairy Tales

Tree-ear, a thirteen-year-old orphan in medieval Korea, lives under a bridge in a potters' village, and longs to learn how to throw the delicate celadon ceramics himself.
192 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Korea, Pottery, Homelessness

A talking cat, intelligent rats, and a strange boy cooperate in a Pied Piper scam until they try to con the wrong town and are confronted by a a deadly evil rat king.
256 pages, Grades 6 and up
Cats, Fairy Tales, Talking Animals

Book 1 of the Cique du Freak series. Two boys who are best friends visit an illegal freak show, where an encounter with a vampire and a deadly spider forces them to make life-changing choices.
272 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Best Friends, Insects & Spiders, Vampires

Book 1 of the Artemis Fowl series. When a twelve-year-old evil genius tries to restore his family fortune by capturing a fairy and demanding a ransom in gold, the fairies fight back with magic, technology, and a particularly nasty troll.
304 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Fairies, Secret Codes, Spies

Book 1 of the Alex Rider series. Fourteen-year-old Alex continues his work as a spy for the British MI6, investigating an exclusive school for boys in the French Alps.
2224 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Spies

In 1968, 11-year-old Jaynell's life in Texas is enlivened when her eccentric Grandpap comes to live with her family.
176 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Grandparents, Poverty

With her adventurous sister, Meryl, suffering from the Gray Death, meek and timid Princess Addie sets out to find a cure.
272 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Princesses, Sisters

Ten-year-old India Opal Buloni describes her first summer in the town of Naomi, Florida, and all the good things that happen to her because of her big ugly dog Winn-Dixie.
184 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Dogs

Part of the Royal Diaries series. A novel in diary form in which the youngest daughter of Czar Nicholas II describes the privileged life her family led up until the time of World War I and the tragic events that befell them.
227 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Princesses, Russia, World War I

When thirteen-year-old Koly enters into an ill-fated arranged marriage, she must either suffer a destiny dictated by India's tradition or find the courage to oppose it.
192 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Sewing, India

With their ability to travel through time using vintage baseball cards, Joe and his father have the opportunity to find out whether Babe Ruth really did call his shot when he hit that homerun in the third game of the 1932 World Series against the Chicago Cubs.
176 pages, Grades 4-6
related subjects:  Baseball

In India, a young girl is outcast from her village because of the incredible power she has when she dances.
224 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Dancing, India

When a terrible blight attacks Ireland's potato crop in 1845, twelve-year-old Nory's courage and ingenuity help her family and neighbors survive.
176 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  19th Century, Famine, Ireland

When he is wrongly accused of gravely injuring his baby half-sister, thirteen-year-old Branwell loses his power of speech and only his friend Connor is able to reach him and uncover the truth about what really happened.
272 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Best Friends, Detectives

Each of the girls in a middle-school clique reveals the strong manipulative hold one of the group exerts on the others, causing hurt and self-doubt among the girls.
128 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Mean Girls, Popularity

In Korea in 1473, 11-year-old Young-sup overcomes his rivalry with his older brother Kee-sup, who as the first-born son receives special treatment from their father, and combines his kite-flying skill with Kee-sup's kite-making skill in an attempt to win the New Year kite-fighting competition.
144 pages, Grades 4-6
related subjects:  Korea, Brothers, 14th-15th Century

11-year-old Parvana must disguise herself as a boy so that her family can survive after her father's arrest in Afghanistan.
170 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Middle East

On a mysterious island, three eccentric women care for an assortment of astonishing creatures--not just seals, fish, and gulls, but mermaids, selkies, a couple of ghosts, a very long talking worm, and a boobrie that lays eggs so large, just one will make seventy-two omelets.
281 pages, Grades 3-7
related subjects:  Mermaids & Selkies

Book 13 of the Redwall series. The mountain of Salamandastron needs the help of Brocktree the Badger Lord when evil comes in the form of the Blue Hordes of Ungatt Trunn, the Earth Shaker.
384 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Talking Animals

Book 12 of the Redwall series. When Martin the Warrior leaves Redwall Abbey and embarks upon a journey to the place of his birth, he learns about the brave and noble deeds of his father Luke, a real Warrior Chieftain.
384 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Talking Animals

Presents the story of Odysseus's epic journey through the eyes of his faithful wife Penelope, the sorceress Circe, the goddess Athena, and his old nanny Eurycleia.
160 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Ancient Greece, Mythology

In 1793 Philadelphia, sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook, separated from her sick mother, learns about perseverance and self-reliance when she is forced to cope with the horrors of a yellow fever epidemic.
256 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  18th Century, Disease Epidemics

*Video Booktalk*
Chronicle of an expedition into the Llanganati Mountains of Ecuador in search of 750 tons of worked gold, which the Incas hid from the Spanish conquistadors after Pizarro executed the Sun King, Atahualpa.
48 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  South America

Part of the Royal Diaries series. While her father is in hiding after attempts on his life, twelve-year-old Cleopatra records in her diary how she fears for her own safety and hopes to survive to become Queen of Egypt some day.
224 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Ancient Egypt, Princesses

Book 2 of the High Seas Trilogy. In eighteenth-century England, after his father buys a schooner called the Dragon, sixteen-year-old John sets out to sail it from Kent to London and becomes involved in a dangerous smuggling scheme.
208 pages, Grades 5-8
related subjects:  18th Century, Pirates, Sea Adventures

In this continuation of the Cinderella story, fifteen-year-old Ella finds that accepting Prince Charming's proposal ensnares her in a suffocating tangle of palace rules and royal etiquette, so she plots to escape.
192 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Fairy Tales, Princesses

Deciding that he must sire a child to carry on his tradition of Loathing Light and Blighting the Beautiful, the Great Wizard Arriman announces a competition among the witches of Todcaster, one of whom will marry him.
249 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Funny, Witches

Impatient with the constraints put on her as an aristocratic girl living in Korea during the seventeenth century, twelve-year-old Jade Blossom determines to see beyond her small world.
112 pages, Grades 4-6
related subjects:  Korea, 17th Century

Orphaned Corinna disguises herself as a boy to pose as a Folk Keeper, one who keeps the Evil Folk at bay, and discovers her heritage as a seal maiden when she is taken to live with a wealthy family in their manor by the sea.
162 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Mermaids & Selkies, Orphans

With his ability to travel through time by using baseball cards, Joe goes back to 1947 to meet Jackie Robinson, the man who broke baseball's color barrier.
160 pages, Grades 4-6
related subjects:  Baseball, Racism

*Video Booktalk*
Book 1 of the High Seas Trilogy. Shipwrecked after a storm, fourteen-year-old John attempts to save his father and himself from the murderous community who lure storm-tossed ships to crash on rocks of their shore so they can steal their loot.
224 pages, Grades 5-8
related subjects:  18th Century, Pirates, Sea Adventures

Violet's paralyzing fear of the San Francisco earthquakes changes when her family renovates an old building. An aftershock dislodges a letter addressed in 1906 to Baby V, and Violet is certain the disturbing letter is intended for her.
288 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Earthquakes, Ghosts, Sisters

In 1921 thirteen-year-old Luke finds himself torn between accepting his left-handedness or conforming to the belief of his preacher-father that such a condition is evil and must be overcome.
176 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Baseball, Fathers

Every night, Shahrazad begins a story. And every morning, the Sultan lets her live another day, only because he wants to hear more stories. But after one thousand nights, Shahrazad is running out of tales. Thirteen-year-old Marjan must undertake a dangerous and forbidden mission: sneak from the harem and travel the city, and learn new stories for Shahrazade.
224 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Middle East

Sixty poems from different Middle Eastern poets depict the love of family, friends, and for the Earth, the daily occurrences of life that touch us forever, the longing for a sense of place. These poems show that beneath the veil of stereotypes, our human connections are stronger than our cultural differences.
112 pages, Grades 3-7
related subjects:  Middle East

Book 11 of the Redwall series. When three young residents of Redwall Abbey go on a quest to recover a tapestry stolen by the Marlfoxes, their bravery removes the curse of these evil animals on a lost island.
400 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Talking Animals

Book 10 of the Redwall series. Tammo, a daring young hare hungry for adventure, is sent with Russa Nodrey, the wandering red squirrel, to join the Long Patrol and defend Salamandastron against the Rapscallion horde.
336 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Talking Animals

*Video Booktalk*
The gods grant immortality to the mermaid Sirena when she rescues a human man from the sea and they fall in love, but his mortality creates great conflict between love and honor when he is called to defend Greece in the Trojan War.
210 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Ancient Greece, Love, Mermaids & Selkies, Mythology

Eager to enlist, fifteen-year-old Charley has a change of heart after experiencing both the physical horrors and mental anguish of Civil War combat.
128 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Civil War

In the wrong place at the wrong time, Stanley Yelnats is wrongly sent to a horrible correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, buried treasure, and a new sense of himself.
192 pages, Grades 5-7
related subjects:  Best Friends, Funny

Joey, who loves baseball but is not very good at it, finds a valuable 1909 Honus Wagner card and travels back in time to meet Honus.
144 pages, Grades 4-6
related subjects:  Baseball

Book 9 of the Redwall series. Tansy, a young hedgehog living at Redwall Abbey, attempts to solve the riddle of the missing pearls while at the same time the evil marten, Mad Eyes, desires them for himself.
432 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Talking Animals

In this novel based on the story of Cinderella, Ella struggles against the childhood curse that forces her to obey any order given to her.
256 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Fairy Tales, Love

When fourteen-year-old Liyanne Abboud, her younger brother, and her parents move from St. Louis to a new home between Jerusalem and the Palestinian village where her father was born, they face many changes and must deal with the tensions between Jews and Palestinians.
272 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Middle East

Driven by his sense of "dharma," or honor, young King Tamar sets off on a perilous journey, with a significance greater than he can imagine, during which he meets talking animals, villainous and noble kings, demons, and the love of his life.
304 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Magic, Talking Animals, India

*Video Booktalk*
After being taken by German soldiers from a local movie theater along with other Italian boys including his Jewish friend, Roberto is forced to work in Germany, escapes into the Ukrainian winter, before desperately trying to make his way back home to Venice.
224 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Jewish Holocaust, Survival, World War II

In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression.
240 pages, Grades 5-8
related subjects:  Great Depression, Drought

Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North.
399 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Evil Scientists, Parallel Universe, Talking Animals

In 1849, twelve-year-old California Morning Whipple, who renames herself Lucy, is distraught when her mother moves the family from Massachusetts to a rough California mining town.
352 pages, Grades 4-6
related subjects:  19th Century, Wild West Pioneers

Seventh-grader John "Crash" Coogan has always been comfortable with his tough, aggressive behavior, until his relationship with an unusual Quaker boy and his grandfather's stroke make him consider the meaning of friendship and the importance of family.
176 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Grandparents, Boy Bullies

Feeling that she is neither fully human nor "Folk," a changeling learns her true identity and attempts to find the human child whose place she had been given.
256 pages, Grades 3-7
related subjects:  Fairies

Book 8 of the Redwall series. The destinies of the badger lord Sunflash, and his mortal enemy, the ferret warlord Swartt Sixclaw, are entwined with those of many creatures, particularly the inhabitants of Redwall Abbey.
352 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Talking Animals

The events surrounding the famous battle between the Greeks and the Trojans are told from the points of view of two women, the beautiful Helen and the prophetic Cassandra.
208 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Ancient Greece, Mythology

A retelling of the adventures of Odysseus on his long voyage home from the Trojan War.
119 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Ancient Greece, Mythology

Book 7 of the Redwall series. Worried about his daughter Mariel, Joseph the Bellmaker is led by a dream from Redwall Abbey to Southsward, where he is caught up in the battle between Squirrelking Gael and the vicious Foxwolf Nagru.
416 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Talking Animals

Describes the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, particularly as it affects Sachi, who becomes one of the Hiroshima Maidens.
64 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Japan, Nuclear Weapons, World War II

A true account of Chicago's Great Fire of 1871.
144 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Fires, 19th Century

In 14th Century England, a nameless, homeless girl is taken in by a sharp-tempered midwife, and in spite of obstacles and hardship, eventually gains the three things she most wants: a full belly, a contented heart, and a place in this world.
128 pages, Grade 4-7
related subjects:  14th-15th Century, Homelessness

Odge Gribble, a young hag, joins a wizard, a fey, and an ogre on a quest from their magical kingdom to London through a tunnel which opens every nine years for nine days, to rescue the young prince who had been stolen as an infant nine years before.
240 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Funny, Magic

In 1299 in England, fourteen-year-old Elenor finds her betrothal to an ambitious lord's son launching her on a memorable pilgrimage to far-off Spain.
310 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  9th-13th Century

Sequel to Mountain Light. When he accidentally kills a Manchu, a fifteen-year-old Chinese boy is sent to America to join his father and other Chinese working to build a tunnel for the transcontinental railroad through the Sierra Nevada mountains in 1867.
352 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  China, 19th Century, Wild West Pioneers, Racism

Fifteen-year-old Loch and his younger sister join their father on a scientific expedition searching for enormous prehistoric creatures sighted in a Vermont lake, but soon discover that the expedition's leaders aren't interested in preserving the creatures.
224 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Loch Ness Monster, Monsters

Book 6 of the Redwall series. Captured and enslaved by the corsair stoat Badrang, young mouse warrior Martin vows to end the evil beast's plundering and killing.
384 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Talking Animals

The thirteen-year-old daughter of an English country knight keeps a journal in which she records the events of her life, particularly her longing for adventures beyond the usual role of women and her efforts to avoid being married off.
224 pages, Grades 5-7
related subjects:  9th-13th Century

Retells the story of the Trojan War, from the quarrel for the golden apple, and the flight of Helen with Paris, to the destruction of Troy.
151 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Ancient Greece, Mythology

Book 5 of the Redwall series. Urthstripe the Strong, a wise old badger, leads the animals of the great fortress of Salamandastron and Redwall Abbey against the weasel Ferahgo the Assassin and his corps of vermin.
400 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Talking Animals

Teenage girl by day, and owl by night, Owl Tycho's life is complicated. It becomes even more so when an inept new shape-shifter appears on the scene. Funny, smart, and supernatural, Owl is a young woman worth getting to know.
208 pages Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Owls

In 2194 in Zimbabwe, General Matsika's three children are kidnapped and put to work in a plastic mine while three mutant detectives use their special powers to search for them.
320 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Detectives, Future, Mutants, Zimbabwe

After learning sorcery to become a healer, a good-hearted woman is turned into a witch by evil spirits and she fights their power until her encounter with Hansel and Gretel years later.
128 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Fairy Tales, Mothers, Witches

Northerners, Southerners, generals, couriers, boys, and worried sisters describe the glory, the horror, the thrill, and the disillusionment of the first battle of the Civil War.
128 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Civil War

True stories of boneheaded plays, major league mess-ups, and other baseball bloopers.
176 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Baseball

Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.
192 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Dystopia

Thirteen-year-old Mai and her family embark on a dangerous sea voyage from Vietnam to Hong Kong to escape the unpredictable and often brutal Vietnamese government.
144 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Vietnam, Refugees

Book 4 of the Redwall series. The mousemaid Mariel achieves victory at sea for the animals of Redwall Abbey, fighting the savage pirate rat Gabool the Wild, warlord of rodent corsairs.
400 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Talking Animals

A novelization of twenty-two-year-old photographer Edith Irvine's experiences in the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, as seen through the eyes of fifteen-year-old Daisy, a fictitious traveling companion.
224 pages, Grades 5-8
related subjects:  Earthquakes

Sequel to Hatchet. Because of his success surviving alone in the wilderness for fifty-four days, fifteen-year-old Brian, profoundly changed by his time in the wild, is asked to undergo a similar experience to help scientists learn more about the psychology of survival.
144 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Survival

As the only passenger, and the only female, on a transatlantic voyage in 1832, thirteen-year-old Charlotte finds herself accused of murder.
240 pages, Grades 5-7
related subjects:  Sea Adventures, 19th Century, Murder Mysteries

Book 3 of the Redwall series. Mattimeo, the son of the warrior mouse Matthias, learns to take up the sword and joins the other animal inhabitants of Redwall Abbey in resisting Slagar the fox and his band of marauders.
448 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Talking Animals

In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis.
144 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Jewish Holocaust, World War II

Desta and the other members of her Falasha family, Jews suffering from discrimination in Ethiopia, finally flee the country and attempt the dangerous journey to Israel.
192 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Ethiopia, Middle East, Refugees

Book 2 of the Redwall series. Martin the warrior mouse and Gonff the mousethief set out to find the missing ruler of Mossflower, while the other animal inhabitants of the woodland prepare to rebel against the evil wildcat who has seized power.
432 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Talking Animals

Book 1 of the Redwall series. When the peaceful life of Redwall Abbey is shattered by the arrival of the evil rat Cluny and his villainous hordes, Matthias, a young mouse, determines to find the legendary sword of Martin the Warrior which, he is convinced, will help Redwall's inhabitants destroy the enemy.
352 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Talking Animals

After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four days in the wilderness, learning to survive initially with only the aid of a hatchet given by his mother, and learning also to survive his parents' divorce.
208 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Survival

Molly and Michael dislike their spooky new stepsister Heather but realize that they must try to save her when she seems ready to follow a ghost child to her doom.
192 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Ghosts

High school senior Karen is frightened at first when a young policeman asks her to use her psychic powers to help the police locate missing children.
224 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  ESP, Detectives

In 1947, a Chinese girl comes to Brooklyn, where she starts to make friends and feel at home when she discovers Baseball and the Brooklyn Dodgers.
160 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  China

A piglet destined for eventual butchering arrives at the farmyard, is adopted by an old sheep dog, and discovers a special secret to success.
128 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Talking Animals

Kind Beauty grows to love the Beast at whose castle she is compelled to stay, and through her love, releases him from the spell which had turned him from a handsome prince into an ugly beast.
256 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Fairy Tales, Love

A teenager casually suggests playing a cruel trick on the English teacher, but did he intend it to end with murder?
224 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Murder Mysteries, High School

The mysterious death of an eccentric millionaire brings together an unlikely assortment of heirs who must uncover the circumstances of his death before they can claim their inheritance.
192 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Murder Mysteries, Secret Codes

Hospitalized with the dreaded atom bomb disease, leukemia, a child in Hiroshima races against time to fold one thousand paper cranes to verify the legend that by doing so a sick person will become healthy.
80 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Japan, Nuclear Weapons

Cassie and her brothers do not understand the racism and discrimination they face as a black family living in Mississippi in the 1930s.
288 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Great Depression, Poverty, Racism

The Tuck family is confronted with an agonizing situation when they discover that a ten-year-old girl and a malicious stranger now share their secret about a spring whose water prevents one from ever growing older.
144 pages, Grades 4-6
related subjects:  Dystopia

Moon Shadow was eight when he sailed from China to join his father Windrider in America. Windrider lived in San Francisco's Chinatown and worked in a laundry. With Moon Shadow's help, Windrider was willing to endure the mockery of the other Chinese, the poverty, and the longing for his wife and his own country in order to make his dream come true.
256 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  China, Racism

*Video Booktalk*
Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away, so she decided not to run FROM somewhere, but TO somewhere. After some careful planning, she and her younger brother, Jamie, escaped to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, right into a mystery that made headlines!
176 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Museum Mysteries

Bill Bradley was the best basketball player Princeton had ever seen. Here is a portrait of Bradley as he was in college, before his time with the New York Knicks and his election to the U.S. Senate—a story that suggests the abundant beginnings of his professional careers in sport and politics.
144 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Basketball

Meg's father had been experimenting with time-travel when he suddenly disappeared. Will Meg, Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin outwit the forces of evil as they search through space for their father?
256 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Parallel Universe

In 1687 in Connecticut, Kit Tyler, feeling out of place in the Puritan household of her aunt, befriends an old woman considered a witch by the community and suddenly finds herself standing trial for witchcraft.
256 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  17th Century, Witches

Tolly comes to live with his great-grandmother at the ancient house of Green Knowe and becomes friends with three children who lived there in the seventeenth century.
192 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Ghosts, Grandparents

The story of a Japanese boy who must face life after escaping the tidal wave that destroyed his family and village.
64 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  Tsunamis

In the winter of 1940, Nazi troops parachuted into Peter's tiny Norwegian village and held it and its treasure captive. Nobody thought the Nazis could be defeated, but Peter and the other children risked their lives and outwitted the Nazis, sending all the town's gold to America.
156 pages, Grades 3-6
related subjects:  World War II

Roy Tucker, the Kid from Tomkinsville, joins the rest of his Dodger teammates in a come-from-behind battle for the series title.
272 pages, Grades 4-7
related subjects:  Baseball

Ken spends his days on his family's Wyoming ranch with his head in the clouds. Then one day, Ken's life is filled with new purpose when he finds Flicka, a magnificent filly as wild as she is fast.
304 pages Grades 4-6
related subjects:  Horses

The escapades of four animal friends who live along a river in the English countryside--Toad, Mole, Rat, and Badger.
272 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Talking Animals, Best Friends

When orphaned Mary comes to live at her uncle's house, she finds it full of secrets. At night, she hears the sound of crying down one of the corridors. Outside she meets a boy who can charm animals. Then, with the help of a friendly robin, Mary discovers a secret garden which has been forgotten for years.
384 pages, Grades 5-8
related subjects:  19th Century