New Titles

Mortified

Jackson, Kristy,


Someone secretly signs up Belinda Houle, the school's shyest kid, to audition for a play. Belinda turns to her best friend Sally, who isn't embarrassed by anything and might be a witch, for help. Sally casts a spell for confidence, but it's more of a curse! What follows the spell is bad luck so tragic it would have been funny--if only it wasn't happening to Belinda! More importantly, how can Belinda battle the very thing she hoped the spell would take away: her embarrassment?"
Date Published:2024

Someone secretly signs up Belinda Houle, the school's shyest kid, to audition for a play. Belinda turns to her best friend Sally, who isn't embarrassed by anything and might be a witch, for help. Sally casts a spell for confidence, but it's more of a curse! What follows the spell is bad luck so tragic it would have been funny--if only it wasn't happening to Belinda! More importantly, how can Belinda battle the very thing she hoped the spell would take away: her embarrassment?"

Date Published:2024

Wonder

Palacio, R. J.,


Ten-year-old Auggie Pullman, who was born with extreme facial abnormalities and was not expected to survive, goes from being home-schooled to entering fifth grade at a private middle school in Manhattan, which entails enduring the taunting and fear of his classmates as he struggles to be seen as just another student.
Date Published:2012

The one and only Ivan

Applegate, Katherine


When Ivan, a gorilla who has lived for years in a down-and-out circus-themed mall, meets Ruby, a baby elephant that has been added to the mall, he decides that he must find her a better life.
Date Published:2012

Because of Mr. Terupt

Buyea, Rob.


Seven fifth-graders at Snow Hill School in Connecticut relate how their lives are changed for the better by "rookie teacher" Mr. Terupt.
Date Published:2011

Front desk

Yang, Kelly,


After emigrating from China, ten-year-old Mia Tang's parents take a job managing a rundown motel. Mia works the front desk and tries to cope with fitting in at her school.
Date Published:2018

Shooting Kabul

Senzai, N. H.


May include reading group guide. Escaping from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in the summer of 2001, eleven-year-old Fadi and his family immigrate to the San Francisco Bay Area, where Fadi schemes to return to the Pakistani refugee camp where his little sister was accidentally left behind.
Date Published:2011

Welcome back, Maple Mehta-Cohen

McGovern, Kate


Maple Mehta-Cohen has been keeping a secret: she can’t read all that well. She has an impressive vocabulary and loves dictating stories into her recorder—especially the adventures of a daring sleuth who’s half Indian and half Jewish like Maple herself—but words on the page just don’t seem to make sense to her. Despite all Maple’s clever tricks to hide her troubles with reading, her teacher is on to her, and now Maple has to repeat fifth grade. Maple is devastated—what will her friends think? Will they forget about her? She uses her storytelling skills to convince her classmates that she’s staying back as a special teacher’s assistant (because of budget cuts, you know). But as Maple navigates the loss of old friendships, the possibility of new ones, and facing her reading challenges head-on, her deception becomes harder to keep up. Can Maple begin to recognize her own strengths, and to love herself—and her brain—just the way she is?
Date Published:2023

Maple Mehta-Cohen has been keeping a secret: she can’t read all that well. She has an impressive vocabulary and loves dictating stories into her recorder—especially the adventures of a daring sleuth who’s half Indian and half Jewish like Maple herself—but words on the page just don’t seem to make sense to her. Despite all Maple’s clever tricks to hide her troubles with reading, her teacher is on to her, and now Maple has to repeat fifth grade. Maple is devastated—what will her friends think? Will they forget about her? She uses her storytelling skills to convince her classmates that she’s staying back as a special teacher’s assistant (because of budget cuts, you know). But as Maple navigates the loss of old friendships, the possibility of new ones, and facing her reading challenges head-on, her deception becomes harder to keep up. Can Maple begin to recognize her own strengths, and to love herself—and her brain—just the way she is?

Date Published:2023

She holds up the stars

Laronde, Sandra,


A young Indigenous girl searching for a sense of home finds strength and courage in her gifts, her deepening connection to the land, and her own cultural awakening in this moving coming-of-age story. The last thing that twelve-year old Misko wants to do is to move away from the city to spend time on the rez with her grandmother. And yet she feels strangely compelled to go, drawn by a pull that she feels in her dreams. Maybe she can finally find out what happened to her mother, who mysteriously disappeared when Misko was four years old. Misko’s relationship to the rez shifts when she encounters a spirited horse named Mishtadim. But Mishtadim is being violently broken by the rancher next door and his son Thomas. Misko and Thomas clash at first, only to find themselves drawn together by the wild horse. As Misko slowly discovers her unique bond with Mishtadim, she feels a sense of belonging and comes to understand the beauty of the world all around her. She Holds Up the Stars is a powerful story of reconciliation and the interwoven threads that tie us to family, to the land, and to our own sense of self.
Date Published:2022

A young Indigenous girl searching for a sense of home finds strength and courage in her gifts, her deepening connection to the land, and her own cultural awakening in this moving coming-of-age story. The last thing that twelve-year old Misko wants to do is to move away from the city to spend time on the rez with her grandmother. And yet she feels strangely compelled to go, drawn by a pull that she feels in her dreams. Maybe she can finally find out what happened to her mother, who mysteriously disappeared when Misko was four years old. Misko’s relationship to the rez shifts when she encounters a spirited horse named Mishtadim. But Mishtadim is being violently broken by the rancher next door and his son Thomas. Misko and Thomas clash at first, only to find themselves drawn together by the wild horse. As Misko slowly discovers her unique bond with Mishtadim, she feels a sense of belonging and comes to understand the beauty of the world all around her. She Holds Up the Stars is a powerful story of reconciliation and the interwoven threads that tie us to family, to the land, and to our own sense of self.

Date Published:2022

Take back the block

Giles, Chrystal D.,


Sixth-grader Wes Henderson sets out to save the Oaks, the neighborhood where he's lived his whole life, from being sold to a real estate developer.
Date Published:2021