The Summer I Saved the World . . . in 65 Days


Book Description

It's summertime, and thirteen-year-old Nina Ross is feeling kind of lost. Her beloved grandma died last year; her parents work all the time; her brother's busy; and her best friend is into clothes, makeup, and boys. While Nina doesn't know what "her thing" is yet, it's definitely not shopping and makeup. And it's not boys, either. Though . . . has Eli, the boy next door, always been so cute? This summer, Nina decides to change things. She hatches a plan. There are sixty-five days of summer. Every day, she'll anonymously do one small but remarkable good thing for someone in her neighborhood, and find out: does doing good actually make a difference? Along the way, she discovers that her neighborhood, and her family, are full of surprises and secrets. In this bighearted, sweetly romantic novel, things may not turn out exactly as Nina expects. They might be better. Praise: Finalist for the Golden Sower Award (Nebraska) Nominated for the Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Awards Nominated for the Sunshine State Young Readers Award (Florida)




Hello from Renn Lake


Book Description

The environmental activism of Hoot meets the summer friendship of Lemons in this heartfelt story about community, conservation, and standing up for the things you love. Annalise Oliver's family has owned and run lakeside cabins in Renn Lake, Wisconsin, for generations. This summer, she gets to help out while her younger sister focuses on being an actress and her best friend is babysitting rambunctious twin boys. It's the perfect opportunity for Annalise to work and spend more time by her beloved lake. When she was three years old, Annalise discovered that she could sense what Renn Lake was thinking and feeling. Now, at twelve, she still turns to Renn for comfort. But when a small patch of algae quickly becomes a harmful bloom, Annalise can no longer hear Renn, and the lake is closed. She and her friends must find a way to save the lake. Writing from the perspectives of both the lake and Annalise, acclaimed author Michele Weber Hurwitz tells a sensitive and heartfelt story about community, activism, and fighting for the things you love.




Calli Be Gold


Book Description

Eleven-year-old Calli Gold is the quiet third child in a family of loud overachievers. In fact, the family motto is Be Gold. Calli's sister is on an ice-skating team, and her brother's a basketball star. Her parents are sure she has a hidden gift for something. They just have to figure out what it is! But Calli has flopped at everything she's tried. She sure doesn't feel like a Gold. Until a new person enters her life. Second grader Noah Zullo might seem strange to some people, but Calli can't help liking him, and they become partners in their school's Peer Helper Program. When they create a booth for the Friendship Fair, they fill it with secrets and surprises. And as Calli and Noah work and learn together, they even surprise themselves. Michele Weber Hurwitz's debut is an endearing and gently humorous story about the true meaning of achievement and the important things an "ordinary" kid has to offer. Nominated for: Maud Hart Lovelace Award (Minnesota) Bluestem Readers’ Choice Award (Illinois)




Ethan Marcus Makes His Mark


Book Description

“A thoughtful next step for readers of Andrew Clements.” —BCCB (about Ethan Marcus Stands Up) Ethan and Erin go to Tech Camp and try to win a chance to “make” a difference in classrooms everywhere in this hilarious follow-up to Ethan Marcus Stands Up. Ethan and Erin Marcus may only be eleven months apart age-wise, but they are a million miles apart in every other respect. Ethan’s laid back and takes things in stride. Erin’s a little more…intense and doesn’t really like to go with the flow. So when these two polar opposites are both invited to attend a prestigious invention/maker camp during winter break it seems almost impossible. Even though Erin and Ethan have reached a kind of truce, Erin thinks that his invitation to the camp was a mistake. And for that reason, Ethan decides to go. He has something to prove to everyone—but mostly to himself—and he’s convinced that his desk-evator idea has great potential…if he can do it right. But the Marcus siblings are going to have to find new partners. This is especially important to Erin whose rival, Romanov, is also attending the camp. Erin’s never forgiven him for his comment about “girls” having no place in science. She’s determined to beat him. But then she overhears someone talking about Romanov’s project, and decides that she’ll never be able to compete with his game-changing invention. So, what now? What if the Marcus siblings combine their ideas, their brains, and their teams, and make something spectacular? With only one day left, can Erin and Ethan actually create a workable model of their idea, and is it enough to win?




The Tree Shepherd's Daughter


Book Description

When her mother dies, fifteen-year-old Keelie Heartwood must leave California to live with her nomadic father at a renaissance festival. Playacting the Dark Ages is an L.A. girl’s worst nightmare. But then Keelie starts seeing fairies and uncovers her connection to a community of elves.




The Hope Chest


Book Description

A perfect Common Core tie-in, The Hope Chest includes nonfiction backmatter with period photographs, historical notes about the suffrage movement, and a Voting in America timeline. It's also a New York State Curriculum title for fourth grade. Eleven-year-old Violet has one goal in mind when she runs away from home: to find her sister, Chloe. Violet’s parents said Chloe had turned into the Wrong Sort of Person, but Violet knew better. The only problem is that Chloe’s not in New York anymore. She's moved on to Tennesee where she's fighting for the right of women to vote. As Violet's journey grows longer, her single-minded pursuit of reuniting with her sister changes. Before long she is standing side-by-side with her new friends—suffragists, socialists, and colored people—the type of people whom her parents would not approve. But if Violet’s becoming the Wrong Sort of Person, why does it feel just right? This stirring depiction of the very end of the women's suffrage battle in America is sure to please readers who like their historical fiction fast-paced and action-packed. American Girls fans will fall hard for Violet and her less-than-proper friends.




One Small Hop


Book Description

Perfect for fans of Carl Hiaasen's classic Hoot, this humorous adventure story set in a not-so-distant future celebrates the important differences we can make with small, brave acts. When Ahab and his friends find a bullfrog in their town -- a real, live bullfrog, possibly the last bullfrog in North America -- they have several options:A. Report it to the Environmental Police Force. Too bad everyone knows the agency is a joke.B. Leave it be. They're just a bunch of kids -- what if they hurt it by moving it?C. Find another real, live bullfrog on the black market. Convince their parents to let them bike to Canada. Introduce the two frogs. Save all of frogkind.Ahab convinces the rest of the group that C is their only real option. Because if they don't save this frog, who will? Their quest, which will involve fake ice cream, real frog spawn, and some very close calls, teaches Ahab that hope is always the logical choice and that science is always better with friends.With humor and empathy, acclaimed author Madelyn Rosenberg builds an all-too-imaginable future ravaged by climate change, where one kid can still lean on his friends and dream up a better tomorrow.




Hope in the Holler


Book Description

A poignant--and funny--story of a girl trying to be brave and find her place in the world after she's sent to live with scheming relatives, perfect for fans of One for the Murphys. Right before Wavie's mother died, she gave Wavie a list of instructions to help her find her way in life, including this one: Be brave, Wavie B! You got as much right to a good life as anybody, so find it! But little did Wavie's mom know that events would conspire to bring Wavie back to Conley Hollow, the Appalachian hometown her mother tried to leave behind. Now Wavie's back in the Holler--and in the clutches of a dastardly aunt. Living with uncaring relatives is no picnic, but Wavie finds real joy in the beauty of the mountains and sleeping in her mother's childhood bed. She takes her mother's advice to heart, making friends with Camille and Gilbert--funny, kindhearted kids her aunt calls "neighborhood no accounts." And when Wavie learns a shocking family secret, it is their support that just might allow her to be brave enough to find--and grab--a piece of that good life.




Futureface (Adapted for Young Readers)


Book Description

For anyone who is interested in genealogy and DNA profiling, this is the story of a journalist who travels the world to solve the mystery of her ancestry, facing questions about American identity and what it means to belong. Now adapted for young readers from the acclaimed adult memoir. Who are my people? Where am I from? With a Burmese mother and a white American father, Alex Wagner grew up thinking of herself as a "futureface"--an example of what the mixed-race future of America would look like. Her father's ancestors immigrated to the United States from Ireland and Luxembourg. Her mother fled Burma--now Myanmar--with her family in the 1960s. When Alex learns that her ancestry might be more mysterious than she believed, she becomes obsessed with learning everything there is to know about her ethnic and racial history. Her journey takes her from Burma to Luxembourg, from birth records written on banana leaves to high-tech genetic labs and online ancestry profiles. Through a blend of history, science, and sociology, Alex tries to solve the mysteries of her family and what it means to be American. What makes us think of certain people as "us" and others as "them"? In a time of conflict over who we are as a country, she tries to find the story where we all belong. Praise for the adult edition of Futureface "A thoughtful, beautiful meditation on what makes us who we are." --Barack Obama "Smart, timely, and moving." --Eddie Huang, bestselling author of Fresh Off the Boat "A rich and revealing memoir." --The New York Times




Teranesia


Book Description

As a young boy, Prabir Suresh lives with his parents and sister on an otherwise uninhabited island in a remote part of the Indonesian peninsula. Prabir names it Teranesia, populating it with imaginary creatures even stranger than the evolutionarily puzzling butterflies that his parents are studying. Civil war strikes, orphaning Prabir and his sister. Eighteen years later, rumours of bizarre new species of plants and animals being discovered in the peninsula that was their childhood home draw Prabir's sister back to the island - Prabir cannot bear for her to have gone out alone and he follows, persuading a pharmaceutical researcher to take him along as a guide.