Molly & Pim and the Millions of Stars


Book Description

For fans of Katherine Rundell’s Rooftoppers comes a story about mothers and daughters and magical trees that Rebecca Stead calls “an utter delight.” All Molly wants is to be normal like her friend Ellen Palmer. Ellen, with her neat braids and a tidy house and a mother and father who are home for dinner every night. But Molly’s mom spends her mornings tramping through the woods, looking for ingredients for her potions. Their house is not neat, and their rooster, the Gentleman, runs wild in their yard. And it is the Gentleman that angers their grumpy neighbors, the Grimshaws. So Molly’s mom makes a potion that will grow a tree between their houses. When Molly’s mom accidentally drinks the potion and turns into the tree, Molly is determined to get her back. But with the Grimshaws planning to cut down the tree branches that reach onto their property, time is of the essence. With the help of her mysterious classmate Pim Wilder, Molly sets out to save her mother and discovers the wonder that lies in the ordinary. Praise for Molly & Pim and the Millions of Stars: “Open-hearted and magical—an utter delight.” —Rebecca Stead, author of When You Reach Me and Goodbye, Stranger “A beautiful, magical story, full of surprises and brimming with wisdom.” —Karen Foxlee, author of Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy




Molly & Pim and the Millions of Stars


Book Description

For fans of Katherine Rundell’s Rooftoppers comes a story about mothers and daughters and magical trees that Rebecca Stead calls “an utter delight.” All Molly wants is to be normal like her friend Ellen Palmer. Ellen, with her neat braids and a tidy house and a mother and father who are home for dinner every night. But Molly’s mom spends her mornings tramping through the woods, looking for ingredients for her potions. Their house is not neat, and their rooster, the Gentleman, runs wild in their yard. And it is the Gentleman that angers their grumpy neighbors, the Grimshaws. So Molly’s mom makes a potion that will grow a tree between their houses. When Molly’s mom accidentally drinks the potion and turns into the tree, Molly is determined to get her back. But with the Grimshaws planning to cut down the tree branches that reach onto their property, time is of the essence. With the help of her mysterious classmate Pim Wilder, Molly sets out to save her mother and discovers the wonder that lies in the ordinary. Praise for Molly & Pim and the Millions of Stars: “Open-hearted and magical—an utter delight.” —Rebecca Stead, author of When You Reach Me and Goodbye, Stranger “A beautiful, magical story, full of surprises and brimming with wisdom.” —Karen Foxlee, author of Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy




Plants in Children’s and Young Adult Literature


Book Description

From the forests of the tales of the Brothers Grimm to Enid Blyton’s The Faraway Tree, from the flowers of Cicely May Barker’s fairies to the treehouse in Andy Griffith and Terry Denton’s popular 13-Storey Treehouse series, trees and other plants have been enduring features of stories for children and young adults. Plants act as gateways to other worlds, as liminal spaces, as markers of permanence and change, and as metonyms of childhood and adolescence. This anthology is the first compilation devoted entirely to analysis of the representation of plants in children’s and young adult literatures, reflecting the recent surge of interest in cultural plant studies within the environmental humanities. Mapping out and presenting an internationally inclusive view of plant representation in texts for children and young adults, the volume includes contributions examining European, American, Australian, and Asian literatures and contributes to the research fields of ecocriticism, critical plant studies, and the study of children’s and young adult literatures.




Marsh & Me


Book Description

When Joey, a loner whose life consists of home, school, and the hill where he plays guitar, meets Marsh, she opens his eyes to a new world.




When You Reach Me/First Light


Book Description

For the first time, Newbery Medal–winning Rebecca Stead’s two brilliant books are available together in an eBook-only omnibus. In the award-winning When You Reach Me, readers uncover an astonishing New York City puzzle with Miranda. Someone is sending her anonymous notes, and each one reveals more about a mystery that changes her life forever. Stead’s debut novel, First Light, is a dazzling tale of science, secrets, and adventure at the top of the world. While on a research expedition with his family, Peter discovers a hidden world beneath the arctic ice of Greenland, and meets Thea, a bold explorer.




The Last Summer of Ada Bloom


Book Description

• A beautiful and affecting story about the fragility of family relationships and about the pervading effects of secrets we keep, set in a small Victorian country town. • It is 1980, the year of John Lennon's assassination, and the Bloom family is beginning to unravel. Martha is lost in regret for her past, her husband Mike is yearning for a time when his wife wasn't always so distant, teenagers Tilly and Ben are both coming of age in their own unruly ways, and nine-year-old Ada is holding on to a childhood that is about to be lost to her. • Told from the perspectives of each family member, Martine Murray's impressive adult fiction debut is about a family growing up and growing apart, each of them longing for their own kind of freedom. • Lyrical, sophisticated and immensely captivating, The Last Summer of Ada Bloom is ultimately a story about relationships, what people withhold from each other, and what happens when secrets, present and past, come to light. • For fans of Holly Throsby's Goodwood, Peggy Frew's Hope Farm and Anne Tyler's A Spool of Blue Thread • Martine Murray is an award-winning children’s novelist and illustrator. She was born in Melbourne and now lives in Castlemaine, Victoria.




Elizabeth and Zenobia


Book Description

Abandoned by her mother and neglected by her scientist father, timid Elizabeth Murmur has only her fearless friend, Zenobia, for company. And Zenobia’s company can be very trying! When Elizabeth’s father takes them to live in his family home, Witheringe House, Zenobia becomes obsessed with finding a ghost in the creepy old mansion and forces Elizabeth to hold séances and wander the rooms at night. With Zenobia’s constant pushing, Elizabeth investigates the history of the house and learns that it does hold a terrible secret: Her father’s younger sister disappeared from the grounds without a trace years ago. Elizabeth and Zenobia is a wonderfully compelling middle-grade story about friendship, courage, and the power of the imagination.




Kids Like Us


Book Description

A tender, smart, and romantic YA novel about a teenage boy on the autism spectrum who learns he is capable of love.




The Library Machine (The Extraordinary Journeys of Clockwork Charlie)


Book Description

The final installment in the rip-roaring middle-grade action-adventure trilogy that's part steampunk Pinocchio, part fantasy, and all fun! The third and last book in the Extraordinary Journeys of Clockwork Charlie trilogy wraps up Charlie's adventures with a rousing ending! Charlie's life used to be quiet, but now it's full of adventure and surprises--none more surprising than the discovery that he is not a regular boy but one of his father's inventions--a living clockwork boy! Charlie's weeks have been filled with dwarves, kobolds, pixies, and humans, as he's sought to avenge his father's death and stop the dastardly Iron Cog from their plans to sow chaos throughout the world. Now his journey takes him to Marburg, Germany, where he and his friends must uncover the secrets of a hidden kobold library in order to save civilization--and their own skins. This dramatic conclusion to the trilogy will have readers cheering on its unlikely hero to the very last page!




To Pluto and Beyond


Book Description

New Horizons was designed by NASA to study Pluto and the fringes of our solar system, farther away than any spacecraft has ever explored. Join science writer Elaine Scott as she tells the story of this mission. For Stephen Hawking, New Horizons signifies that "We explore because we are human and we want to know." This remarkable ship, no bigger than a piano, and using no more energy than a lightbulb, has already traveled three billion miles out to Pluto, and is continuing on to the Kuiper Belt, the farthest reaches of our solar system. The book will feature the beautiful, amazingly sharp photographs it is sending back from its journey, which are letting scientists fill in the blanks in our knowledge of Pluto--and delivering a few surprises along the way. Elaine Scott tells the exciting story of everyone's favorite planet, from Pluto's discovery through the frustrating attempts to study such a distant object, the creation of the New Horizons project, scientists' hopes and expectations for the mission, and what is being discovered. Her clear, engaging prose does more than narrate the events. By showing how scientists operate, their hypotheses, hopes, and disappointments, and how they make use of them, she gives readers an inspiring portrait of the scientific method itself.