The Losers at the Center of the Galaxy


Book Description

A tuba player without a tuba and his jellyfish-imitating sister cope with their father's disappearance in this hilarious and moving novel by the author of The Mortification of Fovea Munson. When Lenny Volpe, former quarterback of the worst professional football team in the nation, leaves his family and disappears, the Chicago Horribles win their first game in a long time. Fans are thrilled. The world seems to go back to normal. Except for the Volpe kids. Winston throws himself into playing the tuba, and Louise starts secret experiments to find a cure for brain injuries, and they're each fine, just fine, coping in their own way. That is, until the investigation of some eccentric teacher behavior and the discovery of a real live bear paraded as the Horribles' new mascot make it clear that things are very much Not Fine. The siblings may just need each other, after all.




The Mortification of Fovea Munson


Book Description

"Equal parts screwball comedy, coming-of-age story, and tearjerker-I loved, loved, loved it!" --Varian Johnson, author of The Parker Inheritance With a madcap sense of humor and a lot of heart (not to mention other body parts), The Mortification of Fovea Munson is Young Frankenstein for today's middle grade audience! Fovea Munson is nobody's Igor. True, her parents own a cadaver lab where they perform surgeries on dead bodies. And yes, that makes her gross by association, at least according to everyone in seventh grade. And sure, Fovea's stuck working at the lab now that her summer camp plans have fallen through. But she is by no means Dr. Frankenstein's snuffling assistant! That is, until three disembodied heads, left to thaw in the wet lab, start talking. To her. Out loud. And they need a favor.




Once Upon a Galaxy


Book Description

This collection of original new stories by today's masters of science fiction and fantasy contains classic fairy tales gone "techno, " with such familiar favorites as "Sleeping Beauty, " "The Emperor's New Clothes, " and "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" given an outer-space spin. Authors include Thomas Wylde, Ronnie Seagren, Stanley Schmidt, Tanya Huff, and Bruce Holland Rogers.




The Unicorns Who Saved Christmas


Book Description

In this delightful and hilarious holiday picture book, can a troop of unicorns really save Christmas? It's Christmas Eve, and Santa's reindeer are sick with the chicken pox. They can't pull his sleigh, so Santa needs some serious help. Will the unicorns save Christmas despite coming down with a case of hiccups? Or will Christmas have to be canceled?




Beyond Infinity


Book Description

When the world changed once and for all… In 2043, aliens arrived in huge numbers and attacked Earth. A war was waged and millions died but not in vain. The armies from all nations joined hands and finally succeeded in defeating the aliens after a fateful battle which came to be known as the Great War! The old nemesis returns… Thirty years later, the aliens enter the solar system to invade Earth again. There’s only one way to defeat them once and for all. A space organization named Space Patrol has a plan but who’ll embark on this life-threatening mission? Desperate situation calls for Desperate measures….. There’s only one person on the planet who can hope to pull this off. His name is Drake Stryver and he’s a retired pilot who’d fought in the Great War. Space Patrol recruits him to lead this mission. Will he be able to defeat the aliens again and protect Earth? Read on to find out…




Every Falling Star


Book Description

Written for a young audience, this intense memoir explores the harsh realities of life on the streets in contemporary North Korea. Every Falling Star is the memoir of Sungju Lee, who at the age of twelve was forced to live on the streets of North Korea and fend for himself. To survive, Sungju creates a gang and lives by thieving, fighting, begging, and stealing rides on cargo trains. Sungju richly recreates his scabrous story, depicting what it was like for a boy alone to create a new family with his gang, “his brothers,” to daily be hungry and to fear arrest, imprisonment, and even execution. This riveting memoir allows young readers to learn about other cultures where freedoms they take for granted do not exist.




The Story That Cannot Be Told


Book Description

“By turns surprising, poetic, and stark, The Story That Cannot Be Told is one that should most certainly be read.” —Alan Gratz, New York Times bestselling author of Refugee “A mesmerizing debut.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) A powerful middle grade debut with three starred reviews that weaves together folklore and history to tell the story of a girl finding her voice and the strength to use it during the final months of the Communist regime in Romania in 1989. Ileana has always collected stories. Some are about the past, before the leader of her country tore down her home to make room for his golden palace; back when families had enough food, and the hot water worked on more than just Saturday nights. Others are folktales like the one she was named for, which her father used to tell her at bedtime. But some stories can get you in trouble, like the dangerous one criticizing Romania’s Communist government that Uncle Andrei published—right before he went missing. Fearing for her safety, Ileana’s parents send her to live with the grandparents she’s never met, far from the prying eyes and ears of the secret police and their spies, who could be any of the neighbors. But danger is never far away. Now, to save her family and the village she’s come to love, Ileana will have to tell the most important story of her life.




When We Cease to Understand the World


Book Description

One of The New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Books of 2021 Shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize and the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature A fictional examination of the lives of real-life scientists and thinkers whose discoveries resulted in moral consequences beyond their imagining. When We Cease to Understand the World is a book about the complicated links between scientific and mathematical discovery, madness, and destruction. Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger—these are some of luminaries into whose troubled lives Benjamín Labatut thrusts the reader, showing us how they grappled with the most profound questions of existence. They have strokes of unparalleled genius, alienate friends and lovers, descend into isolation and insanity. Some of their discoveries reshape human life for the better; others pave the way to chaos and unimaginable suffering. The lines are never clear. At a breakneck pace and with a wealth of disturbing detail, Labatut uses the imaginative resources of fiction to tell the stories of the scientists and mathematicians who expanded our notions of the possible.




Scary Stories for Young Foxes


Book Description

A 2020 Newbery Honor Recipient! Christian McKay Heidicker, author of the Thieves of Weirdwood trilogy, draws inspiration from Bram Stoker, H. P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe for his debut middle-grade novel, a thrilling portrait of survival and an unforgettable tale of friendship. "Clever and harrowing." —The Wall Street Journal "Into the finest tradition of storytelling steps Christian McKay Heidicker with these highly original, bone-chilling, and ultimately heart-warming stories. All that’s needed is a blazing campfire and a delicious plate of peaches and centipedes.” —Kathi Appelt, Newbery Award honoree and National Book Award finalist The haunted season has arrived in the Antler Wood. No fox kit is safe. When Mia and Uly are separated from their litters, they discover a dangerous world full of monsters. In order to find a den to call home, they must venture through field and forest, facing unspeakable things that dwell in the darkness: a zombie who hungers for their flesh, a witch who tries to steal their skins, a ghost who hunts them through the snow . . . and other things too scary to mention. Featuring eight interconnected stories and sixteen hauntingly beautiful illustrations, Scary Stories for Young Foxes contains the kinds of adventures and thrills you love to listen to beside a campfire in the dark of night. Fans of Neil Gaiman, Jonathan Auxier, and R. L. Stine have found their next favorite book. A Booklist 2019 Editors' Choice Selection




Sophie's World


Book Description

A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.