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One year. Nine events. Nine chances to . . . fall in love?Weddings. Funerals. Barbecues. New Year's Eve parties. Name the occasion, and Sophie Evans will be there. Well, she has to be there. Sophie works for the local florist, so she can be found at every big event in her small hometown, arranging bouquets and managing family dramas.Enter Andrew Hart. The son of the fancy new chef in town, Andrew is suddenly required to attend all the same events as Sophie. Entitled, arrogant, preppy Andrew. Sophie just wants to get her job done and finish up her sketches so she can apply to design school. But every time she turns around, there is Andrew, getting in her way and making her life more complicated. Until one day she wonders if maybe complicated isn't so bad after all . . .Told over the course of one year and following Sophie from event to event, this delightful novel from master of romantic comedy Kasie West shows how love can blossom in unexpected places.
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Reintroducing a magical, bestselling medieval mystery from a Newbery-winning author! The release coincides with Avi's exciting new companion to this book, MURDER AT MIDNIGHT. Night after night, a ghost appears in the royal castle of Pergamontio, terrifying the princess. Mangus the Magician doesn't believe in ghosts, but that doesn't stop him from being charged with finding this one. The King demands that Mangus free his daughter from the torment of the ghost. . . otherwise, the magician will pay with his life. Mangus's only hope is his faithful, street-smart servant boy, Fabrizio, who must solve the mystery of the ghost using logic and reason -- and a bit of magic of his own.
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Samantha Abeel tells her own story of living with and overcoming dyscalculia. She describes in painstaking detail how her life was affected by her learning disability before and after she was diagnosed, and the way her peers, her family, and her teachers treated her. In seventh grade, Samantha suffered anxiety attacks as she struggled to keep up in her classes, to remember two locker combinations, and to deal with new teachers. It was not until eighth grade, her “thirteenth winter,” that the underlying cause of her academic challenges was discovered. After a teacher helps her recognize her gift with words, Samantha experiences success that far exceeds anyone's expectations.
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Autumn and Adonis have nothing in common and everything in common. Autumn is outgoing and has lots of friends. Adonis is shy and not so eager to connect with people. But even with their differences, the two have one thing in common--they're each dealing with a handicap. For Autumn, who has a learning disability, reading is a painful struggle that makes it hard to focus in class. But as her school's most aggressive team wrestler, Autumn can take down any problem. Adonis uses a wheelchair. He has no legs. He can't walk or dance. But he's a strong reader who loves books. Even so, Adonis has a secret he knows someone like Autumn can heal. In time, Autumn and Adonis are forced to see that our greatest weaknesses can turn into the assets that forever change us and those we love. Told in alternating voices, Takedown explores issues of self-discovery, friendship, and what it means to be different.
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Simone Thibodeaux is about to switch things up. Check her life: It’s sealed in a boy-proof container. Her Haitian immigrant parents send Simone to an all-girls high school and enforce strict no-dating rules. As for prom? Simone is allowed to go on one condition: Her parents will select her date (a boy from a nice, Haitian immigrant family, obviously). Simone is desperate to avoid the setup -- especially since she has a serious crush on another boy. It's time to take action. Simone and her fellow late-bloomer friends make a senior year bucket list of all the wild things they haven't done yet. Like: going out dancing, skipping class (what), and oh yeah -- deciding their own prom destinies. But as the list takes on a life of its own, things get much messier than Simone expected. Can she figure out which rules are worth breaking and which might save her from heartbreak?
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The third book in the Bar Code series, in which one girl struggles to escape the conformity of a dystopian world. Grace lives a normal life. She goes to school during the day and works part-time at the multinational corporation Global-1. She has a crush on a boy named Eric and wonders if he feels the same way. And when she turns seventeen, she's going to get a bar code tattoo. Her world seems very peaceful and predictable. But then it explodes. As soon as Grace gets the bar code tattoo, she comes home to find her family gone and Global-1 police swarming all over the place. In a split second, her life changes. Now she's on the run, part of a dark conspiracy and an extraordinary prophecy that will change the world forever.
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An exciting, eye-catching repackage of acclaimed author Walter Dean Myers' bestselling paperbacks, to coincide with the publication of SUNRISE OVER FALLUJA in hardcover. Seventen-year-old Anthony "Spoon" Witherspoon is returning to Harlem after seven months at an exclusive prep school. He never wanted to leave the city in the first place--especially not to walk the hallowed halls of a mostly white New England school. But now that Spoon is back home, he realizes how much he's come to rely on his prep-school friends and routine. And the one thing he's looking forward to most--seeing his girlfriend, Gabi--brings him the greatest shock. When he left, Gabi was a vibrant young poet. Now she's a thin, wasted drug addict. Can Spoon help her find her way again?
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Sophie Donnelly is one half of the most popular and powerful couple in school, until new girl Angie Vogel shows up and compromises everything. Angie steals Sophie's starring role in the school play, and, worse, her super-popular boyfriend. Sophie has been quickly dispatched to social Siberia, but not for long--she'll do anything it takes to make a triumphant comeback.
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The Great Fire of 1871 was one of most colossal disasters in American history. Overnight, the flourshing city of Chicago was transformed into a smoldering wasteland. The damage was so profound that few people believed the city could ever rise again. By weaving personal accounts of actual survivors together with the carefully researched history of Chicago and the disaster, Jim Murphy constructs a riveting narrative that recreates the event with drama and immediacy. And finally, he reveals how, even in a time of deepest dispair, the human spirit triumphed, as the people of Chicago found the courage and strength to build their city once again.
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Sarah is not unlike other teens; she's interested in shopping, boys, and her girlfriends. However, she is tired of her predictable life and is "looking for something." The "something" she finds is Robin-a defiant, tough-talking girl who smokes, vandalizes, and wears nothing but black. Sharing an affinity to buck authority, the two become fast friends. Even Sarah isn't sure why she has given up her friends and lost herself. She posits, "-I often choose to be the plastic doll on bended knee, throwing other people's words out my mouth. Why do I surrender my voice like that?" When Robin attempts suicide, Sarah slowly returns to her former self, realizing that she may have wanted to be different, but not that different. Hemphill has her pacing and character development down pat. She takes Sarah from August through the end of her junior year, alternating shorter and longer passages effectively, showing a life peppered with despair, romance, and confusion. The teen's friendships (both destructive and healthy) shape who she becomes. In the end, she displays not only hope, but growth, as she invites the destructive Robin to "forge new footprints" with her and turn her back on the "skeletons of disappointment and unhappiness." Readers don't know what will happen, but they do have a better idea of who Sarah is through this telling final poem. A thought-provoking read.-Sharon Korbeck, Waupaca Area Public Library, WI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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With a family always on the move, popularity and the ability to fit in quickly are vital to Brent Bishop's high school survival. When he blows his chances with the girl of his dreams in front of everyone, he's devastated. Brent tries to end it all in a fatal car crash, but instead he finds an unlikely beginning. He's sent on a journey of repentance―a cross-country trip building whirligigs. His wind toys are found by people in need: a Maine schoolgirl yearning for her first love, a Miami street-sweeper desperate for peace and quiet, a kid in Washington who just wants to play baseball, and a San Diego teenager dealing with loss. Brent's whirligigs bring hope to others, but will they be able to heal the wounds deep inside himself?
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A touching, New York Times-bestselling story about a girl and her dog, perfect for young animal lovers. Eleven-year-old Charlie Reese has been making the same secret wish every day since fourth grade. She even has a list of all the ways there are to make the wish, such as cutting off the pointed end of a slice of pie and wishing on it as she takes the last bite. But when she is sent to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina to live with family she barely knows, it seems unlikely that her wish will ever come true. That is until she meets Wishbone, a skinny stray dog who captures her heart, and Howard, a neighbor boy who proves surprising in lots of ways. Suddenly Charlie is in serious danger of discovering that what she thought she wanted may not be what she needs at all. From award-winning author Barbara O'Connor comes a middle-grade novel about a girl who, with the help of a true-blue friend, a big-hearted aunt and uncle, and the dog of her dreams, unexpectedly learns the true meaning of family in the least likely of places. This title has Common Core connections.
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Olivia Larsen's twin sister, Violet, is dead. Olivia knows nothing that can change that . . . until the day she receives a beautiful dress. The dress doesn't just look magical: it has the power to grant wishes. And all Olivia wants is her sister back. But Violet's return isn't what Olivia expected. As love, secrets, betrayal, and a haunted past collide, Olivia begins to wonder what a wish is worth . . . and if her life will ever look the same.
