Synopsis: The Ma-Loos are missing. (Which is not a good thing.) So 15-year-old Wilkin Delgado and 16-year-old Alice Jane Zelinski of Warrensberg, Minnesota, sign on to help intergalactic plumber Cardamon Webb find these “Unknown and Unseen” critters and save the universe. The problem? Ma-Loos are invisible. Plus, they live on the Underside of the universe in a place called the “edges.” Another (minor) complication is that everything everywhere is imploding, Realities are crashing into each other and there’s serious crumpling going on. (Not to mention the maggots.) But with the help of Loretta the puffin, a pair of newlyweds from Zorazeen, Alice Jane’s new boyfriend and a toga-wearing electrician named Floranacious, Wilkin and Alice Jane attempt to do the impossible. Again.

Synopsis: From the author of Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy comes the story of a friendship between two girls set in Victorian England, with magical machines, wizards, witches, a mysterious underworld, and a race against time.
 
Annabel Grey is primed for a proper life as a young lady in Victorian England. But when her mother suddenly disappears, she’s put in the care of two eccentric aunts who thrust her into a decidedly un-ladylike life, full of potions and flying broomsticks and wizards who eat nothing but crackers. Magic, indeed! Who ever heard of such a thing?

Before Annabel can assess the most ladylike way to respond to her current predicament, she is swept up in an urgent quest. Annabel is pitted against another young witch, Kitty, to rescue the sacred Moreover Wand from the dangerous underworld that exists beneath London. The two girls outsmart trolls, find passage through a wall of faerie bones, and narrowly escape a dragon, but it doesn’t take long for Annabel to see that the most dangerous part of her journey is her decision to trust this wild, magical girl.

Sparkling with Karen Foxlee’s enchanting writing, this is a bewitching tale of one important wand and two most magical girls.


"[Foxlee's] heroines have grit and heart, and they are willing to get dirty. And they do. Foxlee’s nicely wry tone and moments of incongruous humor break up the tension, while Annabel’s race against time in a harrowing journey deep under London keeps the pages turning. Deliciously complex and convincingly detailed."--Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

"Kids who enjoyed Foxlee’s Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy and fans of Hardinge’s Cuckoo Song will find similar otherworldly appeal in this enthralling adventure."--The Bulletin, Starred review

"Memorable for its vivid imagery and stylish, thoughtful prose."--Horn Book Magazine

Synopsis: Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4th and up

Calypso Blue is no orphan, but she might as well be. When she finds herself on a lush tropical island with two pesky adults who insist they're her parents, she knows they're lying.

For one thing, they (and their five children) have brown hair; Calypso has blond. For another, her real parents would never make her comb her hair. Or demand she dig a latrine. Sure, they all wear the same glasses as Calypso--glasses so thick and geeky they might as well be safety goggles--but that does NOT mean they're related. It means nothing at all.

Obviously, Calypso’s best option is to run away and join a family of parakeets. Or orangutans. Heck, even a den of spitting adders might be nice. But then, Calypso finds a filmstrip where a shadowy man in a hat claims she chose to come to the Island. She answered a want ad--an ad she can’t remember, but that promised constant danger, feelings of utter abandonment, and perhaps … treasure.

Synopsis: Three middle schoolers travel back in time on a madcap adventure with the help of a library book in this laugh-out-loud start to the brand-new series, In Due Time.

Going, Going, Gone opens in the library at Sands Middle School where strange things are happening. Vikings burst out of bookcases, Albert Einstein appears out of nowhere, and is that Jackie Robinson tossing a baseball in the corner of the room?

When Librarian Valerie Tremt tells three students that one of the library books, The Book of Memories, is actually a time travel portal, the kids don’t believe her at first. But when they ask to see a dinosaur as proof and suddenly there is a terrifying T-Rex in the library, they realize she isn’t kidding around.

Now that he can time travel, twelve-year-old Matt knows exactly where he wants to go. In the summer of 1951, Matt’s grandfather Joe was on the path to becoming a major league baseball player. But at a 4th of July BBQ, Joe danced a little too close to the edge of a swimming pool and—splash!—he fell in and hurt his ankle. What should have been a minor injury turned out to be a career-ending one. Always the optimist, Joe used to say, “Because of the accident, I met the girl I was going to marry, so it was all worth it.”

Matt wants to go back in time to prevent the accident from ever occurring, so his grandfather can have the career he deserved! But can he successfully alter his grandfather’s past without changing his own future? Only time will tell…

Synopsis: Buy the paperback, get ebook free. Give one, keep one.
COOL SCIENCE THAT WILL AWE KIDSSolid wax is somehow changed into light and heat. But how? Travel back in time to December 28, 1848 in London, England to one of the most famous juvenile science Christmas lectures at the Royal Institution. British scientist Michael Faraday (1791-1867) encouraged kids to carefully observe a candle and to try to figure out how it burned. 
Known as one of the best science experimenters ever, Faraday's passion was always to answer the basic questions of science: "What is the cause? Why does it occur?"
Since Faraday's lecture, "The Chemical History of a Candle," was published in 1861, it's never been out of print. Oddly, till now, it's never been published as a children's picture book. Faraday originally gave seven lectures on how a candle burns. Pattison has adapted the first 6000-word lecture to about 650 words for modern elementary students. 

Synopsis: Reality and fantasy collide in this heartfelt and mysterious novel for fans of Counting by 7s and Bridge to Terabithia, about a girl who must save a magical make-believe world in order to save herself.

Things Finley Hart doesn’t want to talk about:
-Her parents, who are having problems. (But they pretend like they’re not.)
-Being sent to her grandparents’ house for the summer.
-Never having met said grandparents.
-Her blue days—when life feels overwhelming, and it’s hard to keep her head up. (This happens a lot.)

Finley’s only retreat is the Everwood, a forest kingdom that exists in the pages of her notebook. Until she discovers the endless woods behind her grandparents’ house and realizes the Everwood is real—and holds more mysteries than she’d ever imagined, including a family of pirates that she isn’t allowed to talk to, trees covered in ash, and a strange old wizard living in a house made of bones.

With the help of her cousins, Finley sets out on a mission to save the dying Everwood and uncover its secrets. But as the mysteries pile up and the frightening sadness inside her grows, Finley realizes that if she wants to save the Everwood, she’ll first have to save herself.

Synopsis: From three-time Newbery Honor author Gary Paulsen comes a laugh-out-loud novel about six wacky misfits who get stuck together in a school restroom and discover friendship.

It seemed like a normal school day, until a horrible storm forced the very cautious school administration to make everyone hole up in a safe place. Six students find themselves stuck in a tiny, questionably smelly space—a school bathroom—with a stuffed cat for entertainment. Hijinks ensue and the unexpected happens. They enter as strangers…and leave as friends.

Get to know the story even better with a special script that accompanies the novel, so any six kids can get together with their friends and perform the story anywhere they’d like.