Senior year is flying by, the prom is approaching, and Dana, her best friend, Avra, and Avra's boyfriend, Emil, are about to encounter the pains and pleasures of that intricate beehive called adult life. While Dana plans on college, Avra plots escape once school is over―and plans to take Emil along for the ride. What does Emil want? He's not saying. Dana studies bees for a biology project, fascinated by their habits and their mythological imagery – but in real life, emotions can sting, and while two's company, these three may just become a crowd. As Dana reminds us, in every hive there is only one queen bee.
With remarkably textured language and a distinctive heroine, Kissing the Bee is a novel of rare depth and stark honesty that will draw readers in from the very first page.
Kissing the Bee is a 2008 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.
Just when Joey Pigza's wired world finally seems to be under control, his good-for-nothing dad pops back into his life. This time, though, Carter Pigza is a new man – literally. After a lucky lotto win, Carter Pigza has a crazy new outlook on life, and he's even changed his name to Charles Heinz. He thinks Joey and his mom should become new people, too. Soon Joey finds himself bombarded with changes: a new name, a new home, and a new family business – running the beat-up Beehive Diner. He knows he should forgive his dad as his mom wants him to, and get with the new family program. But Joey is afraid that in changing names and going with the flow he will lose sight of who he really is.
In this rocket-paced new chapter in Joey Pigza's life, a favorite hero discovers what identity and forgiveness really mean, and how to cook a delicious turkey burger.
This title has Common Core connections.
Told in the alternating voices of four characters dealing with grief in different ways, Polly Horvath’s new novel is a rich and complicated story about loss and the possibility— and impossibility—of beginning again. The Corps of the Bare-Boned Plane is a 2008 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.
Still, Clay wishes his life could be more like his best friend Joey's. Joey has it all—a great family, a good college waiting for him at the end of the summer, money, a car. Clay has to bike everywhere, and the miles are starting to wear him down.
But Joey's golden future shatters one day when he overdoses at a party. Now he's clinging to life at the hospital where Clay works, and Clay may even be implicated in Joey's injuries. Tension and emotion rise as those who love Joey gather and wait. Clay will do whatever he can to find out what happened at the party, and to help Joey recover. But to survive this ordeal Clay must draw on a strength he never knew he had.
Does what you look like or where you come from finally determine where your loyalties lie? Who's Us? Who's Them? Which side is your side? Is it Truth?
Contemporary politics, the consequences of guys-being-guys, and questions about faith and personal responsibility pulse throughout the pages of this provocative, eloquent debut.
Choose Your Own Adventure Inca Gold is an interactive adventure book in which YOU decide what happens next.
The jungle is a dangerous place. As you search for the ancient Inca city, one wrong step could mean death. Will you be able to navigate the chaos and clues of the jungle? Will you go down in history as one of the greatest explorers of all time or will you vanish into thin air during your search?
For readers who enjoyed other titles from the Choose Your Own Adventure series including: Struggle Down Under by Shannon Gilligan, Secret of the Ninja by Jay Leibold, and Cup of Death by Shannon Gilligan.
Commended for the 2008 Best Books for Kids and Teens, short-listed for the 2008 Snow Willow Award and Ann Connor Brimer Award
"No one pays much attention to you if you don’t have much to say, so there was no way I could have predicted what would happen when I stopped talking altogether."
When his teacher announces that it’s time for the yearly class speeches, Griffin Maxwell starts to sweat. His past experience with the dreaded speech was humiliating, to say the least, and he just knows there’s no way he can go through that again. So Griffin’s best friend, Bryan, comes up with a solution – one that’s so simple it just has to work. But neither boy can begin to predict the bizarre chain of events that will be set in place when Griffin goes along with the idea.
From squaring off with the school bully to reading a teacher’s private letters, Griffin Maxwell will have to face things he never imagined, and all without saying a word!
The fifth-grade girls and the fifth-grade boys at Laketon Elementary don't get along very well. But the real problem is that these kids are loud and disorderly. That's why the principal uses her red plastic bullhorn. A lot.
Then one day Dave Packer, a certified loudmouth, bumps into an idea -- a big one that makes him try to keep quiet for a whole day. But what does Dave hear during lunch? A girl, Lynsey Burgess, jabbering away. So Dave breaks his silence and lobs an insult. And those words spark a contest: Which team can say the fewest words during two whole days? And it's the boys against the girls.
How do the teachers react to the silence? What happens when the principal feels she's losing control? And will Dave and Lynsey plunge the whole school into chaos?
This funny and surprising book is about language and thought, about words unspoken, words spoken in anger, and especially about the power of words spoken in kindness...with or without a bullhorn. It's Andrew Clements at his best -- thought-provoking, true-to-life, and very entertaining.
In the eighth grade, 1 math whiz < 1 popular boy, according to Tess's calculations. That is, until she has to factor in a few more variables, like:
1 stolen test (x),
3 cheaters (y),
and 2 best friends (z) who can't keep a secret.
Oh, and she can't forget the winter dance (d)!
Then there's the suspicious guy Tess's parents know, but that's a whole different problem.
Can Tess find the solutions?
Josie is independent and fierce. She may flirt with boys or kiss them, but it doesn't mean anything, not even with Michael, who's more like a friend-with-benefits. So how can she explain what happens when Carson Gold goes after her? Carson Gold, the hottest senior, the one everyone secretly watches. . . .
Maybe it's the same thing that causes all the girls to stare as he walks by. Or maybe it's something between them, something just he and Josie share.
Could you resist?
It's too much, when love finds you and pulls you under. It's too much, even for Josie.
