Twelve-year-old Fiona finds an unopened love letter containing mysterious symbols when she and her parents clean out her recently deceased grandmother�s house. She soon realizes the symbols contain clues to a long-hidden treasure. Solving the mystery requires Fiona to learn more about astronomy and mythology as she discovers evidence of two murders and a kidnapping, encounters a ghost, and eventually finds treasure.
For her little sister, Claire has put together a guide that covers everything a freshman needs to know but didn't even think to ask. Andie reads every word and even shares it with her best friend, Bess.
But sometimes they wonder if Harvard-bound Claire got everything right! In this hilarious and honest look at one girl's heroic attempt to conquer high school, readers will get all the benefit of Claire's wisdom about making those four years more than bearable—and absolutely memorable. Fortunately, high school happens only once in a lifetime.
The exchange of daughters that began in SOPHIE-PITT TURNBULL DISCOVERS AMERICA continues! Excited (not to say desperate) as Cherokee Salamanca is to get out of Brooklyn, she starts having doubts about her summer in London even before she leaves Heathrow Airport. To start with, the Pitt- Turnbulls speak a language only vaguely like the one Cherokee knows as English. And then Putney reminds her of New Jersey — an oddly polite Jersey where people eat pizza with a fork. But Cherokee is a girl who likes a challenge, and there’s no way she’s going to let the British defeat her. The question is: will she conquer the British?
Calla thought that her boyfriend breaking up with her in a text message was the worst thing that could ever happen to her. But just two weeks later, her mother died in a freak accident, and life as she knew it was completely over. With her father heading to California for a new job, they decide that Calla should spend a few weeks with the grandmother she barely knows while he gets them set up.
To Calla's shock, her mother's hometown of Lily Dale is a town full of psychics―including her grandmother. Suddenly, the fact that her mother never talked about her past takes on more mysterious overtones. The longer she stays in town, the stranger things become, as Calla starts to experience unusual and unsettling events that lead her to wonder whether she has inherited her grandmother's unique gift. Is it this gift that is making her suspect that her mother's death was more than an accident, or is it just an overactive imagination? Staying in Lily Dale is the only way to uncover the truth. But will Calla be able to deal with what she learns about her mother's past and her own future?
To save his family, one boy will defy the power of two armies in 15th-century China.
Shen and his sister Chang are on the run. It's 1403, and the city of Nanjing is under siege. Their mother has been imprisoned, and their father, an Imperial Bodyguard, is presumed dead. Hoping to avoid detection for their connection to the former regime, Shen and Chang take refuge in a traveling acrobat troupe.
Meanwhile, the new emperor has commanded the construction of an armada to explore the world the -- treasure fleet. But a violent struggle breaks out between Zheng He, the powerful leader of the fleet, and the government officials who fear him.
Fleeing the growing conflict, the acrobats gain passage with the fleet. Shen soon discovers they'll be sharing their vessel with the notorious Yang Rong, a government official with the power to free their mother.
Shen and Chang enter a dangerous game of double-dealing. After months at sea they manage to defy the power of both armies, and they eventually save their parents. But they also discover that their own lives have been changed forever. The China they knew no longer exists. For Shen especially, it is too late to go home.
Set in a period of unparalleled Chinese exploration and rich with historical detail, Shen and the Treasure Fleet is an adventure of majestic proportions.
Joe doesn't feel much like a warrior-hero.** But evil is stirring in the heart of Elfwood, and the people of Muddle Earth need help (although most of them don't know it yet). Perhaps Joe Jefferson really is a hero after all. . . .
* Actually, Muddle Earth's only wizard. And he's not very good.
** He doesn't really look much like one either.
The New York Times bestselling sequel to Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli’s modern-day classic Stargirl!
Love, Stargirl picks up a year after Stargirl ends and reveals the new life of the beloved character who moved away so suddenly at the end of Stargirl. The novel takes the form of "the world's longest letter," in diary form, going from date to date through a little more than a year's time. In her writing, Stargirl mixes memories of her bittersweet time in Mica, Arizona, with involvements with new people in her life.
In Love, Stargirl, we hear the voice of Stargirl herself as she reflects on time, life, Leo, and - of course - love.
Don’t miss Jerry Spinelli’s latest novel, The Warden’s Daughter, about another girl who can't help but stand out.
“Spinelli is a poet of the prepubescent. . . . No writer guides his young characters, and his readers, past these pitfalls and challenges and toward their futures with more compassion.” —The New York Times
And so he travels to Corsica, home of his other forbearers, hoping to find some knowledge, some power. The blood feud of vendetta still runs hot in Sky's family, as does the supernatural power of the MazzeriÑthe Corsican dream hunters of death. Sky must again travel back through time, inhabiting the life of Tza, a fierce girl from the 1500s. As he sinks into Tza's mind, Sky wondersÑare all of his ancestors murderers?
Vendetta is a heady, exciting blend of supernatural possibility and historical truth that will leave readers gasping for the final installment of the trilogy.
FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN WHITE AND BLACK in 1950s Tennessee. Tony Johnston draws on her own childhood memories to limn a portrait of a sensitive and compassionate boy fighting for a friendship his father forbids.
David's daddy is determined that his son will grow up to be a doctor like himself. David studies the human bones, and secretly teaches them in turn to his black friend, Malcolm. In a rage, Dr. Church forbids Malcolm to ever enter their home--and threatens to kill him if he does. David tries to change his daddy's mind. but when Malcolm crosses the line, Dr. Church grabs his shotgun.