When Oliver’s explorer parents go missing, he sets sail to find them with some new friends. There’s a grumpy albatross, a nearsighted mermaid . . . even a living island! But the high seas are more exciting and strange than Oliver could have imagined. Can he and his crew spar with sarcastic seaweed, outrun an army of sea monkeys, win a fabulous maritime fashion contest, and defeat a wicked sea captain in time to save Mom and Dad?
For early chapter book readers who are ready for something longer, the Not-So-Impossible Tales are packed with silly humor, action, and larger-than-life fun.
“[A] sly and dashing tale. . . Readers’ ribs aren’t the only ones that get a vigorous tickle.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A delightfully told, beautiful tale of nautical hairdressing, saltwater primates and sarcastic seaweed—this is my kind of book!” —Chris Riddell, award-winning co-creator of the Edge Chronicles
Family fun takes center stage in three-time Newbery Honor winner Gary Paulsen’s hilarious novel for middle-school boys. Kevin Spencer is the glue that holds his family together. When his wacky relatives decide to have a double wedding in the backyard, Kevin takes charge. Planning two weddings is a great way to impress his girlfriend, Tina Zabinski, the Most Beautiful and Best-Smelling Girl in the World.
But as more and more relatives come to stay, things spiral out of control. Tying the knot has Kevin tied up in knots in this laugh-out-loud story.
“When it comes to telling funny stories about boys, no one surpasses Paulsen.”—Booklist
“[Paulsen is] one of the best-loved writers alive.”—The New York Times
Praise for Family Ties
“Kevin seems to truly have his heart in the right place as he tries to bring order to the disparate parts [of his family] and restore some missing familial affection.”—Kirkus Reviews
“The Spencers may not be a conventionally perfect family, but by the end of the novel it is clear that, despite their oddball antics, they are a loving one. Fans of the series and new readers will enjoy this offering.”—School Library Journal
“[A] goofy, rollicking ride.”—The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
The start of the school year is not going as the Fletcher brothers hoped. Each boy finds his plans for success veering off in unexpected and sometimes diastrous directions. And at home, their miserable new neighbor complains about everything. As the year continues, the boys learn the hard and often hilarious lesson that sometimes what you least expect is what you come to care about the most.
Praise for The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher
A Junior Library Guild Selection
[set star] ”Their banter is realistic, and the disorder of their everyday lives, convincing. The Fletcher family rules!” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred
”Dana Alison Levy has gloriously reimagined the classic family story into a thoroughly modern mold, and it works perfectly.” —Bruce Coville, bestselling author of My Teacher Is an Alien and the Unicorn Chronicles
[set star] ”With its semi-episodic structure, laugh-out-loud humor, and mix of zaniness and love, Levy’s debut offers something truly significant: a middle-grade family story featuring gay parents and interracial families that is never about either issue.” —School Library Journal, Starred
”Levy provides a compelling, compassionate, and frequently hilarious look at their daily concerns. By book’s end readers will want to be part of (or at least friends with) this delightful family.” —The Horn Book
In this romantic and evocative fantasy, Najwa is a jinni, training to be a spy in the war against the humans. Zayele is a human on her way to marry a prince of Baghdad—which she’ll do anything to avoid. So she captures Najwa and makes a wish. With a rush of smoke and fire, they fall apart and re-form—as each other. A jinni and a human, trading lives. Both girls must play their parts among enemies who would kill them if the deception were ever discovered—enemies including the young men Najwa and Zayele are just discovering they might love.
"Readers will swoon over this story of love despite impossible odds."--Romantic Times
From the author of Don't Die, My Love comes this young adult novel that intertwines a family saga with a grand love story. This novel stands alone or can be read as the companion to The Year of Luminous Love and Wishes and Dreams. For fans of Sarah Dessen's The Moon and More and Ann Brashares's Forever in Blue.
Ciana Beauchamp hasn't seen or heard from Jon Mercer in months. Until now. He's back in Windemere to see her. Deep down Ciana is filled with joy and relief. She has never stopped loving him. It's proof of Jon's love that he has returned, but what will their future be?
When tragedy strikes, almost no one in town is left unscathed. Tragedy has a way of bringing people together, but it can also tear them apart. Ciana can hardly face her choices, but she knows she must, and there are now people who she can turn to if only she is willing.
New Camelot is fractured without him. Ricky is bereft, while Arthur feels the loss of his son with a despondency that can't be quelled. Then there's Michael, the volatile teen who helped write the proposition that will change California forever. His instability may well threaten the lives of everyone at New Camelot.
As the election looms closer, Proposition 51 takes on an even greater significance in light of the pending trial. The more harshly Lance is treated within the broken justice system, the more he contemplates the wisdom of children having more adult rights. If The Child Voter Act becomes law, and fourteen-year-olds become "legal adults," might it simply allow real adults to throw more kids into prison?
Whichever way the voters decide, Lance's greatest fear remains the same: will he ever rejoin the people he loves?
The Lance Chronicles continue...
The Lance Chronicles:
Children of the Knight (The Lance Chronicles Book 1)
Running Through A Dark Place (The Lance Chronicles Book 2)
There Is No Fear (The Lance Chronicles Book 3)
And The Children Shall Lead (The Lance Chronicles Book 4)
Once Upon A Time In America (The Lance Chronicles Book 5)
Warrior Kids (standalone set within The Lance Chronicles universe)
Awarded the August Prize for Best Youth Novel.
"I really loved this book—the fierce and honest testimony of a blazingly creative personality."—Elizabeth Wein
High school outsider Maja would never hurt her¬self on purpose as her dad, teachers, and classmates seem to believe. Can't a person saw off the tip of her thumb without everyone starting to worry? That is, everyone except Maja's mum, who seems to have disappeared from the face of earth.
Crashing a neighbor's party, Maja meets twenty-year-old Justin Case, a super-verbal car mechanic with pink pants, who makes her forget everything about absent mothers and sawn-off thumbs, at least temporarily. But then Maja hacks into her father's e-mail account and reads an e-mail that hurts more than all the electric saws in the world.
In this funny and clever coming-of-age novel, seventeen-year-old Maja describes each moment with such bare-bones honesty that one can't help but be drawn into her world. Wise beyond her years yet still surprisingly naïve, her story is entertaining and enlightening, at turns both hilarious and bittersweet.
Jenny Jägerfeld is a professional psychologist specializing in young adult psychiatric care in Sweden. She also works as a consultant with young adults on a long-running psychology program on Swedish national radio. Me on the Floor, Bleeding is her first novel to be translated into English and has been awarded the coveted August Prize for Best Youth Novel.
If you enjoyed Journey to the Center of the Earth and Jurassic World, you'll love Alec Kerley and the Roar of the Dinosaur!
* DELUXE EDITION, with 19 illustrations! *
They're alive!
When the floor of a cave collapses, taking 12-year-old Alec Kerley and his friends with it, the outside world thinks they are as good as dead. But what those on the surface don't know is that they are alive and exploring a fantastical underground world never before seen.
Following a subterranean river through a series of caverns in their search for a way back home, Alec and his friends discover a gigantic cave filled with prehistoric life -- dinosaurs! In their desperate struggle for survival, can they find their way out before becoming the meal for a Tyrannosaurus rex? And what other malevolence lurks deep underground, watching, waiting?
Join Alec Kerley and the Monster Hunters as they enter a land filled with the Roar of the Dinosaur!
****
Alec Kerley and the Roar of the Dinosaur is a middle grade inspirational monster novel filled with adventure. It is a legitimately scary story, and a great read for all ages -- middle graders, teens, and adults. Parental guidance is suggested. 27 chapters, 60,000 words.
Alec Kerley and the Roar of the Dinosaur is the third book in a series. The other titles are Alec Kerley and the Terror of Bigfoot (Book One) and Alec Kerley and the Wrath of the Vampire (Book Two).
Some might say he’s courageous, while others would say he’s daring, maybe even a little crazy. But when Joe Dearborne risked his life and ran into a burning building to save a puppy, the local newspaper referred to him as “fearless”—and that’s a pretty big title for a sixth-grader to live up to.
Plus, Joe already has plenty else to worry about. After other daring feats in the past, Joe promised his father he wouldn’t do anything dangerous again, and, alas, he’s just broken that promise.
But whatever trouble he expects to get into with his father, and despite the dangers he’s triumphed over in the past, nothing could prepare Joe for what he’s about to encounter when a cold, bitterness creeps into his home.
A mysterious and peculiar woman named Mrs. Chill has just been hired to care for Joe while his father is away on business. In no time, however, Joe discovers that she’s up to more than cooking and cleaning, and she has plans to destroy his family. Joe’s effort to save them results in perilous, sometimes humorous, encounters, and leads him on a journey through the threatening wilderness where he faces his greatest challenge yet.
SPRING HEELED JACK IS JUMPING BACK!
It's 9 p.m. on February 15, 1860, and Charles Babbage, the British Empire's most brilliant scientist, performs an experiment. Within moments, blood red snow falls from the sky and Spring Heeled Jack pops out of thin air in London's Leicester Square. Though utterly disoriented and apparently insane, the strange creature is intent on one thing: hunting Sir Richard Francis Burton!
Spring Heeled Jack isn't alone in his mental confusion. Burton can hardly function; he's experiencing one hallucination after another--visions of parallel realities and future history. Someone, or something, is trying to tell him about ... what?
When the revelation comes, it sends Burton and his companions on an expedition even the great explorer could never have imagined--a voyage through time itself into a twisted future where steam technology has made a resurgence and a despotic intelligence rules over the British Empire!
When Cora and her younger sister, Mimi, are sent to stay with their elderly aunt in the isolated village of Byers Guerdon, they receive a less-than-warm welcome. Auntie Ida is eccentric and rigid, and the girls are desperate to go back to London. But what they don’t know is that their aunt’s life was devastated the last time two young sisters were at Guerdon Hall, and she is determined to protect her nieces from an evil that has lain hidden for years. Along with Roger and Peter, two village boys, Cora must uncover the horrifying truth that has held Bryers Guerdon in its dark grip for centuries — before it’s too late for little Mimi. Riveting and intensely atmospheric, this stunning debut will hold readers in its spell long after the last page is turned.
Welcome to the Prospero Keys (or as the locals call them: the Ghost Keys), the beautiful chain of tropical islands on the edge of the Bermuda Triangle where Rain Cacique lives. When Rain's maternal grandfather passed away, he left her his special armband: two gold snakes intertwined, clasping each other's tails in their mouths. Rain soon discovers that the armband is actually a zemi – a very powerful talisman created by the island's native Arawak Taino Indians – and that it allows Rain to see ghosts, including her own grandfather who is determined to help her uncover the Ghost Keys' hidden world of mystery and mysticism, intrigue and adventure.
Now, Rain Cacique's looking for a few answers ― and the second zemi, a Taino relic that allows her to see dead people. But it's the first week of school, so she's pretty busy juggling teachers, homework, baby-sitting duties, new friends, missing tourist kids… and a vampire with a tribal twist.
Spirits of Ash and Foam is the second installment in Greg Weisman's Rain of the Ghosts series.
