"Susan Tan's writing is funny, fun, and hits straight to the heart."—Christina Soontorvat, two-time Newbery Honor recipient

From APALA Honor award-winning author Susan Tan, a middle-grade novel about a girl who must overcome her worries to find the truth behind her town's urban legend.

Mo is not afraid of toast. Just to be clear. She is afraid of fires, though. Which can be caused by everyday appliances, like toasters. So toast isn’t the problem, but you could say it’s the start of a slippery slope. Since her family's recent move, Mo's been eating oatmeal for breakfast.

Moving to a new town is never easy, but it’s even harder when you’re dealing with a stepdad who just left and a mom who can’t get out of bed long enough to find a new a job.

But Mo doesn’t have time to dwell on these things. Because it’s her job to keep her family together. To keep them safe.

So when an elephant starts to haunt her dreams—and a mysterious spirit attacks her home—Mo knows it’s up to her to intervene before things get too dangerous.

With her new friend, Nathaniel, she embarks on an investigation, searching for the truth about the town, its people, and their history. But things are much more complicated and tangled than she thought.

To find out what’s really going on, Mo might have to live a little dangerously after all.

This laugh-out-loud middle-grade novel follows thirteen-year-old Will— who hates hockey and loves dancing—as he navigates school, bullies, and his father’s expectations.

Will is a Canadian eighth grader who hates hockey—and he stinks at it, too. Will is bullied at school, doesn’t have any friends, and is generally miserable.

When Will's seventeen-year-old hockey-star cousin, Alex, arrives to stay with Will’s family, Will and Alex quickly realize they can't stand each other. Then Will stumbles into a local dance school. He fights the urge to cha-cha, but he's good! When Will’s dad finds out about the dancing, he basically forbids it. And Alex’s dad refuses to listen to what Alex wants to do with his life.

Will takes readers on a journey through noogies, awkward conversations, and epic farts. He worries, dances, and makes messes. Filled with humor, nuance, and emotion, this novel asks what makes a family and what makes a man.

The epic, middle grade fantasy continues in Book Two of the Songs of Magic trilogy!

Having upset the Hamelyn Piper's dastardly plan to build an army through songs of mind control, 13-year-old Piper, Patch Brightwater, must foil the escaped villain's next sinister plot: assembling a suit of immortal armor. Accompanied by Wren, a girl cursed to live as a rat, and Barver, a fire-breathing dracogriff, Patch seeks the aid of old friends, legendary heroes, and a near-dead sorcerer.

Embark on another adventure with the motley trio as they clash with pirates of the Eastern Seas, uncover secrets of the griffins, and dabble with magic to undo past wrongs and forge their own offense before it's too late.

S. A. Patrick’s Songs of Magic trilogy is a brilliant retelling of one of the darkest legends of all time, "The Piper of Hamelyn." Combining folklore with the very best of modern storytelling, the books will delight young fantasy fans who are hungry for perilous quests, friendships forged on the road, and an inventive magic system that thrills the imagination.

In the fourth tale in this beloved series, villainous Sebastian Eels returns to Eerie-on-Sea, thrusting Herbie and Violet into a new adventure involving a missing girl, a spooky wax museum, and a dangerous clockwork robot.

Herbie Lemon, Lost-and-Founder at the Grand Nautilus Hotel, and his fearless friend Violet Parma have unearthed many secrets in their village of Eerie-on-Sea: secrets lurking beneath the waves, lapping onto the beaches, and lying behind locked doors. When their brilliant and ruthless nemesis, Sebastian Eels, returns with a plan to open the long-shuttered waxworks museum, Herbie and Violet suspect nefarious motives. Their investigation leads them into the dark Netherways below the town—and into the tragic past of the famous toymaker and inventor Ludovic Festergrimm and his doomed daughter, Pandora. Sebastian Eels is convinced that within the story of Festergrimm is the key to Eerie’s deepest secret—a secret in which Herbie himself plays a crucial part—and he’ll stop at nothing to uncover it, including bringing a terrifying clockwork legend back to life. With echoes of fairy tales and monster movies, plus a dismembered finger or two, this is a deliciously creepy addition to a fantastical mystery series that is perfectly calibrated to thrill middle-grade readers.

I'm from the future. We need you.

Ever since he learned about climate change, twelve-year-old Jonah has dreaded a weather-beaten future where not even his asthma medication can save him. Luckily, a girl from that future arrives just in time to throw Jonah a lifeline.

Sunny traveled back to the 2020s with a mission: help Jonah launch a climate strike big enough to rewrite history. To do it, he'll have to recruit his entire school before Halloween. Why so soon? Sunny won't say. But how can Jonah win over 600 classmates when the only thing he dreads more than the end of the world is talking to other kids?

A New York Times bestseller!

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them meets Neil Gaiman in this thrilling novel about an Iranian American girl who discovers that her father was secretly a veterinarian to mythical creatures—and that she must take up his mantle, despite the many dangers.

Once was, once wasn’t.

So began the stories Marjan’s father told her as a little girl—fables like the story of the girl who sprung a unicorn from a hunter’s snare, or the nomad boy who rescued a baby shirdal. Tales of extraordinary beasts that filled her with curiosity and wonder.

But Marjan’s not a little girl anymore. In the wake of her father’s sudden death, she is trying to hold it all together: her schoolwork, friendships, and keeping her dad’s shoestring veterinary practice from going under. Then, one day, she receives a visitor who reveals something stunning: Marjan’s father was no ordinary veterinarian. The creatures out of the stories he told her were real—and he traveled the world to care for them. And now that he’s gone, she must take his place.

Marjan steps into a secret world hidden in plain sight, where mythical creatures are bought and sold, treasured and trapped. She finds friends she never knew she needed—a charming British boy who grew up with a griffon, a runaway witch seeking magic and home—while trying to hide her double life from her old friends and classmates.

The deeper Marjan gets into treating these animals, the closer she comes to finding who killed her father—and to a shocking truth that will reawaken her sense of wonder and put humans and beasts in the gravest of danger.

The Little Ice Cream Truck is loaded up with tasty treats in this new addition to ever-popular The Little Dump Truck, The Little School Bus and The Little Fire Truck series.

Join the little ice cream truck and its cheerful driver, Sue, as they trot all over their diverse town to deliver everyone’s favorite flavor of ice cream on a hot sunny day. With little ice cream truck’s jingly tune and pitstops at a birthday party, a park, and the zoo, this is a joyful new installment in the Little Vehicle series, which focuses on the many daily tasks of working trucks.

Christy Ottaviano Books

Alice keeps a perfectly round skipping stone in her pocket to remember her grandfather by -- but the stone goes missing.

It looked just like a regular stone, but Alice knew it was different: It was perfectly round so you could use it to trace circles, and sometimes she could trick her dad into thinking it was a quarter. It was also how Alice remembered her grandpa, who taught her how to skip stones, and who passed away last winter.

Alice brings the stone to school for Show and Share, but when her classmate asks to see it again at recess, Alice discovers that the stone is gone! Her friends search high and low and can't find the stone--but their friendship gives Alice an idea of another way that she can remember.

A gentle look at loss, grief, and how small everyday actions can connect us to those we love.

Key Text Features

Illustrations

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.3

With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.

"Dounia is the story of a little girl who loves her home city of Aleppo, Syria, and its many smells, sights, and traditions. But when war breaks out, Dounia and her grandparents must flee Aleppo to find safety. Before they go, their neighbour reads their future in a cup of coffee - she sees a long difficult journey ahead of the family and a blue house awaiting them at the end. Taking only a bird carved from Aleppo soap and four little barake seeds in her pocket, Dounia faces dangerous waters, a camp surrounded by barbed wire, and unfriendly soldiers, and she wonders where she and her family belong in the world. Remembering the ancient knowledge that barake seeds ward off evil, she pulls one from her pocket to use for each of the threats they face. Magically, the seeds from their faraway home help them along their way, until they finally find the blue house at the end of their journey. In her new home, Dounia plants her final seed in a pot so it can grow and offer more seeds, while also keeping a piece of Aleppo with her. The baraké seeds represent the Syrian culture -- although Dounia is fleeing her country, she carries with her the strength of her people. It is by tapping into her roots, represented by the seeds, that she finds her own strength and resilience. The magical moments brought about by the baraké seeds can be interpreted as Dounia's imagination - it's a way of seeing the war and the migration from a six-year-old's perspective. Dounia does not understand everything that is going on, but she is not a powerless victim. By using the seeds, she feels she is taking an active part in her own destiny. In the end, whether it is magic or Dounia's imagination at play, it's a story about obstacles faced by migrants and about the courage they have in facing these obstacles. As Marya puts it in her article for TBI Magazine, it reverses the common narrative in North American media that "Syria" is synonymous with devastation and destruction, and that Syrian refugees can only be victims of their circumstance, rather than brave, vibrant heroes who can take charge of their own stories."--

Discover the power and joy of poetry in this simple, modern introduction to Langston Hughes, featuring an ode to spring and long-awaited new beginnings



In this illustrated adaptation of a beloved Langston Hughes poem, a child delights as the world around him awakens from winter and comes to life with the long-awaited arrival of spring and new beginnings of all kinds.

Sienna looks forward to drawing a picture for her school's spring art show, until she ends up with the last two crayons ...

By the time Sienna arrives at the art table in her classroom, all the crayons are gone except dark brown and light brown. Now how can she make a special picture for the art show? Andy teases that all she'll be able to draw is mud and dog poop. Her teacher tries to cheer her up, telling her that lots of wonderful things are brown. So Sienna imagines some of her favorite things -- her grandma's rose garden, her new bicycle, rainbows -- but none of them are brown! Her friends remind her that chocolate ice cream is brown, and so is the grizzly bear at the zoo. Sienna draws both, with the help of her friends, but neither picture seems special enough. In the end, inspired by an early memory, Sienna comes up with her own idea for a drawing that's perfect for the art show.

The Last Two Crayons looks at the beautiful world of brown, with a heartwarming and empowering ending that celebrates diversity, creativity and family.

Key Text Features

dialogue

illustrations

vignettes

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.2

Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.4

Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.7

Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

Life is full of sunshine for inseparable friends Violet and Mia. Until one day, Violet leaves school sick and doesn't get better. Without her best friend, Mia slips into a gloomy existence. As she moves through the stages of grief like the colors of a rainbow, Mia wonders if she will ever feel like herself again. When Mia reaches out to her classmates, she remembers what she loved most about Violet.

A sensitive and poignant story about the loss of a friend and experiencing the different stages of grief.

A brilliant, inclusive ode to self-expression, girl power, and the many things readers can create.

Have you ever dreamed of building something? Maybe something little—like a birdhouse? Or something big—like a skyscraper? If you can envision it, you can build it! A Girl Can Build Anything is a playful celebration of all the different ways girls can make things—from tinkering to tool wielding, from ideas on paper to big, lived-out dreams that require brick and mortar. This fun and empowering ode to self expression will inspire readers to jump up and immediately start to build. Because they can. They can do anything!

Imara's Tiara was written with the intent to feature a minority girl in the roll of a budding scientist/zoologist. Minority women are greatly under-represented in the field of zoology and as zookeepers in particular. Naomi is learning fast that it isn't an easy job, but one that she can accomplish if she tries hard enough.

A science-based book that introduces zoology and how to be a zoologist to children. While Naomi is learning all the facts about giraffes the one she's looking for is elusive, but her persistence pays off and she finally realizes she's got a big problem. How will she solve it so that both she and the giraffe are happy? Observation and patience are skills that are routinely overlooked in today's world of computers, on-line information, and instant gratification. How can we bring these skills back to students?

The fable of the tortoise and the hare receives a charming new spin in this wonderfully illustrated, cheering tale about a lovable and relatable trouper.

Barbara Hendricks, a tortoise, has entered a road race, but what was she thinking? With only a week to go before the big day, she worries that she doesn’t stand a chance against the other animals competing. Barbara’s friend and owner, Lorraine, inspires her to train a little bit more each day and coaxes her out of her shell when the race day arrives. How intimidating to line up next to the slow loris, the snail, the sloth, and the walrus! But Barbara realizes that if she just tries her best, she’s already won. Adorably illustrated in rich color and detail and told with splashes of dry humor, this touching story of perseverance celebrates all that can be accomplished with a little preparation and a lot of self-love.