The Dancing Pancake

Author

Susan Hood

In the tradition of The War That Saved My Life and Stella By Starlight, this poignant novel in verse based on true events tells the story of a boy’s harrowing experience on a lifeboat after surviving a torpedo attack during World War II.

With Nazis bombing London every night, it’s time for...

Author	Glenda Millard
ISBN	0733313140

Griffin Silk is an uncommon sort of boy, from an uncommon sort of family. The warm, loving home he shares with his father, grandmother and five big sisters (The Rainbow Girls) is marked by the aching absence of his mother and baby sister. Where have they gone and will they be coming home again? When Griffin...

Author	April Halprin Wayland
ISBN	0440419034

You walk into class—
my head clears.

No kidding.
You are my aspirin.

One girl. One school year. All poems. From friends to first dates, school dances to family fights, this inspiring collection captures the emotional highs and lows of teen life with refreshing honesty...

Author	Maria Testa
ISBN	0763633666

"Rapt readers don’t need to know anything about Vietnam to understand love, loss, fear, and waiting. A tour de force." — KIRKUS REVIEWS (starred review)

When the six-year-old narrator of this lyric novel watches her father march off to serve a year in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, a year...

Author	Karen Day
ISBN	0385738994

School's out! That means Lucy is off to her favorite place: Pierson Point, Maine, where she spends summers with her family. And as she tries to forget her worries about starting middle school and about Dad's new girlfriend, Lucy can't get there soon enough. Pierson Point is where she feels most like herself,...

Author	Johanna Hurwitz
ISBN	0590418211

Lucas Cott is one of the smartest kids in Mrs. Hockaday's third grade -- but he is also the most rambunctious. Lucas doesn't mean to be the class clown, so he promises to try to behave, even though it doesn't sound like much fun. With the best intentions, Lucas still manages to cause the unexpected when he...

Author	Susan Taylor Brown
ISBN	1582461805

When her mom runs away from home, Rachel is left behind with her emotionally distant father and many questions she cannot answer. Over time, she learns the truth about her mom. But it's only when she learns the truth about her dad, the rock- immoveable and always there for her to lean on-that Rachel can...

Author	Jen Bryant
ISBN	0375827528

Imagine you are Bruno Richard Hauptmann, accused of murdering the son of the most famous man in America.

In a compelling, immediate voice, 12-year-old Katie Leigh Flynn takes us inside the courtroom of the most widely publicized criminal case of the 20th century: the kidnapping and murder...

Author	Margarita Engle
ISBN	0805089365

Daniel has escaped Nazi Germany with nothing but a desperate dream that he might one day find his parents again. But that golden land called New York has turned away his ship full of refugees, and Daniel finds himself in Cuba.

As the tropical island begins to work its magic on him, the young refugee...

Author	Nikki Grimes
ISBN	1599902842

For twelve years, Joylin Johnson's life has been just fine, thank you very much. A game of basketball with the boys-especially her friend Jake-was all it took to put a smile on her face. Baggy jeans, T-shirt, and hair in a ponytail were easy choices. Then suddenly the world seemed to turn upside down, and...

Author

James Howe

The Gang of Five is back in this much-anticipated follow-up to The Misfits and Totally Joe . Addie Carle, the only girl in the group of friends, is outspoken, opinionated, and sometimes…just a bit obnoxious. But as seventh grade progresses, Addie’s not so sure anymore about who she is. It seems her...

Author	John Kloepfer
ISBN	0062230956

Zombies take Manhattan in Empire State of Slime, book four of John Kloepfer's hilarious and stomach-churning Zombie Chasers tween series, with illustrations by David DeGrand. Perfect for fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, The Zombie Chasers #4: Empire State of Slime...

Author

Rosemary Wells

Trains and time travel spur one boy's thrilling adventure as he seeks to rejoin his father in a new classic from Rosemary Wells and Bagram Ibatoulline. (Age 10 and up)

One day in a house at the end of Lucifer Street, on the Mississippi River side of Cairo, Illinois, eleven-year-old Oscar Ogilvie's...

Author	Meredith Badger
ISBN	0312378874

Step away from the wand...

We aren't usually big fairy fans, but for Elly Knottleweed-Eversprightly, we've made an exception. You see, Elly, although she is a fairy, isn't a big fan of fairies either.

In fact, she hates being a fairy.

She hates her itchy tutu school uniform...

Author	Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
ISBN	0385736169

From Newbery Award winner Phyllis Reynolds Naylor comes a witty tale of the Wild West filled with comical cliffhangers and featuring a cast of plucky orphans and dastardly villains.
 
Emily Wiggins is poor and timid, without a drop of self-confidence. When she is unexpectedly orphaned,...

Author

Mary Ann Hoberman

When ten-year-old girl Allie learns that her family will be moving from their two-family home to their very own house in the country, she's hesitant until she finds out they will be living on a street with the magical name of Strawberry Hill. That changes everything! From her struggle to find a new best...

Author	J. Patrick Lewis
ISBN	0811846687

Spot the Plots takes the reader, along with two young detectives and their dog to figure out the stories that are being discussed on each page. The riddles, which are set up as poems, are interesting because they are of many various forms and lengths. Sometimes their forms are even part of the clues. The...

Author	Kristine O'Connell George
ISBN	0618428429

Emma is Jess's little sister . . . and her dilemma. How can one small girl be sweet, funny, imaginative, playful, and affectionate as well as a clinging vine, brat, tattletale, and nuisance–all at the same time? Why is Jess supposed to be a good big sister while Emma doesn't have to be a good little sister?...

Author	Charise Mericle Harper
ISBN	0547370261

In this seventh installment in the Just Grace series, any day now Grace’s best friend in the whole world, Mimi, is going to be getting a brand-new sister. Grace is really excited, plus nervous, plus worried, plus happy all mixed together. But both Grace and Mimi are in for a surprise when they find out...

Author

Barbara O'Connor

An amazing secret has tumbled off a freight train into Carter, Georgia, and Owen Jester is the only person who knows about it. If he can simply manage to evade his grandfather’s snappish housekeeper, organize his two best friends, and keep his nosy neighbor, Viola, at bay, he just might be in for the...

Author	Andy Behrens
ISBN	0375859225

Meet Kevin Pugh, 12-year-old couch potato. Now meet Cromwell, his part beagle, part potato chip dog. Kevin’s looking forward to spending his summer doing as little as possible. Unfortunately, Kevin’s father, former Chicago Bears star player/super-sports fanatic, Howie Pugh, feels differently....

Author	Patricia MacLachlan
ISBN	0060279710

An inspirational short novel for young readers about the power of writing by Newbery Medal–winning author Patricia MacLachlan.

Every school day feels the same for fourth graders Lucy and Henry and Evie and Russell and May. Then Ms. Mirabel comes to their class—bringing magical words...

Author	Janice N. Harrington
ISBN	1629794295

A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year

Keet knows the only good thing about moving away from her Alabama home is that she’ll live near her beloved grandfather. When Keet starts school, it’s even worse than she expected, as the kids tease her about her southern accent. Now Keet, who can “talk...

Author	Rose Kent
ISBN	0375863443

Ice cream warms the heart, no matter what the weather.
That's the Dobson family motto. Whenever things get tough, they break out the special heart-shaped bowls and make sundaes. The road has been especially rocky lately for Tess and her deaf little brother, Jordan. Their plucky Texan mother talks...