Go west, readers, with Ranger in Time, Rescue on the Oregon Trail, a tale of determination, danger, and loyalty that will keep you on the edge of your wagon seat! Ranger is a golden retriever who has been trained as a search-and-rescue dog, but he can’t pass the test because of his love for chasing squirrels. … Read more
“Rufus’s idea wasn’t to become a millionaire. Just to make toothpaste…” Rufus Mayflower is a can-do kid. He is a sunny problem-solver who charms and inspires the students and friends and even adults around him. When Rufus balks at paying too much for toothpaste, he decides to make his own. When he discovers how easy … Read more
“Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy…” So begins C.S. Lewis’s timeless classic, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The Pevensie siblings are sent away from London amid the air-raids of World War II to stay with a Professor in his country-side home. It’s quite by accident that … Read more
Chris Kurtz has created Flora, the pig with passion! She has “a heart born for adventure and hooves stuck in a pen.” When Luna the farm cat warns her not to go looking for trouble, Flora responds, “But I don’t want to stay out of trouble! I want something to happen around here!” One day, … Read more
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is a Newbery Award winner that teachers and parents (and even grandparents!) may remember from their childhoods. Claudia and Jamie Kincaid run away from their safe suburban Connecticut home and hide out in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Can they remain undiscovered? … Read more
Iron resolve. Ferocious courage. And a healthy dose of insanity. In Marion Jensen’s Almost Super, each of these attributes is as important to members of the Bailey family as are the superpowers they receive on the leap year after they turn twelve. But for brothers Rafter and Benny, those coveted superpowers may just look a … Read more
What do the toys do when you are away? It is a perennial question that has inspired stories from Raggedy Ann to Winnie the Pooh to Toy Story. In Toys Go Out, Emily Jenkins takes the baton from Johnny Gruelle, A.A. Milne, and Pixar and delivers a fresh take on this timeless concept. Jenkins makes it clear that her toys have their … Read more
“It’s important to stand up for what’s right, but sometimes there’s a fine line between courage and stupidity.” Hoot is the great Carl Hiaasen’s first foray into children’s literature, and he won the Newbery Honor for it. Well known for his adult novels with fast-paced, humorous tales of environmental shenanigans in Florida, Hiaasen hit a … Read more
It’s animals on a mission. It’s a mystery to be solved. But it is no ordinary story about animals banding together to solve a problem. For starters, there are no ordinary house pets or farm animals to be found. Instead, we get pangolins and sugar gliders and Yiddish-speaking bats! Oy vey! Also, wombats, jerboas, and coyotes. … Read more
We all know that student who loves books — really, really loves books. Amy Anne Ollinger is just that student. Her favorite place in the whole world is her school library, and her favorite book is From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. You can imagine her shock when this book-loving girl finds … Read more
“A library doesn’t need windows… We have books, which are windows into worlds we never even dreamed possible.” Kyle Keeney loves games – especially those created by world-renowned game maker, Mr. Luigi Lemoncello. As luck would have it, Mr. Lemoncello has built a public library in Kyle’s hometown. Students in Kyle’s class are challenged to … Read more
There are different ways to tell a dragon story. Tony DiTerlizzi knows this. Looking for knights and armor and fair maidens? Fire-breathing and flying? Medieval tales of derring-do? Kenny and the Dragon has a little of this. But it is really about something else… It’s a story about friendship. It’s about confounding expectations. And it’s about … Read more
A second Newbery Medal winner from Kate DiCamillo? Holy Bagumba! Flora Belle Buckman is an avid reader of comic books and self-proclaimed, natural-born cynic. A freak accident (while her neighbor is vacuuming her lawn!) transforms a squirrel into a character with creative superpowers, just like Peter Parker being bitten by an irradiated arachnid. Or like … Read more
“You can’t believe everything you hear.” The Lemonade Crime features the squabbling adventures of Jessie and Evan Treski, the brother and sister from The Lemonade War. (The books can be read independently.) Deep down the siblings love each other, but given their natural jealousies and sensitivities, they spend a lot of time being prickly. Following … Read more
Read to Them is proud to feature Roald Dahl’s very first chapter book for children – James and the Giant Peach. Return, if you will, to where the magic and mystery and (yes) the macabre all started. The story of a boy abruptly orphaned, sentenced to live with two cartoonishly horrible aunts, and then saved … Read more
Boggis and Bunce and BeanOne fat, one short, one lean.These horrible crooksSo different in looksWere nonetheless equally mean. So begins the sly and charming tale, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Roald Dahl’s 1970 story about a family of foxes trying to survive by outwitting the three loathsome farmers who try to root them out. They are led by … Read more
“The sea, the sea, the sea. It rolled and rolled and called to me. Come in, it said, come in.” Prepare to set sail with thirteen-year-old Sophie as she voyages across the Atlantic Ocean from America to England to visit her grandfather, Bompie. She is accompanied by a motley crew of uncles and cousins, all … Read more
“Sometimes the things we want and the things we love get tangled up in our hearts like bramble when we try to do what’s right.” This poetic notion encapsulates the adventures in the novel, Brambleheart, written and illustrated by Henry Cole. Sometimes it is hard to choose between the things we want and the things … Read more
How often do adults encourage children to refine their thoughts, to whittle a message down to its essentials? How often do we have to do that in our own lives, reducing arguments to a 5-minute elevator pitch or a slogan that can fit on a billboard? In a sly way, this is what Andrew Clements’ … Read more
Frindle tells the story of Nick Allen, a kid who “had plenty of ideas, and he knew what to do with them.” So far, his trip though elementary school has been eventful, but fairly trouble-free. Yes, he has implemented some crazy ideas, but he has never really faced a true adversary. Until he arrives in Mrs. … Read more
Rob Buyea’s debut novel, Because of Mr. Terupt, features a rookie teacher and seven students, each with their own unique quirks and personalities. The narration passes back and forth between the students – Peter, the class clown; Jessica, the new girl; Luke, the brainiac; Alexia, the manipulator; Jeffrey, the slacker; Danielle, the pushover; and Anna, … Read more
“The crate… soared through the air, spinning and glistening until it slammed down onto a tall shelf of rock. The crate was cracked and crumpled, but the robot inside was safe.” Here is a strange and wonderful tale from renowned (and Caldecott-winning) artist, Peter Brown. A novel about a robot marooned on a mysterious island … Read more
A masterpiece is “a painting that can be seen in a hundred different ways.” A boy, a beetle, and a masterpiece all come together for a story that is part art history lesson, part art heist, and all about the power of an unexpected friendship. Marvin is the beetle. He lives with his family in … Read more
Mrs. Brisbane, the regular teacher in Room 26 at Longfellow School, is missing. In Betty Birney’s 8th Humphrey novel, Mysteries According to Humphrey, Humphrey is confronted with a series of mysteries all associated with the central questions, “What happened to Mrs. Brisbane?” and “What’s up with the weird new substitute teacher?” The well-meaning Mr. E, … Read more
