From the best-selling author of The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton's Tex explores friendships, conflict, depression, self-destructive behavior, and truth and acceptance. This editionincludes a new and exclusive Author's Note.Easygoing and reckless, Tex, likes everyone and everything, especially his horse, Negrito, and Johnny Collins' blue-eyed sister, Jamie. Life with his older brother, Mason, would be just about perfect if only he would stop complaining about Pop, who hasn't been home in five months.  While Mason worries about paying the bills and getting a basketball scholarship--his ticket out of Oklahoma--Tex just seems to attract trouble. When everything seems to be falling apart, how can Tex find a way to keep things together? Read more

Beloved author Gary D. Schmidt expertly blends comedy and tragedy in the story of Doug Swieteck, an unhappy "teenage thug" first introduced in The Wednesday Wars, who finds consolation and a sense of possibility in friendship and art. At once heartbreaking and hopeful, this absorbing novel centers on Doug, 14, who has an abusive father, a bully for a brother, a bad reputation, and shameful secrets to keep. Teachers and police and his relatives think he's worthless, and he believes them, holding others at arm's length. Newly arrived in town, he starts out on the same path—antagonizing other kids, mouthing off to teachers, contemptuous of everything intimidating or unfamiliar. Who would have thought that the public library would turn out to be a refuge and an inspiration, that a snooty librarian might be a friend, or that snarky redheaded Lil would like him—really like him? With more than his share of pain, including the return of his oldest brother from the Vietnam War, shattered and angry, will Doug find anything better than "okay for now"? Read more

During one of the most important times in the civil rights movement, one unforgettable family goes on a road trip in this Newbery and Coretta Scott King Honoree, from author Christopher Paul Curtis, recipient of the Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.When the Watson family—ten-year-old Kenny, Momma, Dad, little sister Joetta, and brother Byron—sets out on a trip south to visit Grandma in Birmingham, Alabama, they don’t realize that they’re heading toward one of the darkest moments in America’s history. The Watsons’ journey reminds us that even in the hardest times, laughter and family can help us get through anything. "A modern classic." —NPR“Marvelous . . . both comic and deeply moving.” —The New York Times"One of the best novels EVER." —Jacqueline Woodson, Newbery Honor and National Book Award–winning author of Brown Girl Dreaming Bonus Content • New foreword and afterword from the author • Map of the Watsons’ journey • Original manuscript pages and letter from the Newbery committee • Personal essays celebrating the book’s legacy by award-winning authors: Elizabeth Acevedo, Chris Crutcher, Kate DiCamillo, Varian Johnson, David Barclay Moore, Jason Reynolds, Jerry Spinelli, Vince Vawter, Rita Williams-Garcia, and Jacqueline Woodson Read more

The author of the visionary New York Times bestseller Dread Nation returns with another spellbinding historical fantasy set at the crossroads of race and power in America.It is 1937, and Laura Ann Langston lives in an America divided—between those who work the mystical arts and those who do not. Ever since the Great Rust, a catastrophic event that blighted the arcane force called the Dynamism and threw America into disarray, the country has been rebuilding for a better future. And everyone knows the future is industry and technology—otherwise known as Mechomancy—not the traditional mystical arts.Laura disagrees. A talented young queer mage from Pennsylvania, Laura hopped a portal to New York City on her seventeenth birthday with hopes of earning her mage’s license and becoming something more than a rootworker.But four months later, she’s got little to show for it other than an empty pocket and broken dreams. With nowhere else to turn, Laura applies for a job with the Bureau of the Arcane’s Conservation Corps, a branch of the US government dedicated to repairing the Dynamism so that Mechomancy can thrive. There she meets the Skylark, a powerful mage with a mysterious past, who reluctantly takes Laura on as an apprentice.As they’re sent off on their first mission together into the heart of the country’s oldest and most mysterious Blight, they discover the work of mages not encountered since the darkest period in America’s past, when Black mages were killed for their power—work that could threaten Laura’s and the Skylark’s lives, and everything they’ve worked for.Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio. Read more

Celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Newbery and Coretta Scott King Honoree about an unforgettable family on a road-trip during one of the most important times in the civil rights movement.When the Watson family—ten-year-old Kenny, Momma, Dad, little sister Joetta, and brother Byron—sets out on a trip south to visit Grandma in Birmingham, Alabama, they don’t realize that they’re heading toward one of the darkest moments in America’s history. The Watsons’ journey reminds us that even in the hardest times, laughter and family can help us get through anything."A modern classic."—NPR“Marvelous . . . both comic and deeply moving.”—The New York Times"One of the best novels EVER."—Jacqueline Woodson, Newbery Honor and National Book Award-winning author of Brown Girl Dreaming Read more

“A poignant, necessary entry into the children’s literary canon, Root Magic brings to life the history and culture of Gullah people while highlighting the timeless plight of Black Americans. Add in a fun, magical adventure and you get everything I want in a book!” (Justina Ireland, New York Times best-selling author of Dread Nation)Debut author Eden Royce arrives with a wondrous story of love, bravery, friendship, and family, filled to the brim with magic great and small.It’s 1963, and things are changing for Jezebel Turner. Her beloved grandmother has just passed away. The local police deputy won’t stop harassing her family. With school integration arriving in South Carolina, Jez and her twin brother, Jay, are about to begin the school year with a bunch of new kids. But the biggest change comes when Jez and Jay turn 11 - and their uncle, Doc, tells them he’s going to train them in rootwork.Jez and Jay have always been fascinated by the African American folk magic that has been the legacy of their family for generations - especially the curious potions and powders Doc and Gran would make for the people on their island. But Jez soon finds out that her family’s true power goes far beyond small charms and elixirs…and not a moment too soon. Because when evil both natural and supernatural comes to show itself in town, it’s going to take every bit of the magic she has inside her to see her through.Walter Dean Myers Honor Award for Outstanding Children's Literature! Read more

International phenomenon Angie Thomas revisits Garden Heights seventeen years before the events of The Hate U Give in this searing and poignant exploration of Black boyhood and manhood.If there's one thing seventeen-year-old Maverick Carter knows, it's that a real man takes care of his family. As the son of a former gang legend, Mav does that the only way he knows how: dealing for the King Lords. With this money he can help his mom, who works two jobs while his dad's in prison.Life's not perfect, but with a fly girlfriend and a cousin who always has his back, Mav's got everything under control. Until, that is, Maverick finds out he's a father.Suddenly he has a baby, Seven, who depends on him for everything. But it's not so easy to sling dope, finish school, and raise a child. So when he's offered the chance to go straight, he takes it. In a world where he's expected to amount to nothing, maybe Mav can prove he's different.When King Lord blood runs through your veins, though, you can't just walk away. Loyalty, revenge, and responsibility threaten to tear Mav apart, especially after the brutal murder of a loved one. He'll have to figure out for himself what it really means to be a man. Read more

Winner of the 2018 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical FictionFrom the best-selling author of Echo Mountain and Newbery Honor-winner Wolf Hollow, Beyond the Bright Sea is an acclaimed best book of the year.An NPR Best Book of the YearA Parents Magazine Best Book of the YearA Booklist Editors' Choice selectionA BookPage Best Book of the YearA Horn Book Fanfare SelectionA Kirkus Best Book of the YearA School Library Journal Best Book of the YearA Charlotte Observer Best Book of the YearA Southern Living Best Book of the YearA New York Public Library Best Book of the Year“The sight of a campfire on a distant island...proves the catalyst for a series of discoveries and events - some poignant, some frightening - that Ms. Wolk unfolds with uncommon grace.” (The Wall Street Journal)“Crow is a determined and dynamic heroine.” (Publishers Weekly)“Beautiful, evocative.” (Kirkus)The moving story of an orphan, determined to know her own history, who discovers the true meaning of family.Twelve-year-old Crow has lived her entire life on a tiny, isolated piece of the starkly beautiful Elizabeth Islands in Massachusetts. Abandoned and set adrift in a small boat when she was just hours old, Crow’s only companions are Osh, the man who rescued and raised her, and Miss Maggie, their fierce and affectionate neighbor across the sandbar.Crow has always been curious about the world around her, but it isn’t until the night a mysterious fire appears across the water that the unspoken question of her own history forms in her heart. Soon, an unstoppable chain of events is triggered, leading Crow down a path of discovery and danger.Vivid and heart-wrenching, Lauren Wolk’s Beyond the Bright Sea is a gorgeously crafted and tensely paced tale that explores questions of identity, belonging, and the true meaning of family. Read more

A compelling dual-narrated tale from Jennifer Latham that questions how far we've come with race relations. Some bodies won't stay buried. Some stories need to be told. When seventeen-year-old Rowan Chase finds a skeleton on her family's property, she has no idea that investigating the brutal century-old murder will lead to a summer of painful discoveries about the present and the past. Nearly one hundred years earlier, a misguided violent encounter propels seventeen-year-old Will Tillman into a racial firestorm. In a country rife with violence against blacks and a hometown segregated by Jim Crow, Will must make hard choices on a painful journey towards self discovery and face his inner demons in order to do what's right the night Tulsa burns. Through intricately interwoven alternating perspectives, Jennifer Latham's lightning-paced page-turner brings the Tulsa race riot of 1921 to blazing life and raises important questions about the complex state of US race relations--both yesterday and today. Read more

The year is 1938 and a family in the small South Carolina town of Beaufort faces serious adversity. After the birth of her long awaited son, Mary Banks dives into a dark postpartum period, throwing her into a deep depression. Thinking that her sister, Rose, is offering her a helping hand, Mary leaves her family and goes to Boston in search of a medical cure, not to be heard from again.Where is Mary Banks? What has Rose done with the much loved mother and wife of the Banks family? Finally, Mary’s 15-year-old daughter, Estelle can wait no longer. She gathers her wits and her courage and without a word, runs off to heroically rescue her beloved mother in far away Boston. This is where the adventure begins…… Read more

Take the ranch?Over his dead body...The Walking Y, once one of the finest ranches in Montana, is now on the edge of collapse all because of that damn horse. A lawsuit won by his neighbor, Senator William Bell, has Woody’s family ranch on the brink of bankruptcy when fate brings a young and ornery runaway to his door.Now, with the help of a drunken Irishman, a handful of orphaned teenagers, and a wild scheme, they are ready to fight to keep the ranch. They’re not the only ones willing to fight for it though. Senator Bell has his own plans for the Walking Y, and he and his hired gun are willing to do anything to take it. Even if that means murder…This action packed adventure rings with this fantastic narrative from a true cowboy author. Readers who have loved the works of Wyatt Shepard, Frank Wheeler, Louis L’Amour, and C. Wayne Winkle won’t want to miss The Walking Y Saga.Buy it today! Read more

Anita de la Torre nunca cuestionó su libertad viviendo en la República Dominicana. Pero al cumplir doce años de edad en 1960, la mayoría de sus familiares han emigrado a Estados Unidos, su tío Toni ha desaparecido sin dejar rastro y la policía secreta del gobierno aterroriza a su familia restante dada su presunta oposición a la dictadura de Trujillo.   Utilizando la fuerza y el valor de su familia, Anita debe vencer sus miedos y volar hacia la libertad, dejando atrás todo lo que alguna vez había conocido.   De la renombrada autora Julia Alvarez llega una historia inolvidable sobre la adolescencia, la perseverancia y la lucha de una niña por su libertad. Read more

After solving the case of Truly Devious, Stevie Bell investigates her first mystery outside of Ellingham Academy in this spine-chilling and hilarious stand-alone mystery from New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson.Amateur sleuth Stevie Bell needs a good murder. After catching a killer at her high school, she’s back at home for a normal (that means boring) summer.But then she gets a message from the owner of Sunny Pines, formerly known as Camp Wonder Falls—the site of the notorious unsolved case, the Box in the Woods Murders. Back in 1978, four camp counselors were killed in the woods outside of the town of Barlow Corners, their bodies left in a gruesome display. The new owner offers Stevie an invitation: Come to the camp and help him work on a true crime podcast about the case.Stevie agrees, as long as she can bring along her friends from Ellingham Academy. Nothing sounds better than a summer spent together, investigating old murders.But something evil still lurks in Barlow Corners. When Stevie opens the lid on this long-dormant case, she gets much more than she bargained for. The Box in the Woods will make room for more victims. This time, Stevie may not make it out alive.* Cosmopolitan Best YA Books of 2021 * People Magazine Best Books of Summer 2021* Read more

It’s the summer of 1972, and Kansas wheat fields are baking under the relentless sun. Teenagers are celebrating the first taste of freedom as they line their pockets with newly printed driver’s licenses and long-awaited paychecks. Days off are spent at the town’s only lake, nights under the yellow lights of the drive-in restaurant.But Billy Tupper’s life is a far cry from that of other teenagers. One mistake too many lands him in front of a judge who sentences him to a summer working for Old Lady Baxter, the victim of his latest carelessness…and the rumored child killer of Munroe, Kansas. As Billy sweats his way through endless months of mowing her lawn, weeding her garden, and painting her house, he also searches for the evidence to prove she’s guilty, but what he finds, and what he learns about himself, will change his life forever.I Know an Old Lady is a touching coming-of-age story of loss and redemption, of understanding and compassion, and of a family torn apart and slowly put back together. I Know an Old Lady is Billy Tupper’s story. Read more

The stunning repackage of a timeless Newbery Award Winner, with cover art by two-time Caldecott Honor Award winner Kadir Nelson!With the land to hold them together, nothing can tear the Logans apart. Why is the land so important to Cassie's family? It takes the events of one turbulent year—the year of the night riders and the burnings, the year a white girl humiliates Cassie in public simply because she is black—to show Cassie that having a place of their own is the Logan family's lifeblood. It is the land that gives the Logans their courage and pride, for no matter how others may degrade them, the Logans possess soemthing no one can take away. "[Taylor] writes not with rancor or bitterness of indignities, but with pride, strength, and respect for humanity."—The New York Times Book Review "The vivid story of a black family whose warm ties to each other and their land give them strength to defy rural Southern racism during the Depression . . . Entirely through its own internal development, the novel shows the rich inner rewards of black pride, love, and independence despite the certainty of outer defeat."—Booklist, starred review * Newbery Medal winner * A National Book Award Nominee * American Book Award Honor Book * An ALA Notable Book * A NCSS-CBC Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies * A Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor Book Read more

“A haunting peek at the life of a teenage girl in 1950s New Orleans.”--Entertainment WeeklyIt’s 1950, and as the French Quarter of New Orleans simmers with secrets, seventeen-year-old Josie Moraine is silently stirring a pot of her own. Known among locals as the daughter of a brothel prostitute, Josie wants more out of life than the Big Easy has to offer. She devises a plan get out, but a mysterious death in the Quarter leaves Josie tangled in an investigation that will challenge her allegiance to her mother, her conscience, and Willie Woodley, the brusque madam on Conti Street. Josie is caught between the dream of an elite college and a clandestine underworld. New Orleans lures her in her quest for truth, dangling temptation at every turn, and escalating to the ultimate test.With characters as captivating as those in her internationally bestselling novel Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepetys skillfully creates a rich story of secrets, lies, and the haunting reminder that decisions can shape our destiny. Read more

2011 National Book Award FinalistAs a fourteen-year-old who just moved to a new town, with no friends and a louse for an older brother, Doug Swieteck has all the stats stacked against him. So begins a coming-of-age masterwork full of equal parts comedy and tragedy from Newbery Honor winner Gary D. Schmidt. As Doug struggles to be more than the “skinny thug” that his teachers and the police think him to be, he finds an unlikely ally in Lil Spicer—a fiery young lady who “smelled like daisies would smell if they were growing in a big field under a clearing sky after a rain.” In Lil, Doug finds the strength to endure an abusive father, the suspicions of a whole town, and the return of his oldest brother, forever scarred, from Vietnam. Together, they find a safe haven in the local library, inspiration in learning about the plates of John James Audubon’s birds, and a hilarious adventure on a Broadway stage. In this stunning novel, Schmidt expertly weaves multiple themes of loss and recovery in a story teeming with distinctive, unusual characters and invaluable lessons about love, creativity, and survival. Read more

A Land Remembered has become Florida's favorite novel. Now this Student Edition in two volumes makes this rich, rugged story of the American pioneer spirit more accessible to young readers. Patrick Smith tells of three generations of the MacIveys, a Florida family battling the hardships of the frontier. The story opens in 1858, when Tobias and Emma MacIvey arrive in the Florida wilderness with their son, Zech, to start a new life, and ends in 1968 with Solomon MacIvey, who realizes that his wealth has not been worth the cost to the land. Between is a sweeping story rich in Florida history with a cast of memorable characters who battle wild animals, rustlers, Confederate deserters, mosquitoes, starvation, hurricanes, and freezes to carve a kingdom out of the Florida swamp. In Volume 2, with the birth of Zech and Glenda's son, Solomon, a new generation of MacIveys learns to ride horses, drive cattle, and teach rustlers a thing or two. Sol and his family earn more and more gold doubloons from cattle sales, as well as dollars from their orange groves. They invest it in buying land, once free to all, now owned and fenced and increasingly populated, until it becomes just a land remembered.