Johnny Maverick has come up with an idea to win a fundraising contest for the Howling Timberwolves hockey team. It seems fun, until a girl visits Howling - and starts to win challenges against Johnny. The entire town finds it funny; even worse, his friends Tom and Stu like what's happening.
When the Timberwolves get a new coach, they also get the coach's son. The only problem is that Eldridge Elwell is a terrible hockey player. The team is on the hunt to make the playoffs, and every time Eldridge plays a shift, it hurts the team more. Johnny Maverick is just as angry about it as anyone on the team, until he learns something important about the coach's son.
There's plenty of action both on and off the ice. At a big tournament in Calgary, teammate Tom Morgan plays a practical joke on Johnny Maverick, so naturally Johnny feels he has to pay him back. The rivalry escalates. After he scores a hat trick, Johnny is given a hockey stick signed by all the members of the Calgary Flames. He worries that Tom will do something to this prized trophy and decides he will not let it out of his sight. But in the end Tom outsmarts him one more time and Johnny learns that revenge is never a good idea.
The Howling Timberwolves need to win the best two out of three hockey games to make it to the championship finals. But first Johnny Maverick has to survive a visit from his six-year-old cousin, Sarah. And not even Johnny's dog Marvin is safe. Worse, Johnny's got a big lesson to learn on the ice, too. As always, Johnny and Stu and Tom thing they have the answers. But, as usual, they are wrong.
More than anything else in the world, Ali wants a pet cat for her birthday. Unfortunately her brother Jay is allergic to cats. One day, Ali discovers that something is sharing her clubhouse with her. To Ali's delight, the new resident is a beautiful white cat, who she names Snowy. Ali thinks that the clubhouse is the perfect home for Snowy. But is she right and, more importantly, is Snowy really hers to keep?
When Kyle finds a young dog almost drowned in a heap of seaweed on the beach, he claims the dog as his own and is happy for the first time in a while. He knows that his dog loves him, but whenever they walk on the beach, the dog swims out to sea and doesn't come back until Kyle calls and calls. Then one day, they run into an old man and it turns out that the dog may not belong to Kyle alone.
Seven-year-old Bruno is back and tackling problems with his trademark originality. He defeats hiccups. He trades his mother for a new hat. He skillfully avoids math. And thanks to his special Flutter Kick, he easily advances to the next level - in swimming and in life! Bruno is ready for any challenge as he learns all there is to know about being a boy.
Jeremy and his cat Aristotle must solve one more riddle to save the Enchanted Theater. Once again they travel through time and space. Once again they face their fears, this time deep in a maze beneath the ground and high in the sky above ancient Greece. If they succeed, the enchantment will be lifted. If they fail...
In behind the raspberry bushes is a special place, a place Abby doesn't trust to just anyone. Then she looks through a knothole in the fence and right into a blue, blue eye. A toy tractor appears on her side of the fence and she pokes her little brother's stuffed blue monkey into the hole. The next morning she finds it with its tail ripped off. Who does the blue eye belong to?
Like many children throughout Canada's history, Savino had to quit school when he was twelve to work and help his family. In Out of the Deeps, Savino spends his first day at the mine working alongside his father and Nelson, his father's pit pony. When Savino's headlamp goes out deep in the coal mine, Nelson leads Savino out of the danger. In 1944 the miners received their first paid holiday and insisted that their pit ponies receive a week's holiday too. In Out of the Deeps, Anne Laurel Carter captures a boy's first day at work in the mines and a special pit pony's first glimpse of daylight.
Pierre, a pampered pooch, misses his friends, Sparky and Lou. But how will he ever find them? They live in a park on the other side of town. Pierre has a plan, and one afternoon while Miss Murphy naps, he slips out of their apartment and sets off to bring his friends home. Along the way, Pierre meets Old Wheezer and remembers Miss Murphy's words, "Dogs and people belong together." In the end, Pierre helps find a loving home for everyone.
Daisy has more toys than she knows what to do with. In this story, inspired by an Eastern European folktale about a house that's too small, Daisy thinks she needs a bigger bedroom for all the gifts on her birthday list. Her clever mom helps her realize less is more, and Daisy decides to donate many of her things to a Mitzvah Day rummage sale. In the process, Daisy learns about sharing and the satisfaction that comes from choosing what's important.
Silas is a small boy who finds a unique solution to keeping up with his seven adoring grandparents. Most of the time, Silas loves having seven grandparents. Each of them has something unique and valuable to offer. They take him to amusement parks, museums, dog shows and camping. When Silas' parents go away on a business trip, all seven grandparents invite Silas to stay with them. However, one Silas can't be with seven different grandparents at once. How can he choose one without hurting the others' feelings? But Silas comes up with an especially good idea that makes everyone feel included and happy.
Finn loves to swim with the seals in a secret cove. He arrives at the cove one day and rescues a young seal tangled in netting. Finn wishes the seal could live on land. That night the seals sing. "No good comes from seal songs," says Finn's father. When Sheila, a mysterious girl no one has ever seen before, appears on the cannery docks, the fisher folk are uneasy. They believe the newcomer is a magical selkie, a shape changer.
In this retelling of a Jewish folktale, Jacob tries to stump Rachel with his best riddles but fails repeatedly. When a young woman in need of help presents Rachel and Jacob with the trickiest riddles of all, they discover the only way to solve them is to work together.
Elliot Moose is on the loose once more. As he jumps aboard his bright red fire truck and takes off to the next rescue, he feels courageous. All his friends want to ride on the truck and be firefighters too. Nobody wants to be rescued. One by one,Elliot's friends climb aboard until there is no more room on the truck. When suddenly they all need a rescue for real, it is his two youngest and smallest friends who save the day. This lively new addition to the Elliot Moose series is a charming tale of friendship and fair play.
"Slow and steady," that's how you make a grandfather clock. Grandpa should know. He and Cayley have made nineteen clocks together. Now they are making Cayley's very own, a Lord Nelson. Then, one night, Cayley awakes to the sound of a siren. Grandpa is gone. Cayley is scared by what she sees when she is allowed to visit him in the hospital. But scared or not, she knows what Grandpa needs, and she tells him, "Slow and steady" as he heals. The Lord Nelson clock waits, patiently, to be finished.
Seven-year-old Christina desperately wants a dog. When she visits a kennel with her parents, she comes home with Prince, a greyhound recently retired from his champion racing career. Christina is thrilled and spends all her time with her new pal. They are like two peas in a pod. But one day, when Prince is left alone in the backyard, he escapes. Christina's mother searches everywhere for him only to find him at the schoolyard gate waiting for Christina. Promising never to leave him alone in the backyard again, her father brings home a little Chihuahua named Chancho. Now Prince will always have a companion to play with.
Sara loves her grandmother's bakery. It's a special place-not only because of its delicious Japanese buns and pastries. She enjoys spending time with her obaachan, her grandmother. But things aren't going well for the bakery. When the bakery's lucky cat statue goes missing, Sara wonders if the bakery's luck is gone for good. But then a mysterious cat appears in the backyard one night and inspires a plan. With the help of her friend, Jake, Sara just might find the statue and restore the bakery's lost luck.
In Justine McKeen, Pooper Scooper, the third book in the Justine McKeen series, Justine gets her friends to help her clean up the dog poop in the park across from the school board's offices in an effort to get the attention of the superintendent of schools. She hopes the efforts of her crew of cheerful pooper scoopers will help get the superintendent to see that bringing their school librarian back to work is the right thing to do.
Jamie loves sharks. He reads about them. He talks about them. Sometimes he even pretends to be a shark. Too bad no one else wants to join his Shark Club. His peers and parents are quickly growing tired of his current obsession. When Jamie's teacher, Mr. Claxton, brings in a new class pet, Jamie is put in charge. But Jamie has an accident while feeding it, and everyone becomes upset with him. He needs to find a way to make things right. In the end, he comes up with a solution that pleases both his teacher and classmates, a solution that also gives Jamie an opportunity to share his newest obsession--lizards.
Seven-year-old Leland has trouble writing, but he loves drawing. He so dislikes his teacher that he conjures up Delilah, an imaginary seeing-eye dog to help him into class each day. When a neighborhood painter recognizes Leland's gifts as an artist, Leland grows more confident about the world as he uniquely sees it. And when his family's cat goes missing, it is Leland's keen observation skills that lead to finding him. Leland's newfound confidence helps him both confront and sympathize with his teacher, who only wishes Leland could be a bit more focused.
Jack loves and misses his bus-driving grandfather. When Grandpa Nod got sick, Jack's mother said eight-year-old Jack was too young to visit his grandfather in hospital. When Grandpa Nod died, Jack's mother said Jack was too young to go to the funeral. One day after school, Jack gets on the wrong bus. To his surprise he discovers Grandpa Nod is in the driver's seat of the empty bus. Grandpa Nod takes him to all the places Jack was too young to go-the hospital, the funeral home and the cemetery. By the end of the ride, Jack has had the chance to tell his grandfather how much he misses him. And with his birthday coming soon, Jack receives a very special gift-Grandpa Nod's bus schedules. So even if he does get on the wrong bus, Jack will always be able to find his way home.
Inventors invent inventions! That's what Ben and his best friend Jack like to say. So when Ben discovers that Jack's family is planning to move to another city, he decides they should put their inventions to work. The boys figure that if no one buys Jack's house, Jack won't have to move away, so all they need is a plan to scare off potential buyers! Inventors are good at coming up with plans. But when Plans A, B and C fail to bring the results the boys had hoped for, Ben discovers that not everything in life stays the same-and that while change can be hard, sometimes it isn't all bad.
Today, Maybe is a story about a little girl who is waiting for someone, a friend. She doesn't yet know who it will be. In a series of surprising and humorous encounters, several well-known characters of children's literature arrive at her door. But none of them are the one she is waiting for, and she graciously sends them all away. With her bird to keep her company and hope filling her heart, weeks and then months pass as she waits and waits. When there is a scratch at the door one night, certainty fills the little girl's heart, and she opens the door to discover true friendship is indeed worth waiting for.
