Some of his new teammates--including "loud and obnoxious" home-run slugger Jimmie--are mean to him or to each other. His new coach doesn't tell the players everything to do like his old coach did. And some of the Manatees seem more interested in goofing off than in sportsmanship or working hard. Then Luis is surprisingly named captain of his new team, and he finds himself with a whole new set of problems. How will he get this odd-ball group of teammates to work together?
History is full of fascinating stories of colorful characters, but some of the most interesting parts of history are really odd. You have probably seen scenes of government officials with their powdered white wigs, but in 1700s England and high-society in the American colonies, women created towering hairstyles. Decorations such as ships and flowers were sometimes added to their hairdos, especially if attending a big party. Taking hours to create, women used beef tallow and sugar-water to keep their hairdos in place. This fictional account explains a very real fashion trend and the problems it created for women trying to look stylish!
Scott Schroeder dreams of a day when he and his father can have a home of their own. Following an accident that took his mother’s life eight years before, doctors discovered Scott was suddenly deaf. Blessed with being an accomplished gymnast, and even though he signs and reads lips, Scott’s biggest challenge is convincing others he is just as able in doing all things as those in the hearing world. Picking up on conversations he observes along the way, Scott figures out a big family secret concerning his father and uncle and makes his mind up to play a part in their reconciliation.
Thirteen-year-old Satoshi Matsumoto spent the last three years living in Atlanta where he was the star of his middle-school baseball team—a slugger with pro potential, according to his coach. Now that his father’s work in the US has come to an end, he’s moved back to his hometown in rural Japan. Living abroad has changed him, and now his old friends in Japan are suspicious of his new foreign ways. Even worse, his childhood foe Shintaro, whose dad has ties to gangsters, is in his homeroom. After he joins his new school’s baseball team, Satoshi has a chance to be a hero until he makes a major-league error.
Derrick finally feels like he’s getting the hang of Middle School. But when Derrick’s cartoons protesting racism backfire, the Muslim kids turn against him and the paper is in danger of being shut down, along with Derrick’s cartooning career.
Derrick’s goldfish, Finn and Gillian, have gone missing! Things take a turn for the weird when Derrick realizes his two science teachers are also nowhere to be found. What do plankton, plastic, and the fate of oceans have to do with missing persons and fishy pets?
7th grader Derrick’s “Dead Max Comix” are such a hit in the school paper he and Max start their own advice column. Derrick and Doug should have asked for advice before they started a band without inviting Kim and Keisha to join. Will the Battle of the Bands mean the end of Derrick and Kim? Not if Dead Max can help out.
Derrick Hollis is a 7th grader at Zachary Taylor Middle School and an aspiring cartoonist too shy to show his work to anybody. Derrick is devastated when his dog Max dies. But after being cremated, Max returns as a ghost giving Derrick advice. Will Dead Max be good for Derrick?
Abandoned by her white father, thirteen-year-old Red Dove faces another lean winter with her Lakota family on the Great Plains. Willful and proud, she is presented with a stark choice: leave her people to live in the white world, or stay and watch them starve. Red Dove begins a journey to find her place in the world and discovers that her greatest power comes from within herself.
