Marlon has said something without thinking. Again. He is such a bigmouth. But this time he's in trouble. He dissed Kevin Detroit's mother. Who does that? It doesn't matter that Kevin does it first. The guys were just kidding around like they always do. But now the new kid wants to beat Marlon up after school. What can Marlon do? 1. Reason with Kevin. 2. Hide out in the nurse's office. 3. Get sent to the principal's office. 4. Pick a fake fight and get sent home. But none of those plans work out. Marlon is terrified. He is in no shape to fight. Fighting is wrong. Kevin is a big kid! What's going to happen? Marlon is resigned. He's ready for the after school fight when something strange happens.
Lizzie Lane a l'habitude de vivre au sommet de la chaîne alimentaire. Sa vie presque parfaite bascule lorsque Rachel, une victime sociale de Lizzie, réussit à lui attirer des ennuis à l'école. La vengeance de Rachel détourne de Lizzie même ses amies les plus proches. Lorsque l'étrange nouvelle voisine de Lizzie lui enseigne quelques notions de magie, Lizzie ne peut s'empêcher de jeter un sort à Rachel. Mais elle oublie la « Loi de trois », selon laquelle tout sort que l'on jette revient vers soi multiplié par trois, et elle devient la victime de son propre complot de revanche. Lizzie Lane is used to life at the top of the food chain. Her near-perfect life is ruined when Rachel, a girl she socially destroyed, exacts her revenge by getting Lizzie in trouble for cheating on a test. Friendless and facing detention, Lizzie obsesses over finding the perfect revenge. When Stella, Lizzie's strange new neighbor, teaches Lizzie about magick, Lizzie can't resist creating a revenge spell. But she forgets the "rule of three," that whatever spell you cast comes back on you three-fold, and her zit spell backfires with dramatic results. When she asks for help from Stella's Baba, the only advice she gets is to "write the lesson of the zit on her heart." Can Lizzie find a way to teach Rachel a lesson without causing permanent disfigurement to herself?
Lizzie Lane is used to life at the top of the food chain. Her near-perfect life is ruined when Rachel, a girl she socially destroyed, exacts her revenge by getting Lizzie in trouble for cheating on a test. Friendless and facing detention, Lizzie obsesses over finding the perfect revenge. When Stella, Lizzie's strange new neighbor, teaches Lizzie about magick, Lizzie can't resist creating a revenge spell. But she forgets the "rule of three," that whatever spell you cast comes back on you three-fold, and her zit spell backfires with dramatic results. When she asks for help from Stella's Baba, the only advice she gets is to "write the lesson of the zit on her heart." Can Lizzie find a way to teach Rachel a lesson without causing permanent disfigurement to herself?
Emery's neighbor, Richard, is the kind of kid who gets under your skin. When Richard suggests a game of "Nicky Nicky Nine Doors," Emery can't come up with a good excuse not to play. Using chocolate bars as "stunt poo," the boys start playing the classic prank of the burning bag on the doorstep, but this game has a modern twist. They videotape their neighbors' reactions. The naked guy and the man in the apron are highly entertaining, but Emery starts to get cold feet when another neighbor is reduced to tears. Emery wants out, but he's not sure how to stop the game without losing face. Soon the game gets serious, and Emery has a lot more to worry about than his reputation.
With the help of her sister and friend Austin, 12-year-old Anya puts together a kids' summer theater troupe, the Random Farms Kids' Theater, recruiting area kids as actors and crew members for a musical revue. Acting as director, Anya navigates the ups and downs of a showbiz life, including preparing scripts, finding a venue, and handling ticket sales, not to mention calming the actors' insecurities and settling conflicts. It's a lot of responsibility for a 12-year-old but Anya pulls it off. Book 2 opens two days later. Now after a successful first show, Anya turns her attention to the troupe's second show. But trouble rears its head almost immediately when their beloved barn venue is jeopardized. How can they put on a production without a theater? Is the second show doomed before they ever start rehearsal? This series is closely based on the real-life experience of Anya Wallach, who began a summer theater "camp" in her parents' basement when she was just sixteen years old.
Middle graders will laugh and cry with thirteen-year-old Vanessa Martin as she tries to be like Vanessa Williams, the first black Miss America. In this semi-autobiographical debut novel set in 1983, Vanessa Martin's real-life reality of living with family in public housing in Newark, New Jersey is a far cry from the glamorous Miss America stage. She struggles with a mother she barely remembers, a grandfather dealing with addiction and her own battle with self-confidence. But when a new teacher at school coordinates a beauty pageant and convinces Vanessa to enter, Vanessa's view of her own world begins to change. Vanessa discovers that her own self-worth is more than the scores of her talent performance and her interview answers, and that she doesn't need a crown to be comfortable in her own skin and see her own true beauty.
Tana has wanted a dog for years. Her parents have finally agreed. She loves her shelter dog, Storm. He's smart and loving. But wow, he is an ugly dog. That doesn't matter to Tana. Storm gives her more responsibility. When she enters him in an ugly dog contest, she learns about friendship, loyalty, and heroism.
Finding an old Lucky doll turns into a nightmare for Abby and Clara. The dolls multiply and spread bad luck to anyone who comes near. How can they stop the crazy doll?
Winicker Wallace's family has moved to France! But Winicker likes nothing about it. Her neighbor is irritatingly perfect. It rains too much. A mean girl in class makes her want to return to Massachusetts. But when Winicker finds herself in a scary situation she gets help from an unexpected source and finally sees silver linings in the dark Parisian clouds.
Winicker Wallace is getting a baby brother! But Winicker dreads his arrival. She can't talk to anyone about how she feels, so Winicker runs away from home. Her mother finds Winicker at the very top of the Eiffel Tower. When they are finally safe at the bottom, Winicker realizes she is actually looking forward to her brother's birth.
Winicker Wallace’s class has a new American student! Winicker volunteers to show Roger everything she loves about Paris. But Roger would rather disrupt class, trick people, and get his classmates into trouble. When Roger goes too far, Winicker learns the importance of standing up for herself and others, and that telling an adult is not the same as tattling.
Race in America has been avoided in children's education for too long. How Can I Be an Ally? explores the idea of how people can use their privilege to advance the culture of inclusion in a comprehensive, honest, and age-appropriate way. Developed in conjunction with educator, advocate, and author Kelisa Wing to reach children of all races and encourage them to approach race issues with open eyes and minds. Includes 21st Century Skills and content, as well as a PBL activity across the Racial Justice in America series. Also includes a table of contents, glossary, index, author biography, sidebars, educational matter, and activities.
Katie Flanagan was a star striker on her old school's soccer team. But at Peabody, there is no girls' soccer team. The school district allows Katie to try out for the boys' team. Having a girl play on the boys' team causes some conflict. Can Katie overcome these barriers? Includes discussion prompts, a soccer quiz, and fun facts about soccer. Aligned to Common Core standards and correlated to state standards. Graphic Planet is an imprint of Magic Wagon, a division of ABDO.
Isabella Clemente is a champion all-around gymnast. After a summer at gymnastics camp, she is looking forward to winning a national championship. But then the current national champion transfers to Peabody! Isabella sees Morgan as a rival. Can she get past this when Morgan offers Isabella help? Includes discussion prompts, a gymnastics quiz, and fun facts about gymnastics. Aligned to Common Core standards and correlated to state standards. Graphic Planet is an imprint of Magic Wagon, a division of ABDO.
Thirteen-year-old Robbie leads a double life. It's just Robbie and his dad, but no one knows that his dad isn't like most parents. Sometimes he wakes Robbie up in the middle of the night to talk about dying. Sometimes he just leaves without telling Robbie where he’s going. Once when Robbie was younger, he was gone for more than a week. Robbie was terrified of being left alone but even more scared of telling anyone in case he was put into foster care. No one can know. Until one day when Robbie has to show the tough new girl, Harmony, around school. Their first meeting ends horribly and she punches Robbie in the face. But eventually they come to realize that they have a lot more in common than they thought. Can Robbie's new friend be trusted to keep his secret?
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.
A heartfelt story that sensitively tackles the everyday inner turmoil of growing up and staying true to oneself. Twelve-year-old Agnes hates everything about her life: her name, her parents' divorce, her best friend's abandonment, her changing body . . . . So while staying with her dad over the summer, she decides to become someone else. She tells people she meets that her name is Chloe, she's fourteen, her parents are married, and she's a dancer and actor—just the life she wants. But Agnes's fibs quickly stack up and start to complicate her new friendships, especially with Fin, whose mysterious relative runs a local raptor rehab center that fascinates Agnes. The birds, given time and care, heal and fly back home. Agnes, too, wants to get back to wherever she truly belongs. But first she must come to see the good in her real life, however flawed and messy it is, and be honest with her friends, her family, and herself.
A suspenseful and heartfelt story about an era whose uncertainties, controversies, and dangers will seem anything but distant to contemporary readers. If thirteen-year-old Marty Rafner had his way, he'd spend the summer of 1953 warming the bench for his baseball team, listening to Yankees games on the radio, and avoiding preparations for his bar mitzvah. Instead, he has to deal with FBI agents staking out his house because his parents—professors at the local college—are suspected communist sympathizers. Marty knows what happens to communists, or Reds, as his friends call them: They lose their jobs, get deported...or worse. Two people he's actually met, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, have been convicted of being communist spies, and they're slated to be executed in two months. Marty just wants everything to go back to normal, but that's impossible thanks to the rumors that his parents are traitors. As his friends and teammates turn on him and federal agents track his every move, Marty isn't sure what to believe. Is his family really part of a Red Menace working against the United States? And even if they're simply patriotic Americans who refuse to be bullied by the government, what will it cost them?
Ava works hard at maintaining a certain image online and at school. As far as anyone else knows, life is great. But when she inherits an African gray parrot from her great-uncle Bernie (whom she barely remembers), Ava’s carefully crafted world starts to crumble. The parrot, Mervin, is loud and messy and obnoxious. Ava’s brother thinks it’s hilarious to post videos of Ava trying to deal with the crazy bird. He even creates a profile for the two of them. Everyone wants to see more of Ava and Mervin. Suddenly, Ava is internet famous—in the worst possible way. Her friends think the parrot is gross and start acting weird. But then a new girl at school helps Ava see that this parrot might not be the worst gift in the world and that just being yourself is the best way to be.
New seventh-grade student Carson Roberts learns the hard way not to cross the school bully, and it's only her first day. Book #1 in the series.
Thirteen-year-old Chloë left her whole life back in Montreal, including her mom and her best friend. Now she's stuck in Victoria with her dad and her estranged grandfather, Uli, who recently had a stroke. When Chloë agrees to help Uli look after his garden, she's determined to find out why he and her dad didn't speak to each other for years. For decades Uli has collected seeds from people in the community, distinct varieties that have been handed down through generations. The result is a garden full of unusual and endangered produce, from pink broccoli to blue kale to purple potatoes. But Chloë learns that the garden will soon be destroyed to make way for a new apartment complex. And the seed collection is missing! Chloë must somehow find a way to save her grandfather's legacy.
Resourceful fourteen-year-old Odette is on the move again, traveling as a stowaway on a cheese cart with her hapless mother, Anneline. They are in Burgundy, France, in 1799, fleeing yet another calamity caused by Anneline (who is prone to killing people accidentally). At dawn they find themselves in a town called Nevers, which is filled with eccentric characters, including a man who obsessively smells hands, another who dreams of becoming a chicken and a donkey that keeps the town awake at night, braying about his narrow life. As Odette establishes a home in an abandoned guardhouse, she makes a friend in the relaxed Nicois and finds work as a midwife's assistant. She and Nicois uncover a mystery that may lead to riches and, more important for Odette, a sense of belonging.
Abby is jealous of a young drifter's expertise with horses.
Sixteen-year-old Spencer loves his job at the local racing stable, but when he becomes convinced that someone is drugging the racehorse Lord of the Flies, no one believes him. In an effort to find out who is behind a dangerous race-fixing scheme, he takes on some of the most unsavory members of the track community. By refusing to turn a blind eye, Spencer risks losing those he cares most about, including Em, the stableowner's niece.
Jack Spencer has more to worry about than being kicked off his high school's basketball team. He uncovers suspicious circumstances surrounding the car crash that severely injured his mother and learns of his father's arrest for fraud. Jack's dad is tough on him, but he has learned to live with it. For the most part, he has it pretty good. Jack is a star player on his high school basketball team with everything going for him-scoring records, popularity and an easy path to a college scholarship. Almost as fast as the crash that put his mom in the hospital, everything Jack believes in starts to crumble. His only hope is to discover what's really going on, and quickly. If he doesn't, Jack may lose much more than a basketball career.
