Strange Happenings:
Five Tales of Transformation

by Avi

Is My Dog a Wolf?:
How Your Pet Compares to Its Wild Cousin

by Jenni Bidner

Have you ever wondered why your dog licks your face?  Or why when they are given a squeaky toy they immediately destroy it?  This book explains those questionable behaviors.  The wolf is the ancient ancestor of today’s dog. Your dog’s behavior is a direct result of that link.  Learn exactly how similar and different these animals are from Is My Dog a Wolf?

Satch & Me: A Baseball Card Adventure

by Dan Gutman

Dan Gutman scores again!  With this seventh in the series of time travel novels, 13- year-old Joe Stosh travels back in time to meet famous major league baseball players.  This time Joe and his elderly friend and coach Flip Valentini return to Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1942.

Members of a Negro League team stop their team bus to eat at a local diner.  Stosh and Flip see first hand the racial discrimination faced by these players, when the athletes are told they cannot eat in the diner.  Stosh and Flip have the opportunity to meet Satchel Paige, the famous fastball pitcher.

Sheep

by Valerie Hobbs

Now his name is Jack, though that wasn’t always the case.  In fact, he’s had several names throughout his life.  But in the beginning, he didn’t have a name at all.

As a young Border collie pup, he enjoys life with his family on Bob and Ellen’s ranch.  He’s filled with boundless energy and hope for the future, but he’s also trouble with a capital T.  In truth, nobody thinks he will amount to much.  But he knows better than that. He knows that somewhere out there in the world is a job for him to do…something big and important!  He just has to find out what it is.

Into the Firestorm

by Deborah Hopkinson

Did you ever wish for something so strongly that you would risk your life for it?  Nicholas Dray did, and his wish came true, but that wish turned into a fiery, out-of-control nightmare. 

In the dusty Texas cotton fields, Nick’s life didn’t seem much at risk.  He was eleven years old, without any family or close friends, working from first light until dark in the hot, stinging rows of cotton.  Nick was in danger of losing heart and hope. But when Nick leaves Texas for San Francisco he encounters his first earthquake and finds himself scurrying through a maze of deadly fires to survive.  Should he focus on finding a way out while he can or risk his life for weaker neighbors?  

Drita, My Homegirl

by Jenny Lombard

“You IN TROUUUUUUUUUUBLE!”  That’s what Maxie’s friend announces to the class as Maxie tries to sneak in late.  Maxie has never liked Mondays, but this one is going downhill fast.   Before breakfast, her daddy tells her that he wants her to meet a new friend –a woman!  Then when Maxie gets to school, there’s a new girl named Drita sitting right there at her desk.  Can it get worse?  Oh, yeah it can!  Find out how Drita and Maxie learn to be friends as they both discover that they each have a secret.

Fall of the Amazing Zalindas

by Tracy Mack and Michael Citrin

In the year 1889, the best hope for justice and the best hope to solve a crime was Sherlock Holmes.  Perhaps the greatest detective that ever lived, Holmes used his incredible powers of deductive reasoning, with his powers of observation and vast knowledge, to magically ‘know’ all sorts of things about people.

Even Sherlock Holmes could not be everywhere at once.  Even Sherlock Holmes needs eyes and ears on the street.  The Baker Street Irregulars are those eyes and ears.  Wiggins, Ozzie and the other boys hope daily that Holmes will send for them.  Their lives as beggars are dangerous.  They must stay at least one step ahead of the police to avoid the slave-like conditions of the workhouses.  Working a case for Holmes means excitement, adventure and money.

Before there was CSI there was Sherlock Holmes.  A few carefully asked questions, a scrap of rope…and some help from the Baker Street Irregulars are all Sherlock Holmes needs to solve the case of The Fall of the Amazing Zalindas.

Ugly

by Donna Jo Napoli

When the Mother Duck's egg finally hatches, the baby that emerges is a stranger to the ducks of Dove Lake. He looks nothing like his siblings and earns the name Ugly.  As time passes, he proves to be more and more different. Ugly is much larger than the other ducklings, he enjoys diving, and he stays underwater far too long.

Then when all the ducks and ducklings attack Ugly, biting him everywhere, things go from bad to worse for Mother Duck and her brood as the other waterfowl shun them and bully Ugly at every opportunity. When even Ugly’s siblings turn against him, Mother Duck realizes she must send him away.

On Ugly’s journey north he meets a fighting wallaby, two brave geese, a nurturing wombat, and a plucky possum who all prove helpful. But will he ever find a place where he fits in—a place with others like himself—a place where even an Ugly can belong?

Clementine

by Sara Pennypacker

Third-grader Clementine has a big heart and a creative mind that come up with some really bright ideas. The only problem is that most of those ideas don’t quite work out the way Clementine expects!

When in art class Clementine's classmate Margaret was excused to go to the girls’ room, and she left with scrunched-up don’t-cry eyes and a pressed-down don’t-cry mouth, and she had been gone a long time, Clementine asks to go to the girls’ room. There she finds Margaret crying and notices a large jagged gap in her beautiful long hair.

Clementine’s effort to help is only one of her many bright ideas that lead to disaster in Clementine by Sara Pennypacker.

American Slave, American Hero:
York of the Lewis and Clark Expedition

by Laurence Pringle

Today it is called “the Lewis and Clark expedition”, but when those four dozen men set out in May of 1804, it was called “the Corps of Discovery”.  York, an African-American enslaved to William Clark, was one of those men.  It was illegal to teach slaves to read and write, so York left no written record of his adventures.  What is known about him—his great strength, his skills as a hunter and marksman, his gentleness with the Indian children, his ability to paddle a canoe through dangerous rapids, and his success at bartering with the Native tribes for food—is known from the journals kept by the other members of the expedition.  It is from these explorers’ diaries that Laurence Pringle learned about York, and is able to tell the story of this almost forgotten, American hero.

The Mailbox

by Audrey Shafer

Twelve-year-old Gabe Culligan has had a hard life and has spent several years in the foster care system.  Thanks to his social worker, Gabe is glad to finally be living in Draydon, Virginia with an uncle he had never met.  Uncle Vernon was a caring but gruff Vietnam War veteran who told Gabe about some of his combat experiences.  Over the past two years, they had built a relationship and a family.  On the first day of sixth grade, Gabe comes home to find his Uncle Vernon dead from a heart attack.  Panic-stricken and grieving, Gabe does not notify the police or tell anyone of his uncle’s death, because he fears he would be returned to foster care again.

Gabe manages to go to school the following day, trying not to think about what he needs to do.  When he arrives home, there is a note in the mailbox which says, “Do not be afraid.” on one side and “I have a secret.” on the other side--and Uncle Vernon’s body has disappeared!  Gabe is afraid.  Very afraid! 

Crossing Bok Chitto:
A Choctaw Tale of Friendship & Freedom

by Tim Tingle

Martha Tom knew she wasn’t allowed to cross the Bok Chitto River.  This was the boundary between slavery and freedom.  If a slave escaped and made it across the river, he was free, and no one could take him back.  Martha Tom is a Choctaw and lives on the freedom side of the river.  As she picked blackberries one Sunday morning, she crossed the river using the stone path built by the Choctaws just under the surface of the water.  No one else knew it was there.  When her basket was full, she headed to the river but found herself deeper in the woods instead.  There she witnessed the call to the forbidden slave church.  She watched and listened, and was deeply moved, until she felt a hand on her shoulder.  The big man asked his son, Little Mo, to take her back to the river since she was lost.  Little Mo hesitates because the men from the plantation house have said that the entire family will be in trouble if the children are caught playing near the river.  His dad explains that there is a way to move and not be noticed by the plantation owners.  “You move not too fast, not too slow, eyes to the ground, away you go!” 

When they reach the river, Martha Tom shows Little Mo how to cross but then one day when Little Mo’s mother is sold, and it is the family’s last night together, can the friendship of Martha Tom and Little Mo help the family stay together?

The Fairies of Nutfolk Wood

by Barb Bentler Ullman

Willa Jane’s parents got a divorce and their house was sold.  Daddy is now in California.  Willa was so upset that she was often sick.  Mama and Willa move to the country, where they buy a home, and Mama gets a job at the local bookstore.  Hazel is their new neighbor and both Mama and Hazel need help.  Mama needs someone to watch Willa Jane while she is at work, and Hazel needs someone to help with the chores around the house.  Willa, a fourth grader, is not excited about working for Hazel who is older than old and lives in a house with no electricity or running water.

But through their friendship during the following weeks, Hazel tells Willa her stories about the Nutfolk fairies, but Willa knows there is no such thing as fairies. Then when odd things begin to happen, Willa thinks that maybe there is some truth to the tales!

My Name Is Sally Little Song

by Brenda Woods

Sally and her family are slaves who live on a plantation in 1802 Georgia.  With the love and support that they have for one another, they endure the harsh treatment.  Then one day, they are told that one of them will be sold.  Afraid for their future, Sally and her family decide to run away to nearby Florida in hope that the Seminole will give them a haven, but first they must escape the plantation, elude slave catchers and cross a treacherous river.