Growing Life

Kelly Quinn and her best friends, Darbie and Hannah, are having the worst day ever! Their Secret Recipe Book accidentally gets included in frenemy Charlotte's used-book drive. Not good. As if that's not enough, the girls find out that their cooking program is on the chopping block at school, thanks to big budget cuts. Kelly and company decide to take matters into their own hands and apply for famous TV Chef Felice Foudini's Recipe Challenge. The prize? Ten thousand dollars and webisodes on Felice's site.

As a part of her father's bug-extermination contract, 14-year-old Nikki J. Maxwell has been awarded a scholarship to a prestigious private middle school. So...new school. New mean girl. New crush. New diary, so Nikki can spill about all of it....

Steve is back and ready for more adventures! But this time the excitement lands closer to home. While walking home from the village, Steve is surprised to hear a loud BOOM! When he returns home, he finds his wheat farm destroyed and a huge crater where the wheat once grew. And his diamond sword is missing! Steve believes it's the act of a griefer with a lot of TNT. Devastated, Steve wants to rebuild and find his sword, but with his wheat destroyed, he must call on old friends to help him.

Disaster reigns when A.J. participates in the school's holiday pageant celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa.

Eddie "Air" Ball wants to win the Finkle Foods poetry contest for a chance to sink a million-dollar free throw at halftime of the NBA finals. He knows he can make the shot, no problem. He's not so sure he can write a winning poem, though. Luckily, Eddie has the help of his best friend, Annie "Oakley" Stokely. Not only is Annie as good at shooting baskets as Eddie is, she also knows a lot about writing poems.

When Alexander wakes up with gum in his hair, he thinks that maybe it’s going to be a bad day. When he trips on the skateboard by his bed and drops his sweater in the sink, he knows it’s going to be even worse than he thought. His brothers find fabulous prizes in their cereal boxes; he finds cereal. His best friends get fancy desserts in their lunch boxes; Mom forgets dessert. From being scrunched in the car on the way to school all the way to lima beans for supper and kissing on TV (yuck!), the day just keeps getting worse. It’s enough to make him want to move to Australia.

All winter long, people in the Green Hollows have prepared for a final battle with Gnag the Nameless and the Fangs of Dang. Janner, Kalmar, and Leeli are ready and willing to fight alongside the Hollowsfolk. But when the Fangs make the first move and invade Ban Rona, the children are separated. Janner is alone and lost in the hills; Leeli is fighting the Fangs from the rooftops of the city; and Kalmar, who carries a terrible secret, is on a course for the Deeps of Throg.

When something terrible happens, Taylor doesn't know where to turn. All the animals are sure they have the answer. The chicken wants to talk it out, but Taylor doesn't feel like chatting. The bear thinks Taylor should get angry, but that's not quite right either. One by one the animals try to tell Taylor how to process this loss, and one by one they fail. Then the rabbit arrives. All the rabbit does is listen, which is just what Taylor needs.

At last, Sam, Anastasia Krupnik's irrepressible little brother, gets a chance to tell his own story. From his first days at the hospital, through his Terrible Twos, to his first days at nursery school, we see what Sam is really like. But things are never quite what they seem.

Stephen Satlow is an eight-year-old boy living in Brooklyn, New York, which means he only cares about one thing - the Dodgers. Steve and his father spend hours reading the sports pages and listening to games on the radio. Aside from an occasional run-in with his teacher, life is pretty simple for Steve. But then Steve hears a rumor that an African-American family is moving to his all-Jewish neighborhood. It's 1948 and some of his neighbors are against it. Steve knows this is wrong. His hero, Jackie Robinson, broke the color barrier in baseball the year before.

Celebrated artist and author Eugene Yelchin drew on his own experience growing up in Soviet Russia to pen this Newbery Honor Book. Breaking Stalin’s Nose follows 10-year-old Sasha Zaichik, who wants nothing more than to be a Young Pioneer in Stalin’s Communist Party. But when his father, a member of the State Security police, is arrested the night before the Young Pioneer ceremony, Sasha is left to re-evaluate everything he’s been taught about Stalin and what it truly means to be a good comrade.

Alexander’s two brothers have money in their pockets. All he has are bus tokens. It isn’t fair. He had money last Sunday when his grandparents gave them each a dollar. Now it’s all gone. At first he was saving the money for a walkie-talkie. But saving money is hard. He bought gum with some of the money, and when it stopped tasting good, he had to buy more. Good-bye 15 cents. Then Eddie offered to rent him his snake for an hour, and he couldn’t pass up a chance like that....

In their fifth exploit, Sabrina and Daphne Grimm are on their own while investigating the theft of enchanted items from the Ever Afters. And if they don't solve the case, the villain behind the crimes will unleash chaos upon the residents of Ferryport Landing.

Alex and Conner Bailey's world is about to change, in this fast-paced adventure that uniquely combines our modern day world with the enchanting realm of classic fairytales. The Land of Stories tells the tale of twins Alex and Conner. Through the mysterious powers of a cherished book of stories, they leave their world behind and find themselves in a foreign land full of wonder and magic where they come face-to-face with the fairy tale characters they grew up reading about.

Kylie Jean wants to win the Spelling Bee.

In Dressed to Steal, hot young designer Alicia Adams is opening a boutique in her hometown of River Heights. The press is all over the event. When the big day comes, tons of people show up, but when the crowd presses forward, the store window is smashed and people are injured. Later Alicia's most expensive dress is destroyed, and her store is vandalized. Nancy may not be into fashion, but this is one case she's ready to size up.

Stella Batts is back! Stella is in third grade, she wants to be a writer, and her parents own a wonderful candy shop. Life should be pretty good, right? In Pardon Me, Stella needs to find a new best friend after her friend Willa moves away. But finding a new best friend is not easy. Things are looking up when she meets Evie, the new girl in town. She is going to be in Stella s class at school and she needs a new best friend, too.Stella can t wait to introduce her to the other third graders. Except when they get to school, things don't exactly go the way Stella planned....

It has been a few months since the Harmonicandy was chosen as the winner of the nationwide candymaking contest. Forever changed by the experience, Logan, Miles, Philip, and Daisy have returned to their regular lives. But when presented with the chance to go on tour to promote the new candy, each has a very different reason for hitting the road. The stakes are a lot higher than they thought, however, and a decades-old secret is revealed.

When the Mystery Writers of America bestowed a Special Edgar Award on Donald J. Sobol’s Encyclopedia Brown series, its reputation as a classic of children’s literature was assured. This fun read finds 10-year-old Leroy Brown (known to the people of his town as Encyclopedia Brown) honing his impressive detective skills.

In her fourth adventure, Clementine is excited—she’s been picked to be Friend of the Week, a title that brings many new responsibilities. On the advice of her best friend Margaret, Clementine sets out to make sure her classmates know exactly why she’s such a great friend. But this strategy could prove disastrous.