Showing results by narrator "Mark Turetsky" in All Categories

Teens and pre-teens flock to any new offering from New York Times best-selling author Gordon Korman. Told through multiple viewpoints, Ungifted follows Donovan Curtis through his year at a magnet school for gifted and talented kids. Thanks to an administrative foul-up, the decidedly mediocre student Donovan finds himself enrolled in the Academy of Scholastic Distinction. Out of place and out of luck, Donovan joins the robotics team. And while he learns a few lessons from his gifted classmates, he also teaches a few of his own.

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.

Tom Angleberger’s acclaimed works have been celebrated as “delightful” ( New York Times). In this hilarious tale, Harvey gets Dwight suspended from Ralph McQuarrie Middle School for being a troublemaker. Origami Yoda makes a plea on Dwight’s behalf by asking Tommy and Kellen to gather evidence to prove Dwight’s presence is good for the school. But Harvey and his Darth Paper puppet have an idea to make sure Dwight stays gone.

Jacob Hunt is a teen with Asperger's syndrome. He's hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself well to others, though he is brilliant in many ways. But he has a special focus on one subject - forensic analysis. A police scanner in his room clues him in to crime scenes, and he's always showing up and telling the cops what to do. And he's usually right. But when Jacob's small hometown is rocked by a terrible murder, law enforcement comes to him. Jacob's behaviors are hallmark Asperger's, but they look a lot like guilt to the local police.

A journalist and fiction author, Tom Angleberger has a knack for capturing the lives of today’s youth. In The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, socially awkward Dwight shows up to school one morning waving a green finger puppet. Strange enough, but then Dwight starts talking in a funny voice and doling out advice. Is it the puppet, or is it Dwight? And will paper Yoda be able to help Dwight convince the girl of his dreams to go to the big dance with him?

Dark times have fallen on McQuarrie Middle School. Dwight's back - and not a moment too soon, as the gang faces the FunTime Menace: a new educational program designed to raise students' standardized test scores. Instead, it's driving everyone crazy with its obnoxious videos of Professor FunTime and his insidious singing calculator! When Principal Rabbski cancels the students' field trip - along with art, music, and LEGO classes - to make time for FunTime, the students turn to Origami Yoda for help.

The final Origami Yoda case file from the kids at McQuarrie Middle School! After successfully fighting to save their field trip in Princess Labelmaker to the Rescue!, Tommy and the gang prepare for a well-earned day of fun and adventure in Washington, DC - but of course it won’t be that easy! This trip to the nation's capital will be full of shifting alliances and betrayals, carsickness and sugar rushes.

With Dwight attending Tippett Academy this semester, the kids of McQuarrie Middle School are on their own - no Origami Yoda to give advice and help them navigate the treacherous waters of middle school. Then Sara gets a gift she says is from Dwight - a paper fortune-teller in the form of Chewbacca. It’s a Fortune Wookiee, and it seems to give advice that’s just as good as Yoda’s - even if, in the hands of the girls, it seems too preoccupied with romance. In the meantime, Dwight is fitting in a little too well at Tippett. Has the unimaginable happened?

Unlike the thousands converging at Moon Shadow to witness a total solar eclipse, Ally calls the isolated campground home. Bree shields herself in a cloak of good looks and popularity, but there is something within her no one suspects. And Jack, overweight and socially inept, finds himself on the verge of a startling possibility.

ALA Schneider Family Book Award-winning author Wendy Mass offers this tasty treat of a tale sure to appeal to any listener’s sweet tooth. The Candymakers follows 12-year-olds Logan, Philip, Daisy, and Miles as each tries to invent a candy even better than the Oozing Crunchorama. But with these contestants—who can detect chocolate by touch and lift 50 lbs. of taffy as if it weighed no more than a loaf of bread—it’s going to be a close race.

At McQuarrie Middle School, the war against the FunTime Menace - aka test prep - wages on. Our heroes have one battle under their belts, and they've even found a surprising ally in Jabba the Puppett. But to defeat the Dark Standardized Testing Forces they're going to need an even bigger, even more surprising ally: Principal Rabbski. But with great forces - aka the school board - pushing her from above, will the gang's former enemy don a finger puppet and join the Rebellion - or will her transformation to Empress Rabbski, Dark Lord of the Sith, be complete?

Welcome to Inspector Flytrap's Detective Agency, home to the world-renowned solver of Big Deal mysteries. Inspector Flytrap, a Venus flytrap, works tirelessly with his assistant Nina the Goat, a goat, on his community's unsolved cases. There's no case too big, but there are definitely cases too small for this endearingly self-important plant detective.

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.

Viktor Valentine can’t think of a better way to end his summer vacation than playing All the Vampires Everywhere, his favorite video game, with his best friend, Damon. Yet his parents, who make cringey jokes and call him dorky nicknames, seem set on ruining his plans. Viktor knows he can’t really compete with Damon’s “cool” friends—so their epic video game playing is the best Viktor can do to come close to being cool in Damon’s eyes.

The startling conclusion to Gordon Korman's adventure trilogy. Aiden Falconer and FBI Agent Harris are closing in the people who kidnapped Aiden’s sister, Meg. There’s just one hitch: Meg is trying to escape from them on her own, and is never where she’s supposed to be. As tension mounts and the net tightens, only one thing is clear: The kidnappers aren’t going down without a fight. Before, it was Meg who was in trouble. Now both Meg and Aiden are in grave danger.

Kelly Crosby is the new kid in school. So far, it’s not going so well. He’s already gotten lost, had trouble making friends, and annoyed the monster that lives in the school basement. That’s right. This new school has a monster. Every year, at a party called Friiight Night, one (un)lucky kid is chosen to be the monster’s special guest of honor. Guess whose luck is about to run out?

In New York Times best-selling author Dan Gutman's all-new series, which blends fascinating real history with an action-packed and hilarious adventure, four very different kids are picked by a mysterious billionaire to travel through time and photograph some of history's most important events. This time the four friends are headed to 1863 to catch Abraham Lincoln delivering his famous Gettysburg Address.

Keenan has lived all over the world but nowhere quite as strange as Centerlight Island, which is split between the US and Canada. The only thing weirder than Centerlight itself is his neighbor Zarabeth, a.k.a. ZeeBee. ZeeBee is obsessed with the island’s history as a Prohibition-era smuggling route. She’s also convinced that her beloved dog, Barney, was murdered - something Keenan finds pretty hard to believe. Just about everyone on Centerlight is a suspect, because everyone hated Barney, a huge dog - part mastiff, part rottweiler - notorious for terrorizing the community.

Berlin, November 1943. With bombing raids commencing, the city is blanketed by explosions. Siblings Gerta and Max Hoffmann live a surprisingly carefree childhood amid the raids. Berlin is a city going about its business, even as it's attacked almost nightly. But one night, the air raid sirens wail, and the Hoffmanns' neighborhood is hit. A mortally wounded man comes to their door, begging to be let in. He asks for Karl Hoffmann, their father. Gerta and Max watch as Karl tries in vain to save the man's life.

In 1756, New York State was still a British colony, and the French and the Indians were constant threats to young Edward and his family. When his father was called away to watch for a raid from the north, only Edward was left to protect Mama and little Trudy. His father had shown him how to use the huge matchlock gun, an old Spanish gun that was twice as long as he was, but would Edward be able to handle it if trouble actually came?