Showing results by narrator "Keith Nobbs" in All Categories

Last spring Teddy's life changed for the better. He started working out and shaping up and even earned a spot on the Walton baseball team, and with the team he went all the way to the Little League World Series. But the best things to come out of that season were his friendships with Jack, Cassie, and Gus and the confidence to finally try out for the sport he really loves - football. So when eighth grade begins, Teddy couldn't be more psyched.

If you're like most people, you think that your choices and behaviors are driven by your individual personal tastes and opinions. You wear a certain jacket because you like the way it looks. You picked a particular career because you found it interesting. The notion that our choices are driven by our own personal thoughts and opinions is patently obvious. Right? Wrong. Without our realizing it, other people's behavior has a huge influence on everything we do at every moment of our lives, from the mundane to the momentous occasion.

Alton Barnes loves maps. He's loved them ever since he was little, and not just for the geography. Because maps contain more information than just locations, and that's why he likes to draw maps as well as read them. Regular "point A to point B" ones, sure, but also maps that explain a whole lot more - like what he really thinks about his friends. And teachers. Even the principal. So when Alton's maps are stolen from his locker, there's serious trouble on the horizon - and he'll need some mad cartographic skills to escape it.

From the number one New York Times best-selling author of Heat, Travel Team, and Million-Dollar Throw! Pedro Morales loves playing basketball, but he's more of a team guy than a star - that would be Ned Hancock, the best player in their entire town. The two boys get along well, but their friendship is threatened when Pedro decides to run against Ned for class president. The election starts to affect their team, and Pedro learns who his real friends are and the best way to work together on and off the court.

Ted Hammond loves a good mystery, and in the spring of his fifth-grade year, he's working on a big one. How can his school in the little town of Plattsford stay open next year if there are going to be only five students? Out here on the Great Plains, in western Nebraska, everyone understands that if you lose the school, you lose the town.

There's a folder in Principal Kelling's office that's as thick as a phonebook and it's growing daily. It's filled with the incident reports of every time Clayton Hensley broke the rules. There's the minor stuff like running in the hallways and not being where he was suppose to be when he was supposed to be there. But then there are also reports that show Clay's own brand of troublemaking, like the most recent addition: the art teacher has said that the class should spend the period drawing anything they want....

Christmas is coming and Marty and his rescued pup, Shiloh, are sure glad about that - for their town is low on love and understanding, and they hope that the joy of the holiday will bring with it the generosity of spirit that's so lacking. It's been a year since Marty Preston rescued Shiloh from Judd Travers and his cruel ways, and since then, Marty and Shiloh have been inseparable. Anywhere Marty goes, the beagle's at his side, and Marty couldn't be happier about that. Even Judd has been working to improve his reputation.

The Keepers of the School - known to their friends as Ben, Jill, and Robert - have one last chance to save their school before it’s torn down to make room for a seaside amusement park. But their nemeses, Janitors Lyman and Wally, are just as determined to keep the kids out of the way and the demolition on schedule. One way or the other, this battle is about to come to a head. When all is said and done, will the school still be standing? Or will everything the Keepers have fought for be destroyed?

The ocean rose, swallowing up the lowlands. Earthquakes shattered the continents, toppling entire regions into the rising water. Now, humans live packed into stack cities. The only ones with any space of their own are those who live on the ocean floor, the Dark Life. Ty has spent his whole life living deep undersea, helping his family farm the ocean floor.

In Eating the Dinosaur, Klosterman is more entertaining and incisive than ever. Whether he's dissecting the boredom of voyeurism, the reason why music fan's inevitably hate their favorite band's latest album, or why we love watching can't-miss superstars fail spectacularly, Klosterman remains obsessed with the relationship between expectation, reality, and living history. It's amateur anthropology for the present tense, and sometimes it's incredibly funny.

She could save the world - or destroy it. Sixteen-year-old Evangeline 'Evie' Greene leads a charmed life, until she begins experiencing horrifying hallucinations. When an apocalyptic event decimates her Louisiana hometown, Evie realizes her hallucinations were actually visions of the future - and they're still happening. Fighting for her life and desperate for answers, she must turn to her wrong-side-of-the-bayou classmate: Jack Deveaux. But she can't do either alone.

Somewhere in North Dakota, there is a town called Owl that isn't there. Disco is over, but punk never happened. They don't have cable. They don't really have pop culture, unless you count grain prices and alcoholism. People work hard and then they die. They hate the government and impregnate teenage girls. But that's not nearly as awful as it sounds; in fact, sometimes it's perfect.

What would happen if the noisiest, most talkative class of 5th graders in history dared each other not to talk for 48 hours? This is the premise Andrew Clements explores in one of his most compelling stories yet.

Everyone has something they want to change. Marketers want to change their customers' minds and leaders want to change organizations. Start-ups want to change industries and nonprofits want to change the world. But change is hard. Often, we persuade and pressure and push, but nothing moves. Could there be a better way? This book takes a different approach. Successful change agents know it's not about pushing harder, or providing more information, it's about being a catalyst.

From the author of New York Times best sellers Contagious and Invisible Influence comes a revolutionary approach to changing anyone’s mind. Everyone has something they want to change. Marketers want to change their customers’ minds and leaders want to change organisations. Start-ups want to change industries and nonprofits want to change the world. But change is hard. Often, we persuade and pressure and push, but nothing moves. Could there be a better way?

Sal Giunta was just a regular kid from Iowa when he enlisted in the army to figure out what to do with his life. He never thought that a few tours of duty later, he would be the first living person since the Vietnam War to be awarded the esteemed Medal of Honor.

The Grayson twins are moving to a new town. Again. Although it's a drag to be constantly mistaken for each other, in truth, during those first days at a new school, there's nothing better than having a twin brother there with you. But on day one of sixth grade, Ray stays home sick, and Jay is on his own. No big deal.

Soccer season is underway, and though Zach and Zoe play on different travel teams, they're on the same team when it comes to solving mysteries. So when a package arrives in the mail addressed to Zach, the twins are surprised to find a soccer jersey identical to the one Zach wears for his team. But Zach's jersey is in his closet - so who does this jersey belong to and why did they send it? It's a soccer secret - and Zach and Zoe are on the case!

A bag of chips. That's all 16-year-old Rashad is looking for. What he finds instead is a fist-happy cop, Paul, who mistakes Rashad for a shoplifter, mistakes Rashad's pleadings that he's stolen nothing for belligerence, mistakes Rashad's every flinch at every punch the cop throws as further resistance and refusal to stay still as ordered. But how can you stay still when someone is pounding your face into the pavement?

Jack Callahan is the star of his baseball team and sixth grade is supposed to be his year. Undefeated season. Records shattered. Little League World Series. The works. That is, until he up and quits. Jack's best friend Gus can't understand how Jack could leave a game that means more to them than anything else. But Jack is done. It's a year of change.