Lost & Found
Shaun Tan
Three beautifully illustrated tales tell simple stories of life as it truly is, was, or could be. “The Red Tree” offers hope to a little girl who feels all alone in a big, confusing world. “The Lost Thing,” without a home, finally finds a place to belong, and is happier for it. [...]
The Great and Only Barnum : the Tremendous, Stupendous Life of Showman P. T. Barnum
Candace Fleming
Did you know that P. T. Barnum — the “Barnum” in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus — didn’t become involved with circuses until he was 60 years old? Did you know that one of Barnum’s nicknames was [...]
The Hotel Under the Sand
Kage Baker
Ship-wrecked and alone, Emma finds a young man - a ghost - named Winston who tells her the story of his life as a Bell Captain at the Grand Wenlocke Hotel. This was a very special hotel, erected by a very special wealthy family of Wenlockes, inside of which [...]
Broken Soup
Jenny Valentine
Part mystery, part love story, Broken Soup is not the average “my brother died and now my family is falling apart” novel. Sure, Jack died unexpectedly, and now Rowan is left as the primary caregiver to younger sister Stroma because their mom just lies in bed all day and their dad has [...]
War Games
Audrey and Akila Couloumbis
Set in a Greek town during World War II, Petros, his brother Zola, and their cousins feel pretty safe. The war feels far away from their normal life. But first they have to navigate around Italian soldiers, and then the German military takes over. Petros’s older cousin is [...]
Going Bovine
Libba Bray
Cameron Smith is sixteen years old and his most outstanding quality is that he just doesn’t really care much about anything. He’s not incredibly social, but he’s not incredibly awkward either. Until weird things start to happen to his mind, anyway, and the doctors diagnose him with Mad Cow Disease. [...]
The Cardturner
Louis Sachar
The summer of his seventeenth year, Alton’s mother forces him to spend time with his “favorite uncle” in order to try to work the family’s way into the blind man’s last will and testament. Alton has to accompany his great-uncle, Trip, to his bridge games and act as his “cardturner.” Basically, [...]
Briar Rose
Jane Yolen
Jane Yolen’s rendition of Sleeping Beauty is a harrowing tale to tell. Unlike most of Disney’s famous and popular fairy tale interpretations, most of the original tales are far more gruesome and frightening, not meant for very small children to experience, and often have far-from-happy endings. Becca has been listening to her [...]
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
L. Frank Baum, adapted by Eric Shanower
Writer Eric Shanower and artist Skottie Young present a gorgeous retelling of the original novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, originally written by L. Frank Baum in 1900. The Wizard of Oz has become a classic of American and international culture as a result [...]
A Million Shades of Gray
Cynthia Kadohata
All Y’Tin ever wanted was to be an elephant handler, and at thirteen, he is the youngest handler in his Dega village. He has big dreams of one day opening a training school for elephant handlers, the would-be first in Vietnam. But war interrupts everything, and the Vietnam [...]
