Child Friendship

Lavinia “Vin” Lucas is out of control and out of options. Stranded by parents who would rather use their average magical abilities to study dung beetles than raise her, Vin's been on her own for years. But she’s never been able to corral her own powerful, unpredictable magic. After years of detention, suspension, and expulsion from magic schools far and wide, she’s now being sent to the Last Hope School for Magical Delinquents. If she gets expelled, it’s the end of the line. Now, Vin is determined to behave. Except no one at Last Hope seems to want her to.

Dora the Explorer has a sleepover with her best friends! Join Dora, Camila, Celia, and Yuki in their first sleepover at Dora's house!

Partir à l'aventure? Quelle bonne idée! J'ai envie de voir du pays! 3, 2, 1, c'est parti! Je m'apprête à prendre l'avion pour la première fois de ma vie. J'ai hâte de découvrir le monde, de sentir l'odeur de la mer et de glisser mes orteils dans le sable. Pendant qu'Anna, maman et François se prélassent à longueur de journée, j'en profite pour partir en exploration. Ce n'est pas l'action qui manque par ici! Tant mieux, ça me permet d'oublier que je suis à des milliers de kilomètres de Thomas. ¡Buen viaje!

Ellie’s a girl who tells it like it is. That surprises some people, who see a kid in a wheelchair and think she’s going to be all sunshine and cuddles. The thing is, Ellie has big dreams: She might be eating Stouffer’s for dinner, but one day she’s going to be a professional baker. If she’s not writing fan letters to her favorite celebrity chefs, she’s practicing recipes on her well-meaning, if overworked, mother.

Mary Anne should never have thrown away that chain letter she got in the mail. Ever since she did, bad things have been happening - to everyone in the Baby-Sitters Club. With Halloween coming up, Mary Anne's even more worried - what kind of spooky thing will happen next? Then Mary Anne finds a new note in her mailbox: Wear this bad-luck charm, it says. Or else. Mary Anne has to do what the note says. But who sent the charm? And why send it to Mary Anne? If the BSC doesn't solve this mystery soon, their bad luck might never stop!

Two boys - one white, one Indian American - gain strength from each other from afar as they struggle to navigate middle school, family, and friendships.

A catastrophic tornado struck Joplin, Missouri, in 2011. It was part of a larger tornado outbreak in the spring of that year and reached a maximum width of nearly one mile during its path through the southern part of the city, killing 158 people, and injuring over 1,000. It caused damages amounting to $2.8 billion, making it the costliest single tornado in US history. Lauren will bring her signature intensity to this distinctly American natural disaster, placing a young boy in the middle of one of the deadliest tornadoes to strike the United States since 1947.

There's a murderer on the loose - but that doesn't stop the girls of St. Etheldreda's from attempting to hide the death of their headmistress in this rollicking farce. The students of St. Etheldreda's School for Girls face a bothersome dilemma. Their irascible headmistress, Mrs. Plackett, and her surly brother, Mr. Godding, have been most inconveniently poisoned at Sunday dinner.

In one day four lives weave together in unexpected ways. Virgil Salinas is shy and kindhearted and feels out of place in his crazy-about-sports family. Valencia Somerset, who is deaf, is smart, brave, and secretly lonely, and she loves everything about nature. Kaori Tanaka is a self-proclaimed psychic whose little sister, Gen, is always following her around. And Chet Bullens wishes the weird kids would just stop being so different so that he can concentrate on basketball.

When people look at Melissa, they think they see a boy named George. But she knows she's not a boy. She knows she's a girl. Melissa thinks she’ll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte's Web. Melissa really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can't even try out for the part... because she's a boy. With the help of her best friend, Kelly, Melissa comes up with a plan. Not just so she can be Charlotte—but so everyone can know who she is, once and for all.

For most girls, sleepaway camp is great fun. But for Amy Becker, it's a nightmare. Amy, whose home life is in turmoil, is sent to Camp Takawanda for Girls for the first time as a teenager. Although Amy swears she hates her German-immigrant mother, who is unduly harsh with Amy's autistic younger brother, Amy is less than thrilled about going to camp. At Takawanda she is subjected to a humiliating "initiation" and relentless bullying by the ringleader of the senior campers.

For seventh-grader Mila, it starts with some boys giving her an unwanted hug on the school blacktop. A few days later, at recess, one of the boys (and fellow trumpet player), Callum, tells Mila it's his birthday, and asks her for a "birthday hug." He's just being friendly, isn't he? And how can she say no? But Callum's hug lasts a few seconds too long, and feels...weird. According to her friend, Zara, Mila is being immature and overreacting. Doesn't she know what flirting looks like? But the boys don't leave Mila alone.

Everyone knows Fall Hollow is haunted. It has been ever since Abigail Snook went into the woods many years ago, never to be seen again. Since then, it’s tradition for the sixth graders at Beckett Elementary to play the Bellwoods Game on Halloween night. Three kids are chosen to go into the woods. Whoever rings the bell there wins the game and saves the town for another year, but if Abigail’s ghost captures the players first, the spirit is let loose to wreak havoc on Fall Hollow—or so the story goes.

Capitol City's Natural History Museum is haunted—or at least that's what someone wants people to think. But Wilson Kipper, son of the museum's head paleontologist, knows better. When the mysterious occurrences go from spooky to dangerous, the museum is forced to close its doors. Can Wilson and his friends get to the bottom of things, or will the Natural History Museum be closed for good?

Jessie Alden thinks her days of solving mysteries are over. With her new role at the student newspaper, as well as classes, friends, and boys, there’s a lot to keep up with. And Jessie always likes to be prepared. But when a new boy at school comes to her with information about strange things taking place at his parent’s business, and she also finds out the club she’s writing her first feature on seems to know something about it, Jessie realizes her story is much bigger than she thought―and she can’t help but get to the bottom of it.

Grace loves being on her school’s swim team. She enjoys hanging out with her teammates and making new friends. But when Chloe joins the relay team, she and Grace clash. Grace tries several ways to be friends with Chloe but fails every time. Then at a big swim meet, Chloe blames Grace for getting their team disqualified. Grace can’t believe it. She doesn’t understand why Chloe is so hostile toward her. Will the two girls learn to look past their differences and work together for the good of the whole team?

This inspiring and affordable collection of six stories---plus instructions for ten different games and activities---from the bestselling The Berenstain Bears Living Lights™ brand will encourage children ages 4-8 to embrace a sense of adventure and curiosity about the world around them.

Deep in the water, Mr. Fish swims about with his fish face stuck in a permanent pout. Can his pals cheer him up? Will his pout ever end? Is there something he can learn from an unexpected friend?

Betsy hopes that whoever moves into the house across the street will have a little girl just her age. And the little girl who moves in is just her age. Her name is Tacy. She is very bashful, but she likes to listen to Betsy's stories: wonderful stories that the girls love, and that they keep as their own special secret.

Odder spends her days off the coast of central California, practicing her underwater acrobatics and spinning the quirky stories for which she’s known. She’s a fearless daredevil, curious to a fault. But when Odder comes face-to-face with a hungry great white shark, her life takes a dramatic turn, one that will challenge everything she believes about herself—and about the humans who hope to save her.