Kids Life

Every morning, Judy measures Stink, and it's always the same: 3 feet, 8 inches tall. Stink feels like even the class newt is growing faster than he is. Then one day, the ruler reads 3 feet, 7 and 3/4 inches! Can it be? Is Stink shrinking? Stink tries everything to look like he's growing, but wearing up-and-down stripes and spiking his hair don't seem to be fooling anybody into thinking he's taller.

Ash is no stranger to feeling like an outcast. For someone who cycles through genders, it’s a daily struggle to feel in control of how people perceive you. Some days Ash is undoubtedly girl, but other times, 100 percent guy. Daniel lacks control too—of his emotions. He’s been told he’s overly sensitive more times than he can count. He can’t help the way he is, and he sure wishes someone would accept him for it.

After knowing friends with anorexia and being baffled by their behavior, Laura Moisin suddenly found herself prone to the same disease - not eating at all and going weeks at a time consuming nothing but water and the occasional black coffee. Deceiving therapists by misleading them with symptoms of depression, her anorexia is prolonged, and her health deteriorates rapidly.

Mental health tops the list of concerns for today's kids (and their parents). Keeping up with social trends is exhausting, and real-life friendships can feel risky and hard. Kids also have to contend with constant input from the digital world, which is all too often detrimental to their wellbeing. In this edition, Jennie Allen draws on the insights, truth, and experiences from her New York Times bestsellers Get Out of Your Head and Find Your People to offer a practical guide to help kids form positive habits and connections that are crucial to their mental and spiritual health.

In honor of Presidents’ Day, A.J. and Andrea from Ella Mentry will compete against their Dirk School rivals in the ultimate Presidents’ Day Challenge! The winning school will get bragging rights, a free trip to an amusement park, and a top-secret prize. The only problem is that A.J. doesn’t know anything about US presidents, unless it involves their use of toilets! Will A.J. and Andrea be able to work together as a team and bring home the win?

When Mia arrives at her new school, her motto is to be open and friendly with everyone. However, not everyone at Park Street School believes in mixing with different groups of friends. When the Popular Girls Club takes interest in Mia's awesome fashion style and wants to recruit her, Mia has to decide between them and her great new Cupcake Club friends. It's like choosing between her divorced mom and dad and her old house and new house. Is it always going to be Mia in the middle, or can she mix it up?

The Kidds - treasure hunting family extraordinaire - are heading to China on a journey that will lead them beyond the Great Wall and into the underbelly of Berlin. Bick and Beck Kidd are desperately trying to secure the ancient Chinese artifact that will buy their mother's freedom from renegade pirates.

If Howard Morton and Freddie the Frog Killer were trying to hold you down so that Mary Lou Hutton could kiss you, you might run as fast as Jeremy Thatcher did the day he stumbled into Mr. Elives' Magic Shop. And if you stumbled into that strange shop, you, too, might be asked to make a choice. What would you buy? The Chinese rings? The Skull of Truth? Or the dragon's egg?

When a mysterious grey pony called Ozzie appears in the paddock by her home, 12-year-old Clodagh's life is about to change dramatically. Charged with caring for him by the local manor's owner, she quickly befriends him. But what will happen when his absent owner unexpectedly reappears and sells him to a riding school with a very bad reputation? Can Clodagh save her new pony friend? Or does she have to say goodbye to Ozzie forever? Join Clodagh and Ozzie in their very first adventure to find out!

Kids can learn a lot about themselves and the world around them with the help of the Develop Self-Regulation Skills Workbook for Kids. Kids learn to identify and control negative feelings including frustration, excitement, rage, and embarrassment through CBT exercises. This is a huge step in the right direction for these children's mental health since it will help them learn how to deal with adversity in the future.

Jake volunteers at a nursing home because he likes helping people. He likes skating and singing, playing Bingo and Name That Tune, and reading mysteries and comics aloud to his teachers. He also likes avoiding people his own age . . . and the cruelty of mirrors . . . and food. Jake has read about kids like him in books—the weird one, the outsider—and would do anything not to be that kid, including shrink himself down to nothing. But the less he eats, the bigger he feels. How long can Jake punish himself before he truly disappears?

Toy inventor - a pretty wild gig. Wow, who wouldn’t want to sit around all day coming up with ideas for toys? The roots of this cool way to make a living were planted when I was only two. Playing pinball taught me my first word: “nickel”. That earliest memory of “play” is first in this series of 151 vignettes. Each of these vivid episodes from ages two to 21 shaped the playful grown-up I became. It’s a fairly typical American childhood.

Trent Shelton is a motivational speaker, former NFL player, and founder of the nonprofit RehabTime. Trent reaches millions of followers of all ages each week with his videos and messages about relationships, personal success, life, and faith.

Clint Edwards, author of the hit book I'm Sorry...Love Your Husband and the follow-up Silence Is a Scary Sound, is back with a third collection of essays chronicling honest tales of struggling to raise three young kids, making plenty of mistakes along the way and learning to be a better father. After Clint's first collection of stories, which act as an apology to his wife, this natural follow-up will place the author's children at the center of the apology and recount funny and relatable tales of Clint's parenting fails.

Rex's parents have split up, he's about to make the daunting move to secondary school and to make matters worse, he has to spend his summer holiday on a remote and rainy Irish island - with lots of unruly sheep for company. The only upside: he'll be staying with his strange and brilliant uncle, Derm. Then Rex discovers Uncle Derm is about to execute his most hair-brained plan yet - to rob the island's travelling bank!

If you want to prepare your child for the "real world" and help them become successful adults one day, this book is your way forward. Your child is just as confused as you are about all the competing demands and expectations of being a teen in today's complex world. I understand this because I am a parent myself, a school psychologist, and a counselor. My many years of working with adolescents and their parents have shown me that growth and change are indeed possible!

From the critically acclaimed author of the ALA Notable and Charlotte Huck Honor Book Forever, or a Long, Long Time comes a moving own-voices story that shines a light on how one girl’s learning differences are neither right nor wrong...just perfectly individual.

Josh Willet is a techie, a serious gamer. Which is why Josh and his friends can’t stand Mr. N’s ELA class; it’s a strict no-tech zone. Mr. N makes them write everything out by hand, he won’t use a Smartboard, and he’s obsessed with some hundred-year-old grammar book. Then Josh discovers a secret; turns out Mr. N's been keeping a lot more than technology from his students! Together with his best friend Vanessa, and using all the computer skills they’ve got, Josh is determined to solve the mystery of Mr. N’s past. And maybe get some screentime back, too?

Widely regarded as the greatest all-around player in baseball history because of his unparalleled hitting, defense and baserunning, the beloved Willie Mays offers people of all ages his lifetime of experience meeting challenges with positivity, integrity and triumph in 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid. Presented in 24 chapters to correspond with his universally recognized uniform number, Willie’s memoir provides more than the story of his role in America’s pastime.

Children will laugh at these funny adventure stories from Bill Myers, bestselling author of McGee and Me, all while learning Christian character and godly wisdom. Join Wally on four hilarious, mishap-filled adventures as he faces a bully at camp, gets eaten by an alien in a film, competes in a hot-air balloon race, and plunges over a killer waterfall.