Learning Library

Hank Zipzer: He's smart. He's creative. He's funny. His pencils are sharpened. His binders are bound. He wants to do well in school, he really does. He tries not to be lazy, like his parents claim he is. So why is he always getting into trouble?

Cracker is one of the U.S. Army's most valuable weapons: a German shepherd trained to sniff out bombs, traps, and the enemy. Rick is headed to Vietnam to prove to everyone who didn't think he was cut out for war that they were wrong. When Cracker is paired with Rick, she isn't so sure about this new owner. He's going to have to prove himself to her before she's going to prove herself to him. They need to be friends before they can be a team, and they have to be a team if they want to get home alive.

Jack and Annie set off to find an original copy of an ancient Chinese myth. Armed only with their magic library cards, they must take on a book-burning emperor. But with the help of a scholar and a silk weaver, they triumph again.

War has cast its cold shadow over the kingdom of Moltovia, but finally, peace appears to be at hand. Prince Florin races to join his father at the joyous banquet in the court of their former enemy, but is greeted by betrayal. Spared the dungeon that is the fate of his father and his loyal followers, he is enslaved as a lowly apprentice to the spiteful and wily court jester, Mimus.

N is for Nugget...Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose are spending a week at a dude ranch. Everything is normal in a cowboy kind of way - until Josh finds a huge gold nugget! Just as they are deciding what to do with their newfound riches, the nugget disappears. Will the kids be able to track down the thief before it's time to mosey on home?

In their first adventure as Master Librarians, Jack and In their first adventure as Master Librarians, Jack and Annie go to the city of Pompeii to bring back an ancient story that is in danger of being lost forever. Little do they know they are saving the myth of Hercules! But before they can find it, the town's volcano erupts in a mighty explosion. Just when things look hopeless, Jack and Annie get some unexpected help from a certain mythic hero...and the rest, as they say, is history.

Is this town haunted? Jack and Annie wonder when the Magic Tree House carries them to the Wild West. But before they can say "Boo!" they rush headlong into an adventure filled with horse thieves, a lost colt, rattlesnakes, and a cowboy named Slim. Will Jack and Annie have time to solve the next Tree House riddle? The answer may depend on a ghost!

What makes a country fall to a dictator? How are authoritarian leaders - strongmen - capable of killing millions acquire their power? How are they able to defeat the ideal of democracy? And what can we do to make sure it doesn't happen again? By profiling five of the most notoriously ruthless dictators in history - Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Saddam Hussein - Kenneth C. Davis seeks to answer these questions, examining the forces in these strongmen's personal lives and historical periods that shaped the leaders they'd become.

The days between Christmas and New Year's Eve are dead days, when spirits roam and magic shifts restlessly just beneath the surface of our lives. A magician called Valerian must save his own life within those few days or pay the price for the pact he made with evil so many years ago. But alchemy and sorcery are no match against the demonic power pursuing him.

One Friday night, Emma, Anna, and Mariah, three best friends, are out doing something they shouldn't. Then a cell phone rings. One girl's mother wants to know why they aren't where they said they'd be. They make up a story so they won't get into trouble at home. It seems like the easy way out. What happens next challenges their friendship, their community, their relationship with their families, and their sense of themselves. What happens next shows the harm one lie can do.

Can Zack save the earth from butts gone berserk? Can he defeat the biggest, ugliest, meanest butt the world has ever seen? More importantly, will Zack and his butt ever find true happiness? It's an adventure you and your butt will never forget!

Revised and updated with new information, this Jane Addams Award-winner is an in-depth examination of the Emmett Till murder case, a catalyst of the civil rights movement.

kira-kira (kee' ra kee' ra): glittering; shining

Glittering. That's how Katie Takeshima's sister, Lynn, makes everything seem. The sky is kira-kira because its color is deep but see-through at the same time. The sea is kira-kira for the same reason. And so are people's eyes. When Katie and her family move from a Japanese community in Iowa to the Deep South of Georgia, it's Lynn who explains to her why people stop them on the street to stare.

What has a spine, a table, and a cover? A book, of course! Listen to learn about the parts of a book.

To make a book, you first start with an idea. What comes next? Listen to find out how books are made.

Street signs, menus, game directions - words are everywhere! Where else do you put your reading skills to use? Listen to this book to find out.

Their magic tree house takes Jack and Annie deep into the sea, where they meet up with dolphins, sharks, and octopi as they search for the answer to an ancient riddle.

Socrates: A Life Worth Living traces the life and ideas of one of Western civilization’s founding philosophers, whose influence is still felt more than two thousand years later. Socrates is famous for how he died, executed by the Athenian government for corrupting the youth of Athens, but his most important contribution was to challenge the people around him to test their ideas and beliefs in conversation with each other, in the belief that in this way we could become a society that knows the difference between truth and falsehood, and find what makes a life worthwhile.

Jack and Annie are whisked back to the Civil War, where they meet Clara Barton and save the life of their very own great-great-great-grand-father.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Ruta Sepetys is known for creating vivid characters and harrowing plots. After five award-winning works of historical fiction and countless hours of meticulous research, she can affirm that the secret to strong writing is embedded within your life experience. You: The Story is a powerful how-to book for aspiring writers that encourages you to look inward and excavate your own memories in order to discover the authentic voices and compelling details that are waiting to be put on the page.