Library Girl

Inspired by the number one New York Times best seller She Persisted by Chelsea Clinton and Alexandra Boiger comes a chapter book series about women who stood up, spoke up, and rose up against the odds. Listeners can now enjoy the first eight biographies in one audio collection!

Out of nowhere, a lady comes up to Anamaria and says she’s her, from the future. But Anamaria’s 13, she knows better than to talk to a stranger. Girls need to be careful, especially in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico - it’s the '90s, and fear is overtaking her beloved city as cases of kidnapped girls and women become alarmingly common. This 30-year-old “future” lady doesn’t seem to be dangerous, but she won’t stop bothering her, switching between cheesy Hallmark advice about being kind to yourself and some mysterious talk about saving a girl.

Three Summers is the story of five young cousins who grow closer than sisters as ethnic tensions escalate over three summers in 1980s Bosnia. They navigate the joys and pitfalls of adolescence on their family’s little island in the middle of the Una River. When finally confronted with the harsh truths of the adult world around them, their bond gives them the resilience to discover and hold fast to their true selves.

This inspiring book gives girls permission to let their lights shine. They want all girls to know that there are no limits on what they can achieve. One by one, common misconceptions are flipped and replaced by empowering statements such as your hair is like a magnificent crown or you are like the moon among stars, or you shine the brightest. They suggest that if people doubt you or try to discourage your ambitions, you should disregard them and pursue your dreams to the fullest.

"Let's pretend we live in a castle," says Ashlyn. The five friends have great fun being princesses until one day a grumpy dragon appears! The girls try wishes and spells to make the dragon go away. Then Willa, who understands animals, points out that there's one thing they haven't tried. But will it work?

Everything in Echo's life changed in a blinding flash when she learned the startling truth: She is the firebird, the creature of light that is said to bring peace. The firebird has come into the world, but it has not come alone. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and Echo can feel a great and terrible darkness rising in the distance. Cosmic forces threaten to tear the world apart.

Who are we? We are a billion voices, bright and brave; we are light, standing together in the fight. Girls are strong and powerful alone, but even stronger when they work to uplift one another. In this galvanizing original poem by presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman, girls and girlhood are celebrated in their many forms, all beautiful, not for how they look but for how they look into the face of fear.

Emma has always orbited Henri, her fierce, magnetic queen bee of an older sister, and the two have always been best friends. Until something happens that wrecks them. Then the unthinkable occurs - a watery nightmare off the dazzling coast. The girls wash up onshore, stranded. Their only companion is Alex, a troubled boy agonizing over his own secrets. Trapped in a gorgeous hell, Emma and Alex fall together as Emma and Henri fall catastrophically apart. To find their way home, the sisters must find their way back to each other.

Jasmine Green’s mom is a veterinarian and her dad is a farmer. She has spent her life surrounded by animals. So when she sees animals that need rescuing, she knows just what to do. While walking in the woods, Jasmine and her best friend, Tom, find a nest of orphaned duck eggs. The eggs need lots of care. Hatching them is hard work. Can Jasmine keep the eggs warm and safe? With a little love and luck, the Green family farm will have a fluffy duckling friend for life.

It's almost time for the talent show at school, and Erin couldn't be more excited. It's her time to take center stage! Plus, she and her friends from coding club are putting together an awesome coding program for the show. But Erin has a big secret: She has anxiety. And when things start piling up at home and school, she starts having trouble handling everything. Her friends from coding club have always been there for her, but will they be as understanding when the going gets tough?

In spring of 1918, World War I was underway, and troops at Fort Riley, Kansas, found themselves felled by influenza. By the summer of 1918, the second wave struck as a highly contagious and lethal epidemic and within weeks exploded into a pandemic, an illness that travels rapidly from one continent to another. It would impact the course of the war, and kill many millions more soldiers than warfare itself.

Eighteen-year-old Xifeng is beautiful. The stars say she is destined for greatness, that she is meant to be empress of Feng Lu. But only if she embraces the darkness within her. Growing up as a peasant in a forgotten village, Xifeng longs to fulfill the destiny promised to her by her cruel aunt, the witch Guma, who has read the cards and seen glimmers of Xifeng's majestic future. But is the price of the throne too high? Because in order to achieve greatness, she must spurn the young man who loves her and exploit the callous magic that runs through her veins.

Fourteen-year-old Nephele used to have friends. Well, she had a friend. That friend made the adjustment to high school easily, leaving Nephele behind in the process. And as Nephele looks ahead, all she can see is three very lonely years. Nephele is also a whip-smart lover of math and science, so she makes a plan. Step one: invent time travel. Step two: go back in time, have a do-over of ninth grade, crack the code on making friends, and become beloved and popular. Does it work? Sort of. Nephele does travel through time, but not the way she planned - she’s created a time loop.

Meet teenage Wiccan Mila Flores, who truly could not care less what you think about her Doc Martens, her attitude, or her weight because she knows that, no matter what, her BFF Riley is right by her side. So when Riley and Fairmont Academy mean girls June Phelan-Park and Dayton Nesseth die under suspicious circumstances, Mila refuses to believe everyone's explanation that her BFF was involved in a suicide pact. Instead, armed with a tube of lip gloss and an ancient grimoire, Mila does the unthinkable to uncover the truth: she brings the girls back to life.

Li has a father and a sister who love her. A best friend, Mirabae, to share things with. She goes to school and hangs out at the beach and carefully follows the rules. She has to. Everyone she knows - her family, her teachers, her friends - is an alien. And she is the only human left on Earth. The Abdoloreans hijacked the planet 16 years ago, destroying all human life. Li's human-sympathizer father took her in as a baby and has trained her to pass as one of them. The Abdoloreans appear human. But they don't think with human minds or feel with human hearts.

The Haves. The Have-Nots. Kate O'Brien appears to be a Have-Not. Her whole life has been a series of setbacks she's had to snake her way out of—some more sinister than others. But she's determined to change that. She's book-smart. She's street-smart. And she's also a masterful liar. As the scholarship student at the Waverly School in NYC, Kate has her work cut out for her: Her plan is to climb the social ranks and land a spot at Yale. She's already found her "people" among the senior-class "it" girls.

Pearl lives on a ranch where her chores include collecting eggs and feeding ornery ostriches. She has three older brothers, who don't coddle her at all. And she knows a thing or two about horses, too. One day, Pearl's brothers get cushy jobs doing stunts for this new form of entertainment called "moving pictures". They're the Daredevil Donnelly Brothers, a Death-Defying Cowboy Trio. Before she knows it, Pearl has stumbled into being a stunt girl herself - and dreams of becoming a star. The only problem is, her mother has no idea what she's up to.

For 17-year-old Opal Hopper, code is magic. She builds entire worlds from scratch: Mars craters, shimmering lakes, any virtual experience her heart desires. But she can't code her dad back into her life. When he disappeared after her 10th birthday, leaving only a cryptic note, Opal tried desperately to find him. And when he never turned up, she enrolled at a boarding school for technical prodigies and tried to forget. Until now.

From Vanessa Brantley-Newton, the author of Grandma's Purse, comes a collection of poetry filled with engaging mini-stories about girls of all kinds: girls who feel happy, sad, scared, powerful; girls who love their bodies and girls who don't; country girls, city girls; girls who love their mother and girls who wish they had a father. This book invites listeners to find themselves and each other within.

When 11-year-old Jeremy Bender does major damage to his father's prized boat, he figures he has one way to avoid being grounded for life: Fix it before Dad finds out. But even if Jeremy and his best friend, Slater, combined their allowances for a year, they still wouldn't have enough money for the cost of repairs. Inspiration strikes when the boys see an ad for the Windjammer Whirl. Sponsored by the Cupcake Cadets, the model sailboat race pays 500 dollars to the winner. There's just one problem: You must be a Cadet - and a girl - to compete.