Library Girl

It's 1904, the turn of the 20th century, and Samantha Parkington is a nine-year-old orphan living with her rich grandmother. When Samantha sees a friend in need, she makes space to help and a speech worth more than gold.

Isabel and Nicki Hoffman may be twins, but they're each one of a kind. Isabel loves dancing with her friends, while Nicki prefers skateboarding alone. In December 1999, the girls create a list of challenges to complete before midnight on New Year's Eve. But just before the new millennium arrives, disaster strikes. Will the most momentous night of their lives be a twin win or a sister setback?

When her cousin Ana’s family needs money to leave Russia, Rebecca puts on a sidewalk show, but all she earns is a scolding. Once Ana arrives in New York, Rebecca shares her room and her clothes and helps her cousin learn English. But when Ana is assigned to sing with her in a school program, Rebecca’s heart sinks. Ana’s Russian accent will ruin the show! Rebecca realizes her performance is one thing she does not want to share with her cousin. But how can she explain that to Ana?

When Julie finds out that her new school has a basketball team, life starts looking up—until the coach tells her girls aren’t allowed to play. Julie decides to fight for a place on the team, and almost loses her best friend in the process. Meanwhile, a school project forces her to face some hard truths about her family—and herself. Growing up in San Francisco in the 1970s, Julie begins to realize that sometimes the best way to cope with change is to make a few changes of her own.

Born enslaved, Harriet Tubman rose up to become one of the most successful, determined, and well-known conductors of the Underground Railroad. With her family's love planted firmly in her heart, Harriet looked to the North Star for guidance - and its light helped guide her way out of slavery. Her courage made it possible for her to help others reach freedom, too.

When Izzy meets Jade on a cruise to Bermuda, her new daredevil friend turns Izzy’s boring family vacation into the trip of a lifetime. Until Jade goes missing. The investigators claim Jade fell overboard, but Izzy knows better. Her friend had secrets—secrets that might have gotten her killed. As Izzy digs deeper into Jade’s disappearance, she realizes that someone doesn’t want her to find the truth. And if she’s not careful, Izzy might not get off this ship alive.

Marianne is an inventor. So when her Dad signs her up for soccer, she's not exactly thrilled. She can't kick a ball and she can think of just about a million other things she'd rather do. So when she tells a clever lie to get out of her game, she thinks that she is free to start working on her latest invention. But when her Dad catches on, she has to come clean. Can Marianne prove that inventing is what she was destined to do?

Stacy Chilton has typical rich girl problems; young, spoiled, and bored with the boys from her past. That changes after meeting James who is an older handsome man. Stacy has only been with James a few days but she has never been happier. Can James continue to arouse and challenge Stacy mentally and physically? James wants to role play an event from Stacy's college days and Stacy is eager to participle. However, Stacy won't be able to manipulate her study partner like she did in years past.

Business is booming at Waggy Pup Tails, Summer's dog-walking and treat-baking business. She has new clients to walk and groom and plenty of orders for her homemade dog cookies. Summer loves working with pets, and she's hoping to go to animal camp with her best friend, Daisy. Daisy has her own business making cat toys, so the girls decide to become partners. If they work together, they might just earn enough money for camp. But the girls have different ideas about how to do things.

Allegra Elsom is caught in the middle. Some days she's 11, and others she feels closer to 19. Some days she knows too much, and others she feels hopelessly naive. Some days she is split in three, torn between conflicting loyalties to her grandmothers, Matilde and Joy, and her father, Rick—none of whom can stand to be in a room together since the decades-old tragedy that hit their family like a wrecking ball. Allegra struggles to make peace in her family and navigate the social gauntlet at school while asking bigger questions about her place in the world.

Marina has been waiting her whole life to get out on the open sea. And now she's studying abroad in the Caribbean. She loves the feel of the sun on her face, the sand between her toes, and the island music swaying over her. And even better, she's getting hands-on marine biology experience. But while her experiences tell her she's in exactly the right place, her boyfriend wants her home in Vermont. And her distractingly cute Aussie boatmate couldn't disagree more. As the island heat rises, Marina must decide once and for all where her heart is - on land or at sea.

She’s learning to be happy...on her own. Myra is used to keeping her feet firmly on the ground. She’s got four younger brothers, overworked parents, and a pregnant older sister, and if Myra wasn’t there to take care of everyone, they’d probably fall apart. But when her boyfriend unceremoniously dumps her, Myra feels like she’s lost her footing. Suddenly she’s doing things she never would have a few months earlier: Jumping around in a chicken suit for a part-time job and competing against her ex-boyfriend for a scholarship to study birds in the Galápagos.

Katie's best friend Jeremy and the other boys from Class 3A have decided that all girls have cooties. But when Katie finds herself in one of Jeremy's shoes (literally), she tries to reunite the boys and the girls. Will Katie's plan work? Or will it just be one big mess?

A raw and bold memoir about abuse and addiction, and the power of expression and community that helped Stephanie Kuehnert, the author of Ballads of Suburbia and regular Rookie contributor, survive and thrive. Told in varied narrative styles, including journal entries and pages torn from her actual diaries and zines, this is the memoir of Stephanie's life as a struggling outsider who survived substance and relationship abuse to become a strong young woman after years and years trapped in a cycle that sometimes seemed to have no escape.

Seventh-grader Willa is head-over-hooves when she finds a secret note inviting her to Juniper Ranch—a sleepaway camp that’s all about horses. The camp promises trail rides, horseback swims, and “ghorst” stories, plus tons of new horse-girl and (gasp!) horse-boy friends. Even better? Willa’s pals from Oakwood Riding Academy—including her sworn frenemy, Amara—are all coming along for the fun. But when Willa makes a dangerous mistake and a beloved steed goes missing, everyone at Juniper Ranch is suddenly a suspect.

When you’re named after a 250-year-old tortoise, you grow up believing life is full of possibilities and wonder. But ever since Addie’s family got turned upside down, those things have been harder for her to see. The last thing Addie wants to do is make a new friend, but when her dad’s summer job takes them across the country, she meets Mateo and finds herself caught up in an exciting project. With the help of a virtual reality headset, she’s suddenly scaling castle walls, dodging angry kittens, and seeing the world in whole new ways.

An ode to the girl with scrapes on her knees and flowers in her hair, and every girl in between, this exquisite treasury will appeal to fans of Dear Girl and I Am Enough and have kids poring over it to find a poem that's just for them.

Journalist Diana Kapp has crisscrossed this country writing for and about empowered girls, girls who expect to be leaders, founders, and inventors. This book takes it a step further. It says to girls: While you’re striving to be CEOs and world leaders, consider solving the biggest challenge of our lifetime, too - because you can do both at the same time, and here are 34 women doing just that.

Twelve-year-old Joan is sure that she is going to hate her new home - but almost right away she finds a kindred spirit. “You’re lucky I didn’t just start throwing rocks at you. I can hide in the trees and nail a kid with a rock from 30 feet away”. That’s Sarah, who prefers to be called “Fox”, who lives with her writer father in a rundown house in the middle of the woods - near Joan’s suburb, but it feels like a totally different world. Joan and Sarah - Newt and Fox - spend all their spare time outside, and soon start writing stories together.

In this unforgettable multicultural coming-of-age narrative - based on the author's childhood in the 1960s - a young Cuban-Jewish immigrant girl is adjusting to her new life in New York City when her American dream is suddenly derailed. Ruthie's plight will intrigue listeners, and her powerful story of strength and resilience, full of color, light, and poignancy, will stay with them for a long time.