Young Readers Fiction

In the summer of 1934, Joe Garbe arrives in Chicago with one goal: Earn enough money to get out of debt and save the family farm. Joe’s cousin sets him up with a hotel job, then proposes a sketchy scheme to make a lot more money fast. While running his con, Joe finds himself splitting time between Eddie, a handsome flirt on a delivery truck, and Raymond, a carefree rich kid who shows Joe the eye-opening queer life around every corner of the big city. Joe’s exposure to the surface of criminal Chicago pulls him into something darker than he could have imagined.

Jack has a lot of sex - and he's not ashamed of it. While he's sometimes ostracized and gossip constantly rages about his sex life, Jack always believes that "it could be worse". But then, the worse unexpectedly strikes: When Jack starts writing a teen sex-advice column for an online site, he begins to receive creepy and threatening love letters that attempt to force Jack to curb his sexuality and personality. Now, it's up to Jack and his best friends to uncover the stalker - before their love becomes dangerous.

When Caitlyn Breen enters the tiny Mitchell School in rural Mitchell, Vermont, she is a complete outsider: the seventh grade has just 10 other kids, and they've known each other since kindergarten. Her classmates are in for a shock of their own: Paulie Fink - the class clown, oddball, troublemaker, and evil genius - is gone this year.

In this entertaining children's adaptation of his number one New York Times best seller, Admiral William H. McRaven shares life lessons from Navy SEAL training and encourages young listeners to become their best selves.

Marigold "Goldie" Vance lives and works at the Crossed Palms Resort Hotel in Florida with a whole slew of characters: her dad, Art, the manager of the joint; Cheryl Lebeaux, the concierge and Goldie's best friend; and Walter Tooey, the hired hotel detective. Her mom, Sylvie, works nearby at the Mermaid Club. While life at the Crossed Palms is always busy, the resort is currently overrun with Hollywood-types filming the hottest new creature feature, and tensions are at an all-time high.

Jack and his friends, Amelia and Xander, are in Zanzibar diving for lost treasure to support Jack's mother's coral protection project. Going further than usual on their last day, their dive boat is lured into a trap and captured by Somali pirates. Determined that his mother shouldn't pay a ransom for their release, Jack won't give up his attempts to escape. Transferred to a militia training camp for boy soldiers, the trio's only hope is the resourceful Somali boy called Mo who befriends them.

In the groundbreaking tradition of his award-winning Monster and Bad Boy: A Memoir, Walter Dean Myers fashions a highly listenable, powerful novel about the rules for success for young men, especially those navigating coming of age while Black. Share this book in the classroom, in a father-son group, or as a summer listening (or anytime) choice that's likely to spark conversation and be a favorite.

Poppy Woodlock believes in magic, but so far, she hasn’t found any. It’s been two weeks since her parents moved their family to Oregon to undertake their biggest project yet: revitalizing the once-grand Lark-Hayes Manor. Her older brother instantly found his place, but after being thrown into middle school midyear, Poppy is feeling…invisible. So she retreats to where she’s always felt most at home: books and magic. And if the fantastic and supernatural exist, certainly they can be found in this mysterious old estate. A late-night prowl leads Poppy to a desperate water nymph.

For more than twenty years, the modern classic The Invisible String has helped hundreds of thousands of children and adults understand that they are connected to the ones they love, no matter how far apart they are. Now, the author of that bestselling phenomenon uses the same effective bonding technique to explain the very best news of all: All of our strings to one another are interconnected in The Invisible Web. "It breathes as we breathe, pulsating all over our Earth, the single heartbeat of life and love. And do you know what that makes us all? One Very Big Family!"

Gymnast Caroline Kepler has three state balance beam titles, a new trick even most elites can’t do, and undeniable chronic back pain. While she might never be an Olympian, she has dreams of leveling up to elite, making Nationals, and competing in college. But when one epic face-plant changes all that and Caroline’s back pain goes from chronic to career-ending, her dreams are shattered and her life is flipped upside down. Enter Alex Zavala, a three-sport athlete who’s both incredibly cute and incredibly off-limits.

With perfect comic pacing, Greg Pizzoli introduces us to one funny crocodile who has one big fear: swallowing a watermelon seed. What will he do when his greatest fear is realized? Will vines sprout out his ears? Will his skin turn pink? This crocodile has a wild imagination that kids will love.

As fireworks pop off at a rowdy Fourth of July bonfire party, an explosion off the California coast levels an oil rig—resulting in chaos and worse, murder. At the center are six Muslim teens—six patriots, six strangers, and six suspects.Faced with accusations of terrorism, The Six are caught in a political game that will pit them against each other in exchange for exoneration. They must choose: frame each other to guarantee their own independence or expose their secrets to earn back freedom for them all.

Are you ready to get swept away into a world of fantastic adventure and new discoveries? The Funny Things I Heard at the Bus Stop series of short stories for kids is the perfect book for bedtime reading, a quick after-school adventure, or any time that you want to get taken to a magical, funtabulous, amazing world of imagination that is perfect for kids aged three to one hundred and three!

In this young learners’ adaptation of his adult memoir Dear America, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and undocumented immigrant Jose Antonio Vargas tells his story, in light of the 12 million undocumented immigrants currently in the US.

Mariano Rivera never dreamed of becoming a professional athlete. He didn't grow up collecting baseball cards, playing Little League, or cheering on his home team at the World Series. He had never heard of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, or Mickey Mantle. But one day, that all changed...

Heidi is one of the best-selling books ever written and is among the best-known works of Swiss literature. This version is a delightful abridgment of the classic tale.

When Princess Faith discovers a hidden garden within the castle walls, she asks for permission to plant a flower garden. When her father approves, she and her sisters share the experience, only to find out gardening isn’t all that easy.

Missed the bus? Flubbed a test? Got overwhelmed in a crowd? When you’re feeling big feelings or having a bad day, it can be hard to calm your racing mind and stay present. The Marvelous Now gives kids the tools to see that this is the moment where you need to be!

1776. The early days of the Revolutionary War. It supposedly began with Thomas Hickey, a private in the Continental Army, and New York governor William Tryon. In an astonishing power grab, they plotted to kill Hickey's boss: a man by the name of George Washington. In the end, Hickey was caught, brought to trial, and found guilty. It would seem he became the first person in the new nation to be executed for treason.

This book is a collection of Jack London's short stories about his experiences sailing and seal hunting in the Pacific Ocean during the late 1800s. An additional adventure looks at life along the Sacramento River. A special section describes the different types of sailing vessels, and a glossary helps the listener understand nautical terms.