Young Readers Fiction

Here's a totally twisted take on the alphabet that invites listeners to look at it in a whole new way: An A is an H that just won't stand up right, a B is a D with its belt on too tight, and a Z is an L in a tug-of-war fight! Twenty-six letters, unique from each other - and yet, every letter looks just like one another! Kind of like...one big family.

As a young girl cautiously approaches a castle full of soaring, roaring dragons, she worries about their wildness and their terribly sharp teeth. And indeed, the dragons are hungry and noisy, and they seem to be hovering closer and closer...until the girl notices that some of the beasts are wearing mismatched socks. And some are playing tambourines. And some prefer to color quietly in the corner. Could there be more to these dragons than the girl first realized?

Clothilde has lived her whole life in the shadows with her (sometimes) thieving and (always) ailing father. But when he fails to meet her one morning, sending her instead a mysterious ticket of half-paffage, Clo finds herself journeying across the sea to reunite with him. The ticket, however, leaves her on a sunless island inhabited only by creaking fishermen, a rumpled old woman, a piggish cat, and a moon-cheeked boy named Cary.

Twelve-year-old Claire Barton doesn't like the "flutter feeling" that fills her chest when she worries about the future, but she knows what she loves: the land that's been in her family for three generations; her best friend Maya; her family's horses, Sunny and Sam; and her older brother Andy. That's why, with Andy recently sent to rehab and her parents planning to sell the horses, Claire's world feels like it might flutter to pieces.

Reading Makes You Feel Good will inspire and encourage young children to delight in the joyful, rewarding experience of reading. Kids will learn that reading isn't something that just happens at school or at home - it can happen anywhere! Todd shows us all the fun ways we can read - from in the library and in bed to in the bathtub and on the road. Targeted to those first beginning to read, this audiobook invites children to listen to the main text as well as all the funny signs, labels, and hidden messages.

Celebrate different hair shapes, textures, and styles in this self-affirming book! From dreadlocks to blowouts to braids, Princess Hair shines a spotlight on the beauty and diversity of Black hair, showing young listeners that every kind of hair is princess hair.

The troublemaking students of Ms. Jenkins' class arrive at school one day to discover a substitute creacher has come to put a stop to their monkey business! He regales them with mind-boggling stories about his former students who didn't follow the rules: Keith the glue-eater, Zach the daydreamer, and Hank the prankster, to name a few. But even this multi-tentacled, yellow-spotted, one-eyed monster's cautionary tales about the consequences of mischief-making can't seem to change the students' wicked ways until he reveals the spookiest and most surprising story of all: his own.

Most of the time, you're glad your dad is your dad, until he gets grouchy, bossy, or just totally gross. Then you wish you could swap him for something else. But be careful what you wish for, because it could be way worse. In this silly what-if story, kids will roar with laughter at the misadventures of a monkey dad, an alligator dad, a whale dad, and even a unicorn dad! But nothing can replace the dads who love them more than anything in the whole wide world.

Today is the day the exuberant Lucy is going to make a new friend! But she finds it's harder than she had thought - she accidentally ruins the giraffe's breakfast and is much too big for the frogs' pond. Just when she's about to give up, an unexpected friend finds her and loves her just the way she is.

When a woodcutter and his scheming wife abandon Hansel and Gretel in the forest, all hope is lost until they come upon a cottage made of tasty sweets. But the owner is not the kindly old woman she pretends to be. Can Gretel save Hansel from the clutches of a hungry witch?

In the follow-up to the hit What the Dinosaurs Did Last Night, these scampish dinosaurs make the trip to school, hidden in a kid's backpack.

Meet Rory the Dinosaur. He loves spending time with his dad, but today he wants to go on an adventure all on his own. Rory can't wait to tell his dad about all the things he's doing by himself, like crossing rivers and finding shelter from the rain. But little does Rory know, his father is never far behind. There's nothing Rory's dad won't do for his intrepid son. Liz Climo celebrates the bond between father and child with her adorable, deceptively simple illustrations in this timeless story of a child's quest for independence.

When Rory meets his friend Sheldon's pet crab, he realizes he wants a pet of his own. He searches high and low - from tree tops to sand pits - for a creature to love. At the end of the day, when Rory least expects it, he meets George. Liz Climo celebrates the bond between child and pet with her adorable, deceptively simple illustrations in this timeless story of a child's quest for companionship.

Thief of Babes is a classic fantasy of a farmwife sworn to rescue her husband from the elves under the hill. Clarisse was left by Yves on their farm in New York's Hudson Valley during the Indian Wars. When he finally returns, he is a broken man, easily captured by the trickster elves. His wife makes a bargain with their queen to steal a human infant and replace them with a changeling for a night with her husband.

Constance Sutton’s marriage to Thomas was one, just like many at the time, arranged by her father, and even though he was a good man to her, there was something missing. She spent her time sewing or singing, and after a few performances across Devonshire, she was invited to sing for the duke’s birthday party, something she found to be a great honor.

The space rock is just the latest thing to land, uninvited, in Vega Lucero’s road-stop hometown. But when she discovers how much a chunk of the meteorite might be worth, she realizes it’s exactly the treasure she’s been hoping to find—and maybe a way to convince her mom not to sell the family store to big city developers to help pay for her grandpa Tata's medical expenses.

The Cul-de-Sac Kids is a lighthearted chapter-book series for young listeners written by the talented Beverly Lewis. Each book centers on the often-humorous escapades of these endearing neighborhood friends as they learn together the value of friendship and faith. An enjoyable listen for both parents and kids! Volume Four features Piggy Party, The Granny Game, Mystery Mutt, Big Bad Beans, The Upside-Down Day, and The Midnight Mystery.

Meet Erik Sheepflattener. Each member of his modern-day Viking-heritage family has a motto to live by. His parents have Family and Pride. His sisters have Conquer and Win. His grandfather has Turnip. But Erik is developing a motto he can truly believe in: Avoid Stuff. Mostly, Erik’s fierce family ignores or discounts him, especially when he tries to say no. But while spending the summer with his rough-and-tumble cousins and older sister Brunhilde in Minnesota, axe-wielding Bru gets the idea to name and Conquer all of Erik’s fears.

There are zero reasons for Theo Ripley to look forward to his family vacation. Not only are he, sister Laura, and nature-obsessed Dad going to Big Bend, the least popular National Park, but once there, the family will be camping. And Theo is an indoor animal. It doesn’t help that this will be the first vacation they’re taking since Mom passed away. Then, Theo’s dad hits him with a whopper of a surprise: the whole trip is just a trick to introduce his secret new girlfriend.

Even and Odd are sisters who share magic. Lately, though, it seems like that’s the only thing they have in common. Odd doesn’t like magic, and Even practices it every chance she gets, dreaming of the day she’ll be ready to be a hero. When the hidden border between the mundane world the sisters live in and the magical land they were born in shuts abruptly, the girls are trapped, unable to return home. With the help of a unicorn named Jeremy, they discover a wizard is diverting magic from the border to bolster her own power.