Young Readers Fiction

Sixteen-year-old Maya Krishnan is fiercely protective of her friends, immigrant community, and single mother, but she knows better than to rock the boat in her conservative Florida suburb. Her classmate Juneau Zale is the polar opposite: she’s a wealthy white heartbreaker who won’t think twice before capsizing that boat. When Juneau invites Maya to join the Pugilists—a secret society of artists, vandals, and mischief-makers who fight for justice at their school—Maya descends into the world of change-making and resistance.

When everyone else goes to bed, the ones who stay up feel like they’re the only people in the world. As the hours tick by deeper into the night, the familiar drops away and the unfamiliar beckons. Adults are asleep, and a hush falls over the hum of daily life. Anything is possible.

One of the finest history books for children, this well-loved Hillyer classic features stories of world history from prehistoric man through the 20th century, inspiring an appreciation of how events relate to one another.

Jocelyn Wu has just three wishes for her junior year: to make it through without dying of boredom, to direct a short film with her BFF Priya Venkatram, and to get at least two months into the year without being compared to or confused with Peggy Chang, the only other Chinese girl in her grade. Will Domenici has two goals: to find a paying summer internship, and to prove he has what it takes to become an editor on his school paper.

P.C. and Mackenzie's friend, Tom the janitor, has been accused of murdering the head biologist at New York City's Museum of Natural History. But they know Tom couldnï¿¿ï¿¿ï¿¿t be the real killer, so they begin investigating. Exploring the crime scene and digging deep, they uncover a strange, precious artifact and a huge arachnid at the heart of the mystery.

Virginia, 1943: World War II is raging in Europe and on the Pacific front when Kit Sutherland is recruited to help the war effort as a codebreaker at Arlington Hall, a former girls’ college now serving as the site of a secret US Signal Intelligence facility. But Kit is soon involved in another kind of fight: government girls are being brutally murdered in Washington DC, and when Kit stumbles onto a bloody homicide scene, she is drawn into the hunt for the killer.

Nick Abbott and Trent Dawson have nothing in common but basketball. Or so it seems. But as the basketball season progresses, their lives become unexpectedly intertwined. In this story of an unlikely bond, award-winning author Carl Deuker explores that dark and confusing place between loneliness and friendship, between faithfulness and betrayal.

Sisters Cheta and Zam couldn’t be more different. Cheta, sharp-tongued and stubborn, never shies away from conflict—either at school or at home, where her mother fires abuse at her. Timid Zam escapes most of her mother’s anger, skating under the radar and avoiding her sister whenever possible. In a lucky turn, Zam is invited to live in her aunt’s luxurious home. Jealous, Cheta also leaves home, but to a hard existence that will drive her to terrible decisions. When the sisters are reunited, Zam alone sees just how far Cheta has fallen—and Cheta’s fate is in Zam’s hands.

Chase Cooper here, and I'm back with my 11th diary as a sixth-grade ninja! Craziest. Week. Ever. It's the week of the supermoon, and the Astronomy Club is hosting an overnight on Thursday. Sounds like an awesome time, except for the fact that the red and green ninjas, a.k.a. the holiday ninjas, have secretly planned a finishing move for Wyatt that would destroy him forever. As if that weren't enough, some kid name Chris Moss, a.k.a. Christmas, makes me an offer that's hard to refuse.

Books seven, eight and nine in the Skulduggery Pleasant series - known collectively as the Darquesse Trilogy, Derek Landy's fantastically imaginative series about our favourite dead detective.

Every mouse knows of the dangers in the sewers, where bloodthirsty gangs of rats roam. But one curious mouse can't resist that perilous world and thus must face evil at its strongest - or the entire city of London could be destroyed.

When the world was crumbling, seventeen-year-old Clara fought back. She escaped her abusive home and joined Team Seven, a monster fighting squad of runaways and misfits formed to combat the scrabs terrorizing the planet. And after nearly dying in Paris, Clara and Team Seven discovered the sinister truth behind the scrab invasion. Scrabs aren't just mindless monsters set on destruction. They're being trained and weaponized by MDG, a private security firm hired by the government.

Just down the road from their families, Deo and his friends play soccer in the dusty fields of Zimbabwe, cheered on by Deo's older brother, Innocent. It is a day like any other ..until the soldiers arrive and Deo and Innocent are forced to run for their lives, fleeing the wreckage of their village for the distant promise of safe haven. Along the way, they face the prejudice and poverty that await refugees everywhere, and must rely on the kindness of people they meet to make it through.

It's a special day on the Inkwell Isles: Elder Kettle's birthday! Yes, sirree, it's a very special day. So Cuphead and Mugman need to find the perfect gift to honor their beloved mentor. But along the way, the brothers and their new friend Ms. Chalice are captivated by the sights and sounds of the carnival that just rolled into town. Despite Elder Kettle's warning that the attraction is filled with liars and thieves, the trio gets reeled in.

Ethan Pitowski is afraid of everything. Luckily, his best friends don’t mind, and when their entire class gets invited to watch a long-buried horror movie at the most popular boy in school’s house, Ethan’s friends encourage him to join in the fun. But when the “scariest movie ever made” reveals itself to be not just a movie about a monster, but a movie that is a monster, only a terrified Ethan escapes its clutches. Now he must find a way to stop the monster and save his friends (and also, um, get their heads back).

In his village in Upper Kwanta, 11-year-old Kofi loves his family, playing oware with his grandfather and swimming in the river Offin. He’s warned though, to never go to the river at night. His brother tells him ”There are things about the water you do not know. “ Like what? Kofi asks. “The beasts.” His brother answers.

When Ralph and his pesky cousins accidentally make a mess at the Mountain View Inn, Ralph decides that he'd better take his motorcycle and leave. He persuades his young pal Ryan to take him to school, where Ralph is an instant hit with Ryan's classmates. But Ralph doesn't like being told what to do. Worse than that, his precious motorcycle gets broken. Is Ralph stuck at school forever?

Parents, educators, therapists, and social workers alike have declared The Invisible String the perfect tool for coping with all kinds of separation anxiety, loss, and grief. In this relatable and reassuring contemporary classic, a mother tells her two children that they're all connected by an invisible string. "That's impossible!" the children insist, but still they want to know more: "What kind of string?" The answer is the simple truth that binds us all: An Invisible String made of love.

Born in a South Africa divided by racism and hatred, little six-year-old Peekay learns that small can beat big. Armed with this knowledge, he resolves to take on the injustices of his country, and sets his heart on becoming the welterweight champion of the world. Peekay starts to take boxing lessons, makes new friends, collects cacti, and plays the piano. Above all, he learns to think with his head and then with his heart. Peekay discovers that nothing can defeat the determination to be true to yourself: This is the power of one.

In this heartwarming and candid memoir, Tim Howard does something he would never do on a soccer field: he drops his guard. As fiercely protective about his privacy as he is guarding the goal for the US national team and for Everton in the English Premier League, Howard opens up for the first time about how a hyperactive kid from New Jersey with Tourette's syndrome defied the odds to become one of the world’s premier goalkeepers.