Young Readers

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.

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!"

Wyatt Hill is the quiet giant of Mrs. Z’s class—a third-grader who looks like a fifth grader, nearly as tall as Mrs. Z herself. Because of his size, everyone expects him to play sports or be a tough guy, but that isn’t Wyatt’s way. He adores his stuffed lizard, Lizzie, and the lively conversations they share. He notices who’s having a bad day in class and wonders why boys don’t get to play hopscotch, which looks like a very fun game. And he is starting to put words down on paper in a way that might finally express all his thoughts about the world, which are so hard to say out loud.

Mrs. Z’s class is holding a variety show, and everyone has signed up to demonstrate their special skill! Everyone that is, except Ayana Ndoum. She’s good at reading, but someone’s already reciting a poem out loud. She’s good at synchronized swimming, but they can't get a pool onstage. What could her act be? Before she can figure it out, she has an even bigger problem to deal with: Why is her dad at school?

Listeners of all ages will witness the rise and fall of a scientific and historical icon in this masterful new edition. Exploring his childhood, his secret work on the bomb, his central role in the Cold War, and his tragic downfall, this quintessential biography is history at its finest, riveting and deeply informative, and now available to a younger audience.

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.

"Bang! A side door bursts open. Soldiers pour into the room. They're shouting and waving rifles. I shield my head with my arms. It was a lie! I think, my mind racing. Girls and boys alike are screaming. The soldiers prod and herd some of us together and push the rest apart as if we're cows or goats.Their leader, though, is a middle-aged man. He's moving slowly, intently, not dashing around like the others. 'Take the boys only, Win Min,' I overhear him telling a tall, gangly soldier...."

After James gets a pen-and-ink set for his birthday, Marvin the beetle surprises him by creating an elaborate miniature drawing. James gets all the credit for the picture and before these unlikely friends know it they are caught up in a staged art heist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that could help recover a famous drawing by Albrecht Dürer. But James can't go through with the plan without Marvin's help. And that's where things get really complicated (and interesting!)

Thirteen-year-old Growls (aka Shaun) is an aspiring (awful) rapper who hopes to enter this year’s Raptology competition with his best friend, Shanks (aka Zachariah). After all, what better way to land his crush (Tanisha) and get the respect he finally deserves than winning the contest and going viral? But when a livestream practice goes epically wrong, the two friends do go viral—and not in the way they’d hoped.

Born in the picturesque town of Taxco, Mexico, Julissa Arce was left behind for months at a time with her two sisters, a nanny, and her grandma while her parents worked tirelessly in America in hopes of building a home and providing a better life for their children. That is, until her parents brought Julissa to Texas to live with them. From then on, Julissa secretly lived as an undocumented immigrant, went on to become a scholarship winner and an honors college graduate, and climbed the ladder to become a vice president at Goldman Sachs.

Something bad happened here. When Case arrives at a run-down, ivy-covered house tucked deep in the West Texas woods, an ashy haze lingers in the air and the sky is tissue-paper pink. Her best friend Drea has been living here with a few classmates Case has never met, and Drea asked her to visit in a letter dated two weeks ago.

“Where Mangoes Fall” unfolds the captivating journey of Ama, a young girl growing up in Paraguay, the heart of South America. Ama believes in Paraguayan myths and legends. Still, when the local card reader tells her that three people will die if she searches for her friend’s missing baby, Ama has to make difficult decisions about truth and loyalty, which is even harder when she discovers secrets about her life.

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!

July 20, 1969. It’s a day that has earned a spot in history. It’s the day that America was the first nation to succeed in sending two astronauts - Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong - to the moon. But what led to this unforgettable event? What were the stakes riding on the Apollo 11’s safe landing? In acclaimed author Douglas Brinkley’s first young readers' edition, space fans will get the riveting and factual backstory of arguably the most significant achievement of the 20th century.

The on-screen world is super exciting—there are games, and new friends, and funny videos! But too much of a good thing isn’t always healthy, and not everything you see online can be trusted. Luckily, this book is here to help you navigate the highs and lows of screen time. Through hilarious comics and vibrant illustrations, listeners of all ages will discover how to make good choices, use devices responsibly, find content that’s just right, and be a good friend on and offline.

This powerful and hopeful book—inspired by the historic election of Vice President Kamala Harris—celebrates brown and Black girls. Based on a viral poem by Blaxican poet and activist Leslé Honoré, this moving journey through the past, present, and future of brown and Black girls is a celebration of community, creativity, and joy—and offers a reminder of the history that inspires hope, and the hope that inspires activism.

Jerry Pinkney drew everywhere, all the time. It was how he made sense of the world—how he coped with the stress of being a sensitive child growing up in crowded spaces, struggling with a learning disability, in a time when the segregation of Black Americans was the norm. Only drawing could offer him a sense of calm, control, and confidence. When friends and siblings teased him about having the nickname “Jerry” as his only name, his mother always said, “Just ‘Jerry’ is enough.

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.

As she grows up in a generation that is busier and more distracted than ever, your tween girl will love the fun vibe and practical ideas in Grace, Not Perfection for Young Readers by best-selling author, creator of the Simplified Planner, and organizational expert Emily Ley.

It’s 1889, barely twenty-five years after the Emancipation Proclamation, and a young Black family is tired of working on land they don’t get to own. So when Will and his father hear about an upcoming land rush, they set out on a journey from Texas to Oklahoma, racing thousands of others to the place where land is free—if they can get to it fast enough. But the journey isn’t easy—the terrain is rough, the bandits are brutal, and every interaction carries a heavy undercurrent of danger.