We Are All Made of Molecules

We Are All Made of Molecules

Susin Nielsen

Young Adult / Middle Grade / Humor

"There's so much to love about this story . . . but what grabbed me the most is the humor." --Christopher Paul Curtis, winner of the Newbery MedalAward-winning author Susin Nielsen has created two narrators who will steal your heart and make you laugh out loud.Thirteen-year-old Stewart is academically brilliant but socially clueless. Fourteen-year-old Ashley is the undisputed "It" girl in her class, but her grades stink.Their worlds are about to collide when Stewart and his dad move in with Ashley and her mom. Stewart is trying to be 89.9 percent happy about it, but Ashley is 110 percent horrified. She already has to hide the real reason her dad moved out; "Spewart" could further threaten her position at the top of the social ladder.They are complete opposites. And yet, they have one thing in common: they--like everyone else--are made of molecules. Praise for Susin Nielsen"Nielsen is a wonderful writer, smart,...
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The Year of the Dog

The Year of the Dog

Grace Lin

Fantasy / Childrens / Middle Grade

It's the Chinese Year of the Dog, and as Pacy celebrates with her family, she finds out that this is the year she is supposed to "find herself." Universal themes of friendship, family, and finding one's passion in life make this novel appealing to readers of all backgrounds. This funny and profound book is a wonderful debut novel by a prolific picture book author and illustrator and has all the makings of a classic.
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The Strangers

The Strangers

Jacqueline West

Fantasy / Childrens / Middle Grade

Olive thought she'd uncovered all the house's secrets. She was wrong.It's Halloween night when strangers come to Linden Street...and something dear to Olive goes missing. To what lengths will she go to get it back? Can she trust the strangers? Will she turn to a new and dangerous magic within the paintings of Elsewhere? Or will she put her faith in her own worst enemies to save the people and home she loves?The stakes grow higher, the secrets more dangerous, and mystery and magic abound as Olive, the boys, and the cats uncover the true nature of the house on Linden Street. A must-read fantasy series for fans of Pseudonymous Bosch, Coraline, and Septimus Heap.
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Super-Infinite

Super-Infinite

Katherine Rundell

Childrens / Middle Grade / Historical / Historical Fiction

From standout scholar Katherine Rundell, Super-Infinite presents a sparkling and very modern biography of John Donne: the poet of love, sex, and death.Sometime religious outsider and social disaster, sometime celebrity preacher and establishment darling, John Donne was incapable of being just one thing.In his myriad lives he was a scholar of law, a sea adventurer, a priest, an MP - and perhaps the greatest love poet in the history of the English language. Along the way he converted from Catholicism to Protestantism, was imprisoned for marrying a sixteen-year old girl without her father's consent; struggled to feed a family of ten children; and was often ill and in pain. He was a man who suffered from black surges of misery, yet expressed in his verse many breathtaking impressions of electric joy and love.
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Optimists Die First

Optimists Die First

Susin Nielsen

Young Adult / Middle Grade / Humor

Award-winning author Susin Nielsen has written a laugh-out-loud and heartrending novel for fans of Robyn Schneider's Extraordinary Means and Cammie McGovern's Say What You Will. Beware: Life ahead. Sixteen-year-old Petula de Wilde is anything but wild. A former crafting fiend with a happy life, Petula shut herself off from the world after a family tragedy. She sees danger in all the ordinary things, like crossing the street, a bug bite, or a germy handshake. She knows: life is out to get you. The worst part of her week is her comically lame mandatory art therapy class with a small group of fellow misfits. Then a new boy, Jacob, appears at school and in her therapy group. He seems so normal and confident, though he has a prosthetic arm; and soon he teams up with Petula on a hilarious project, gradually inspiring her to let go of some of her fears. But as the two grow closer, a hidden truth behind why he's in the group could...
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The South

The South

Colm Toibin

Childrens / Middle Grade / Fiction

In 1950, Katherine Proctor leaves Ireland for Barcelona, determined to escape her family and become a painter. There she meets Miguel, an anarchist veteran of the Spanish Civil War, and begins to build a life with him. But Katherine cannot escape her past, as Michael Graves, a fellow Irish émigré in Spain, forces her to reexamine all her relationships: to her lover, her art, and the homeland she only thought she knew. The South is a novel of classic themes--of art and exile, and of the seemingly irreconcilable yearnings for love and freedom--to which Colm Tóibín brings a new, passionate sensitivity.
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Farewell Cuba, Mi Isla

Farewell Cuba, Mi Isla

Alexandra Diaz

Childrens / Middle Grade / Realistic Fiction

Alan Gratz's Refugee meets Pam Muñoz Ryan's Esperanza Rising in this "evocative and transportive" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) middle grade novel about two girls fleeing 1960 Cuba with their family inspired by award-winning author Alexandra Diaz's family's history.Victoria loves everything about her home in Cuba. The beautiful land, the delicious food, her best friend and cousin, Jackie, and her big, loving family. But it's 1960 in Cuba, and as the political situation grows more and more dangerous, Victoria, her parents, and her two younger siblings are forced to seek refuge in America with nothing more than two changes of clothes and five dollars. Worse, they're forced to leave the rest of their family, including Jackie, behind. In Miami, everything is different. And it's up to Victoria to step up and help her family settle into this new world—even though she hopes they won't be there for long. Back in Cuba,...
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Lady Gregory's Toothbrush

Lady Gregory's Toothbrush

Colm Toibin

Childrens / Middle Grade / Fiction

'It is the battle between those who use a toothbrush and those who don't.' So wrote Augusta Gregory to W.B. Yeats; she was referring to the riots at the Abbey Theatre over The Playboy of the Western World, and she knew which side she was on. In this remarkable biographical essay, Colm Toibin examines the contradictions that defined the position of this essential figure in Irish cultural history, The wife of a landlord and MP who had been personally responsible for introducing measures that compounded the misery of the Irish peasantry during the Great Famine, Lady Gregory devoted much of her creative energy to idealizing the same peasantry — while never abandoning the aristocratic hauteur, the social connections or the great house which her birth and marriage had bequeathed her. Early in her writing life, her politics were staunchly unionist — yet she campaigned for the freedom of Egypt from colonial rule. Later she wrote plays celebrating rebellion, but trembled in...
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Big Game

Big Game

Stuart Gibbs

Mystery / Childrens / Middle Grade

Teddy Fitzroy returns as FunJungle’s resident zoo sleuth when a rhinoceros is at risk in Big Game, a companion to Belly Up and Poached—which Kirkus Reviews called a “thrill-ride of a mystery.”When someone takes aim at Rhonda Rhino, FunJungle’s pregnant (and endangered) white rhinoceros, the zoo steps up security measures in order to protect this rare animal and her baby. But the extra security isn’t enough—someone is still getting too close for comfort. Teddy and company start to suspect that whoever is after Rhonda is really after her horn, which is worth a lot of money on the black market. For the first time ever, the head of the zoo enlists Teddy for help—for once, he doesn’t have to sneak around in order to investigate—and the results are even more wacky, and even more dangerous, than ever before.
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Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters

Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters

Lesley M. M. Blume

Childrens / Middle Grade / Fiction

Eleven-year-old Cornelia is the daughter of two world-famous pianists--a legacy that should feel fabulous, but instead feels just plain lonely. She surrounds herself with dictionaries and other books to isolate herself from the outside world. But when a glamorous neighbor named Virginia Somerset moves next door with her servant Patel and a mischievous French bulldog named Mister Kinyatta, Cornelia discovers that the world is a much more exciting place than she had originally thought.An unforgettable story of friendship and adventure that takes readers around the world and back again, Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters is a dazzling first novel by Lesley M. M. Blume.From the Hardcover edition.
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Waste of Space

Waste of Space

Stuart Gibbs

Mystery / Childrens / Middle Grade

New York Times bestselling series Tensions are running high when multi-billionaire Lars Sjoburg is poisoned and demands to go home and everyone is looking to Dash Gibson to solve the case in this third and final book in the New York Times bestselling Moon Base Alpha series.Moon Base Alpha was supposed to be an exciting place to live, but Dash didn't expect for it to be this exciting. After solving a murder and rescuing the moon base commander, he just wants to have a calm, quiet thirteenth birthday. But of course multi-billionaire and total pain Lars Sjoburg ruins it—by being poisoned. Now there's a murderer loose on Moon Base Alpha again. And Dash is charged with finding out who it could have been. Everyone has a motive, and time is running out.
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Jack & Louisa: Act 3

Jack & Louisa: Act 3

Andrew Keenan-Bolger

Childrens / Middle Grade / Realistic Fiction

A show-stopping middle-grade series about life in and out of the spotlight from Broadway stars and Internet sensations Andrew Keenan-Bolger and Kate Wetherhead.Two weeks at Camp Curtain-Up is just what Jack and Louisa need to fuel their passion for theater: Broadway musical sing-alongs, outdoor rehearsals, and tons of new MTNs (musical theater nerds) to meet... maybe even a special someone. It almost feels like fate when the two friends return home to find local auditions for The Sound of Music. But as Louisa fantasizes about frolicking in the Alps, Jack gets tempted by a student-run drama competition that would reunite the two with their camp friends. Will Jack get Louisa to skip an audition? Can Lou handle Jack as her director? And will someone finally get a big, Broadway happy ending?
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Every Time a Rainbow Dies

Every Time a Rainbow Dies

Rita Williams-Garcia

Historical / Historical Fiction / Childrens / Middle Grade

Ever since he found her battered and raped in the alley near his home, Thulani hasn't been able to think about anything but Ysa. This is the first time since his mother died that he's given a thought to anything but the rock doves he keeps on the roof of his house in Brooklyn. Now that he has seen Ysa, Thulani finally has a reason to come down from the roof. But it's not so easy for him -- especially when it seems that Ysa doesn't want him in her world at all.
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Tall Tales

Tall Tales

James Riley

Fantasy / Childrens / Middle Grade

The second book in a new trilogy of twisted fairy tales from New York Times bestselling author James Riley, set in the world of his popular Half Upon a Time series, that's perfect for fans of Fablehaven and Chris Colfer's A Tale of Magic series!Lena might finally be accepted by the other giants after helping to defeat the Golden King and his faceless army in the Cursed City, but that doesn't mean life has become any easier for her. The power-hungry Golden King wants revenge and has begun spreading shadow magic out over the kingdoms, taking over the minds of anyone it touches, and instilling fear and hatred as it goes. The fairy queens, the most magical beings in the kingdoms, say their sacred book, Tales of All Things, claims that there is one person who can defeat the Golden King and his dark spells: Lena. But only if she first proves herself worthy by completing three challenges. All Lena ever wanted was to prove she is really a...
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