All I wanted was a happy life. With my best friend. And my sister. And a great Halloween costume. And for Javier to be a better leader. And no more tasks. And an A on my Lake Pend Oreille presentation. And get As in all my classes. And all my Big Boo pictures to turn out. And also the thing with Drea and Hayes to be ancient history. I hardly wanted ( Read more... )

Kim, a middle school teacher, requested a booklist for middle schoolers. I started listing away and had to stop myself before I hit 100 books. Then I typed this up and just keep going ( Read more... )

Yearbooks are designed to capture a year in a life of a school as a whole - not an individual student. So some students might assess their yearbook as a good summary of the past year, covering a lot of activities they attended and people they know, filled with fond memories and good times, while others might not see themselves reflected in those ( Read more... )

Fear no evil and dive headfirst into the new series The Demonists by Thomas E. Sniegoski.


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Louise Trapeze performs with her parents in the Sweet Potato Circus, but only her parents are allowed to fly from one trapeze to another, while Louise has to do her tricks on one low bar that doesn't swing. Louise's mama and daddy have always said that she'll be allowed to perform on the real flying trapeze when she's nine years old - which seems ( Read more... )

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It's time for a new Remy Chandler novel! Here's a sneak peek of A DEAFENING SILENCE IN HEAVEN by Thomas E. Sniegoski, now available in bookstore everywhere:


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This booklist was prompted by Pam, who wanted humorous but clean stories for kids and teens. I sent her the names of a few books, then a few more, then a few more. Here now are some of my favorite funny stories for kids ages 8 and up.

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald - **** - G ( Read more... )

When kids and teachers ask me for a book that's a twist on the Cinderella story, I offer them Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix and the companion novel, Palace of Mirrors. These books are royally good, and I strongly recommend them to fans of Shannon Hale.

In Just Ella, we met 15-year-old Ella after the big ball we're all familiar with - but ( Read more... )