Oxford English Dictionary

Capricorn Anderson is the new eighth grader at Claverage Middle School. His appearance immediately captures everyone's attention. Cap's long, wavy hair stretches down to the middle of his back. He wears tie-dyed shirts and cornhusk sandals.

Cap has grown up on an alternate farm commune learning to care for Mother Earth and promote non-violence. He has never watched television, played basketball nor had a friend his own age.

Zach Powers and his followers immediately make Cap their target. The eighth grade students have had a tradition of nominating a real loser for the job of class president.

Since others know the unwritten rules, no one dares to run against him. Then Zach & Company use the opportunity to further torment the new president.

Cap is truly different. Will he become the biggest loser in the eighth grade or will he prove that freaks can be cool?

Lily B.’s life is “bleaker than an orphan in a Roald Dahl novel.” Her parents, Lenny and Phyllis, are two of the most boring people on the planet. Her mom actually makes beds and folds dirty towels in hotel rooms. Lily is forced to continually watch the History Channel and listen to Broadway’s Greatest Hits on road trips. Her father thinks Britney Spears is a type of imported asparagus.

Life appears to be looking up for Lily when she meets Carma LeBlanc and her incredibly cool parents, Charles and Veronique. Not only are The LeBlancs stylish and modern, they eat only imported organic food. Charles and Veronique read Rolling Stone and know MTV’s top ten video lists in their heads.

Of course Lily’s totally clueless parents discourage her from spending time with Carma and her family, but what do they know? Will Lily become cool or will she create the biggest catastrophe of her life?

• Lily B. on the Brink of Love
• Lily B on the Brink of Paris

Welcome to Burrwood Forest! This is my village, where I live with all the other burrs. We spend our days gathering food and building houses out of sticks.

Siena Cherson Siegel always knew she wanted to dance. In this graphic novel memoir, she describes the trials, the hard work and, ultimately, the triumph that she experienced as a ballerina. Delicate, flowing pen-and-watercolor artwork enhances the flow and telling of the story.

Dear Lake,
When I think of you, I think of rocks hiding under waves, like secrets. Remember me, your friend Rosie? Remember me?

Rosie’s Mom is preoccupied and troubled. On such a cold, cranky, dark morning, Rosie needs a friend. So Rosie dreams of her summer friend, the lake. In her mind’s eye, she writes a letter to the lake and remembers the many warm, joyful hours spent with one of her closest friends, the bountiful natural world of the lake.

Julie is a new central character in the American Girl series.  The setting is 1970s California.

Many changes have disrupted Julie’s life in San Francisco.  Her parents have recently divorced, so Julie and her mother and sister have just moved across town into an apartment.  The apartment is located above her mother’s trendy shop, Glad Rags.  Julie can only visit her Dad and her best friend Ivy on the weekends. 

Pete is the one of the coolest cats you will ever meet in a children's book.  Pete loves his brand new white shoes.  He loves them so much he sings, “I love my white shoes, I love my white shoes, I love my white shoes.”  But while Pete is walking along and singing his song, he steps in all kinds of colorful things.  His white shoes turn red in a pile of strawberries, blue in a pile of blueberries, brown in mud and become wet in water.  What does Pete do when his beloved shoes get dirty?  The resilient cat embraces the changes and continues singing, “I love my wet shoes, I love my wet shoes, I love my wet shoes.”  Musician and author Eric Litwin and artist James Dean brilliantly present Pete the Cat and a message about perseverance with a rocking song and a dirty shoe dilemma that children will adore.

Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2004
“First published in Polish in 1923 as Krâol Maciuâs Pierwszy.”
330 pages
Ages 11-17 years

And so every child is to be given two balls to play with in the summer and skis for the winter.  Every day after school, all children are to be given a piece of candy and a nice piece of cake.  Each year, the girls will be given dolls, and the boys will get jackknives.  Every school should have a seesaw and a merry-go-round.  Also, pretty color pictures are to be added to all school books.

Random House, 2007
289 pages
Ages 9-13 years

Twelve-year-old Henry York’s over-protective, often-absent parents are kidnapped, and Henry is sent to live in Kansas with his Aunt Dotty, Uncle Frank, and their three daughters whom he has not seen since he was four. Henry’s new life on the farm with the Willis family is relaxed, and he likes it. However, unusual things happen inside the house. Why can’t his deceased Grandfather’s bedroom door be unlocked? Who is the man in the purple robe?

‘Just remember,’ [my father] once said to me, as he made a red boiled sweet appear as if by magic out of the red silk velvet of his violin case, ‘with music and your imagination, you can travel anywhere; you will always be free.’