The Boston Globe "Love Letters" columnist and author of Chemistry Lessons follows the experiences of a girl who learns about life and love while on a road trip to scatter her late grandmother's ashes in favorite gardens. When Lori's grandmother dies, her world is turned upside down. Grandma Sheryl raised Lori when Lori's mom got a job out of town. Now Lori's mom is insisting on moving her away from her beloved Boston right before senior year. Desperate...

"2011 National Book Award FinalistAs a fourteen-year-old who just moved to a new town, with no friends and a louse for an older brother, Doug Swieteck has all the stats stacked against him. So begins a coming-of-age masterwork full of equal parts comedy and tragedy from Newbery Honor winner Gary D. Schmidt. As Doug struggles to be more than the "skinny thug" that his teachers and the police think him to be, he finds an unlikely ally in Lil Spicer--a...

As Henry finishes fifth grade, his biggest concern is facing a summer with nothing to do. With his best friend, Max, away at summer camp, it's looking so bad he can feel himself "being pulled by the gravitational force of nothingness." But then Henry does something irresponsible, something with real consequences. And suddenly he'd give anything to go back to the nothingness. Has Henry turned into the dingus Max told him not to be? A classic coming-of-age...

The political upheaval in Ghana in 1979 puts Astrid and the rest of her Canadian family at risk.

"Anytime Josie Shilling's large family gets too chaotic, volunteering at the local animal clinic is the one place she can escape--and she loves working with the animals. But when a box mysteriously appears on the clinic's front steps, Josie suddenly becomes responsible for seven adorable puppies! Taking care of her pig, Hamlet, last fall was a bit harder than she thought. So how is she ever going to handle a whole litter of mischievous pups and find...

Alaine Beauparlant has heard about Haiti all her life... ...but the stories were always passed down from her dad--and her mom, when she wasn't too busy with her high-profile newscaster gig. But when Alaine's life goes a bit sideways, it's time to finally visit Haiti herself. What she learns about Haiti's proud history as the world's first black republic (with its even prouder people) is one thing, but what she learns about her own family is another....

Charlie, twelve, who has autism and obsessive compulsive disorder, must endure a cross-country trip with his siblings and a strange babysitter to visit their father, who will undergo brain surgery.

Growing up, Mallory "Mouse" Dodge learned that the best way to survive was to say nothing. After she escaped her terrifying childhood and spent years being homeschooled by loving adoptive parents, she is starting her senior year at a public high school. The first day, she runs into Rider Stark, the friend and protector from her childhood, and Mallory realizes that their bond never really faded. But as Rider's life spirals out of control, Mallory faces...

For Ri Fernández's entire life, she's been told, "We live in America and we speak English." Raised by her strict Mexican grandma, Ri has never been allowed to learn Spanish. What's more, her grandma pulled Ri away from the community where they once belonged. In its place, Ri grew up trying to fit in among her best friend's world of mansions and country clubs in an attempt try to live out her grandma's version of the "American Dream." In her heart,...

For Adam Reed, basketball is a passport. Adam's basketball skills have taken him from an orphanage in Poland to a loving adoptive mother in Minnesota. When he's tapped to play on a select AAU team along with some of the best players in the state, it just confirms that basketball is his ticket to the good life: to new friendships, to the girl of his dreams, to a better future.