Josh Johnson's mother wants him to run for class president. Josh just wants to run and hide. If only there were a club to help downtrodden eleven-year-olds escape their parents' ambitions! But since no such club exists, Josh has to invent one -- he calls it Dunces Anonymous, and before he knows it, the membership is up to three. Magnolia and Wang help Josh lose the school presidential election, but that's just the beginning of the club's activities. Magnolia, pressured by her mom into trying out for the role of Juliet in the school's play, finds herself fending off the advances of an overly amorous Romeo. Wang's father has forced him to join the school chess club, but Wang desperately wants to take fencing lessons instead. As the three friends try to free Magnolia from the school play, liberate Wang from the chess club and get rid of horrible Stacey Hogarth, who has vowed to become the new president of Dunces Anonymous, they realize that they all have talents -- if only their parents could see them.
After Morgan’s backyard is flooded by the nearby river, her dog, Shire, finds a baby beaver that has been washed out of its den. Realizing that its parents aren’t coming back, Morgan must quickly learn to care for the beaver, which she names Sammy. Morgan’s parents warn her that he can’t stay with them forever. Will Morgan be able to find a safe home for Sammy?
Meet Justine McKeen, the Queen of Green. She's trying to save the planet, one person at a time, and when she decides to get something done, it's a lot of fun. When a small bird is injured after flying into a school window, the students are shocked and upset. But they are even more shocked when school bully Jimmy Blatzo rescues the bird and nurses it back to health. Blatzo may have saved one bird, but the problem is much bigger and not confined to the school grounds. Birds are flying into the windows at the town hall too. With the help of Justine, green activist extraordinaire, Blatzo gets the courage he needs to approach town council. Getting over his fear of public speaking will be one challenge. Getting used to his new nickname, Bird Nerd, will be another matter entirely.
Charlotte and her brother, Jacob, are thrilled to head off on an adventure in their grandpa's boat, The Seawind. As they set sail for Pirate Island, they look forward to a day of beachcombing, playing pirates and storytelling. There are plenty of great treasures to be found, but Charlotte, who can be very bossy, is having trouble sharing with Jacob. When Charlotte accidentally loses one of Jacob's best finds, a piece of driftwood that looks just like a pirate's cutlass, it's the final straw. Feeling horrible for upsetting her brother, Charlotte is determined to set things right.
When eight-year-old Josh and his family adopt an energetic puppy with a big personality and a talent for escaping, everyone is sure that obedience school will teach him good manners. But Bagels turns out to be a bigger handful than anyone predicted. He gets into the laundry, the groceries and the neighbor’s koi pond. He even gets expelled from obedience school. Josh and his little sister, Becky, are worried that if Bagels doesn’t shape up, their parents will send him back to the shelter. Can Bagels redeem himself before it’s too late?
Miranda has one messy desk. It's full of books, pencils, science projects and…other stuff. Too much stuff, says her teacher, Ms. Basil. On a family visit to her Uncle Aldo's one night, Miranda wonders if some of his magician's tools might offer a solution to her messy-desk problem. Sneaking off to the magic room, Miranda finds Uncle Aldo's impressive collection of top hats. Miranda knows that magic top hats can hold lots of things—why not the mess from her desk? At first, the hat seems to do the trick, but soon things start to go horribly wrong. As Uncle Aldo says, you have to be careful with magic.
Eleven-year-old Sam's first visit to the remote west coast of Vancouver Island is nothing like she'd expected. Her older cousins tease "the city kid" mercilessly, when they're not ignoring her altogether. She often finds herself left to her own devices. Still, the woods and beaches around Brackenwood Point offer plenty of room to explore. Then, one day, Sam comes face-to-face with a wild cougar and her two cubs, and her summer vacation suddenly gets much more exciting.
TJ overcame his fear of cats in TJ and the Cats and his fear of ghosts in TJ and the Haunted House. Now, he's not so keen on facing his fear of failure. His best friend Seymour is determined to come up with the latest greatest invention and TJ's gran expects TJ to build a rocket. The kittens, T-Rex and Alaska, are eager to get involved. When the first rocket that TJ builds plummets out of the sky, no parachute in sight, TJ is sure that his efforts are doomed. But are they?
In this sequel to TJ and the Cats, TJ and his best friend Seymour are back, joined by a classmate Amanda. TJ does not believe in ghosts. So when he agrees to create a haunted house in his own home as a fundraiser, he does not anticipate problems, at least not until it turns out that a ghost may inhabit the spare room in his century-old house. The ghost, real or imagined, leads TJ to some fascinating family history. TJ finds a way to bring that history alive for his family. The kittens, offspring of two of the cats from the first book, lead the way.
TJ may not like cats, but that doesn't stop a taxi from showing up at his door bearing his grandmother's four felines. Killer, Cleo, Kink and Maximillian the Emperor, Max for short, invade TJ's life and replace dinosaurs as the topic for his school project. His friend and partner for the project, Seymour, is deeply disappointed; the cats in his drawings all come out looking prehistoric. The animals' presence in TJ's house leads to a series of adventures, one involving the police and another involving a mass escape.
When master fact-gatherers TJ and Seymour are asked to join the school Quiz Kids team, TJ thinks Seymour should take the stage at the upcoming contest against the high-pressure Fairview School team. TJ is already more than occupied rescuing his cats and helping Gran get ready for her upcoming trip to Belize. When he goes with his dad to help with a renovation job on a huge house on Fairview Hill, he and T-Rex tangle with a rich girl and her giant dog, Frooie. Then Seymour develops stage fright, Alaska goes missing, and the girl from the big house shows up on the Fairview quiz team. TJ knows he has to sort things out - fast!
TJ Barnes is back, playing with his crazy cats, T-Rex and Alaska, helping out in his parents' hardware store and goofing around with his best friend, Seymour. When Seymour announces that he has signed them both up for a football team, TJ fears the worst. Neither of them is huge or mean or able to tackle, catch, throw, run or kick a ball down a field, but Seymour is determined to be a star. With the help of a stack of library books, TJ starts to understand the game but it takes more than a few books to figure out what's wrong with his best friend.
Spending Christmas holidays in the wilderness with his ex-con aunt Mag is not Evan's idea of a good time. What's worse is that everyone he meets-even his new friend Cedar-is making a big deal about a loon that is hanging around on the lake. Why should Evan care about a dumb bird? When he discovers that the loon will die without help, he realizes he does care, but rescuing the wild bird turns out to be whole lot harder, and more dangerous, than he expected.
Mouse is small for his age and tired of being teased about it. Then one night he discovers, much to his surprise and delight, that he fits perfectly (well, almost perfectly) into the Undergarden, a subterranean world beneath his backyard. Mouse befriends the Undergardeners and helps them keep their existence safe from the dangerous world up top. All that, and he never has to change out of his pajamas!
Sam Stringbini, the youngest son in a family of circus performers, is living every kid's dream, except for the fact that he is no good on the high wire, trapezes freak him out and magic mystifies him. When the Triple Top Circus is threatened by repeated acts of sabotage, Sam is the number one suspect. To clear his name, Sam enlists the help of his cousin, Harriet, and discovers that, while he may never be a sword-swallower or a lion-tamer, he just might be able to save the circus.
Have you heard these common proverbs? Let sleeping dogs lie. Where there's smoke, there's fire. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. Or what about these riddles? What is black and white and red (read) all over? Why did the chicken cross the road? Why is 6 afraid of 7? Proverbs and riddles are tiny, bite-size pieces of folklore. They make us think. They tease our brains. They may make us laugh. But most of all, they tell us something about who we are and how we see the world.
Helping mom is no fun for Junjun, so instead of doing as she asks, he utters the "magic" words "rata-pata-scata-fata." By chance or magic, Junjun's wishes come true and all of his chores get done. Is Junjun's magic just a coincidence?
It can be difficult to find interesting materials for students who read below grade level, but these hilarious characters and goofy stories will get students reading! The small amount of text per page and strong visual cues make these stories very reader-friendly. Phonetic skills get a real workout through the repeated use of words with special vowel and letter combinations.
Posey Plans a Party has a lot of "p-word" alliteration and asks kids to count how many "p" words are in the story. The plot portrays Posey and her family planning, assembling, and enjoying a tea party. It's a perfectly pink primer on party planning--the menu, preparations, decorations, the invitation, dress code, entertainment, activities, etc.
When Tree Kangaroo and Koala dig a well to get some water, Tree Kangaroo ends up doing all of the work and Koala ends up with a stumpy tail in this origin story from Australia.
A beginner reader. Cat is terrified of taking his first parachute jump, but with Hippo's reassurance, he goes for it.
All around the world in cities, towns, and villages, clothes are washed. Smelling Sunshine captures some of the special moments of this day-to-day chore -- a wonderful, heart-warming time shared between parent and child and an experience young readers will relate to.
It is Alicia's birthday and as she walks through her Latino neighborhood all her neighbors and friends help to make the day very special.
Join Junior Detective Bree Cody and her cat Rico in their exciting adventures as they solve the mysteries! Each story offers an opportunity for even the most reluctant readers to sharpen their reading comprehension and critical thinking skills as they investigate each case and follow the clues to their logical conclusion.
Join Junior Detective Bree Cody and her cat Rico in their exciting adventures as they solve the mysteries! Each story offers an opportunity for even the most reluctant readers to sharpen their reading comprehension and critical thinking skills as they investigate each case and follow the clues to their logical conclusion.
