It is the first day of school in Chad, Africa. Children are filling the road."Will they give us a notebook?" Thomas asks. "Will they give us a pencil? Will I learn to read?"But when he and the other children arrive at the schoolyard, they find no classroom, no desks. Just a teacher. "We will build our school," she says. "This is our first lesson."James Rumford, who lived in Chad as a Peace Corps volunteer, fills these pages with vibrant ink-and-past...

A Little Princess is a children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. A Little Princess opens with seven-year-old Sara Crewe and her father, Captain Crewe, arriving at Miss Minchin's boarding school for girls in London. Captain Crewe is very wealthy and states that Sara is destined for a lavish, comfortable future. Despite being pampered all her life in India, Sara herself is very intelligent, polite, and creative. Headmistress Miss Minchin is secretly jealous and dislikes Sara for her cleve...

In this 50th anniversary edition, join Flat Stanley and the rest of the Lambchop family on the adventure that started it all!Kids love Flat Stanley—even reluctant readers. And for parents and teachers, each Flat Stanley book delivers multicultural adventure, plot and character development story elements, and compare and contrast.When Stanley Lambchop wakes up one morning, his brother, Arthur, is yelling. A bulletin board fell on Stanley during the night, and now he is only ...

An Old-Fashioned Girl tells the story of Polly. She is Fanny, Maudie and Tom's poor "cousin" (actually no real relation) who stays with them during the summer as kids. They have a close relationship and good natured Polly teaches the other naughty children the right and wrong way to behave.Eight years later, she returns to their town as a teacher, working to support her family. She realises she is in love with Tom, but while she was away, he gets engaged to Trixie,...

Mermaids have been sinking ships and drowning humans for centuries, and now the government is determined to put an end to the mermaid problem—by slaughtering all of them. Luce, a mermaid with exceptionally threatening abilities, becomes their number-one target, hunted as she flees down the coast toward San Francisco.There she finds hundreds of mermaids living in exile under the docks of the bay. These are the Twice Lost: once-human girls lost first when a trauma turned them into me...

**'**A brilliant first novel' GuardianIn the moving and compelling debut novel from Benjamin Zephaniah, a young man's life is completely changed when his face is badly scarred in a car accident.Martin seems to have it all. He's cool, funny, and he's the undisputed leader of the Gang of Three, who roam their East London estate during the holidays looking for fun. But one night after the Gang leave a late night rap club, Martin accep...

A high school girl can read minds—and doesn't like what she hears—in this novel that "will have you laughing out loud" (Barry Lyga, author of The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl).Nothing is beyond Kristi Carmichael's disdain—her hippie high school, her friend Jacob, her workaholic mom. Yet for all her attitude, Kristi has a vulnerable side. She can hear the thoughts of her fellow students—a power that's not as cool as it sounds, since she ca...

**“Harrowing but ultimately redemptive…the murder of Tanzania's albinos is a real and horrific phenomenon of the past 15 years, a cold fact that makes the fictional events in ‘Golden Boy’ more moving and consequential than those in any dystopian young-adult chase-drama.”—The Wall Street Journal*"A riveting snapshot of one Tanzanian boy who makes himself matter."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review*“Readers will be haunted by Habo’s voice as he seeks a place of dign...

Heartbreaking, life-affirming, brave and bold - Karen Gregory's debut is a completely different kind of love story.'Is there anything that's concerning you?' Felicity says. 'College, home, boyfriends?' Though she's more or less smiling at this last one.I don't smile. Instead, I feel my face go hot. Silence stretches as wide as an ocean.When I look up, Felicity has this expression on her face like she's just seen Elvis.

The holidays lie heavy on young Leonard Boameh. His schoolfriends live far away from his home town of Accra, his nana is no fun, and his dad - who's great - is away working most of the time. So Leonard decides to run away for a few hours, and when Nana isn't looking he takes the tro-tro bus to Elmina, a historic European fort built to imprison West African slaves shipped off to America. There are lots of rough kids begging there, and before Leonard knows what's happening, he is kidnapped b...

Winner at the 2015 International Latino Book Awards. A magical hat shop arrives in town. However, all the customers who enter leave somehow changed... Do you dare to discover the mystery?One day, a hat shop mysteriously appears in the main square of a little town. The townspeople are surprised by this new arrival. No one knows where it came from or why it appeared right there, in the middle of the town square. “Who needs a hat?”, some wondered. Confusion and mist...

From the author of JOE ALL ALONE - a BAFTA winning and Emmy nominated CBBC series.A compelling story for 10+ readers about falling in with the wrong crowd, and standing up for what you believe in.How far would you go to fit in?When I think of all the people I ever wanted to be, I'm pretty sure this isn't one of them...Asha Wright has it all - a barrister mum, a place at a private school, and big dre...