Laura Amy Schlitz wrote the Newbery Medal winner Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! for the students at the school where she is a librarian. The 22 monologues introduce readers to everyone in a medieval village, from the town half-wit, to Nelly the Sniggler, to the Lord's daughter.

Discover complex organisms with amazing life cycles that feed on your body, animals and plants all around you.

A journalist and fiction author, Tom Angleberger has a knack for capturing the lives of today's youth. In The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, socially awkward Dwight shows up to school one morning waving a green finger puppet. Strange enough, but then Dwight starts talking in a funny voice and doling out advice. Is it the puppet, or is it Dwight? And will paper Yoda be able to help Dwight convince the girl of his dreams to go to the big dance with him? "Angleberger's rendering of such a midd...

People just can't live together without telling stories. We tell stories that are funny, ironic, insightful, or just simply pleasing to the tongue and ear. Stories just seem to happen. When a story happens with the force of universality, it finds its way into that pantheon of tales that is the common denominator of cultural exchange. Here are 33 such tales, collected from Brazil, China, Korea, Russia, Tibet, Africa, from America's native peoples, and other lands, and chosen for the univers...

Traditional stories endure generation after generation because although they are not literal they resound in truths on a human scale. Folktales remind us of wisdom so elemental it is often lost in the rush of everyday life, so that sometimes common sense makes no sense at all.

Award-winning author Michael J. Daley crafts tales of friendship that capture the hearts of young listeners. Pinch and Dash and the Terrible Couch finds Pinch very upset. Aunt Hasty has sent him a couch--a terrible couch! It's big and red and doesn't fit his home at all. So when he asks his friend Dash for help, they've got their hands full figuring out just where it should go.

Best-selling author Arthur Phillips won critical acclaim for his novels Prague and The Egyptologist, and Publishers Weekly called him a "master manipulator" for his ability to write fiction spun out of imagination and illusion. In The Tragedy of Arthur, Phillips tells the (mostly) true story of being asked to write the introduction to a lost Shakespeare play entitled The Most Excellent and Tragical Historie of Arthur, King of Britain. But Phillips knows the play-supposedly found in a safet...

Author Bob Woods takes readers on a wild ride through the exciting world of motorcycles! From the history of motorcycles to motorcycle racing, cruisers, choppers, and motocross, biking fans will find plenty here to keep them hooked.

Johanna Skibsrud won the Scotiabank Giller Prize for this compelling debut novel. Napoleon Haskell lives in Casablanca, Ontario, on the shores of a man-made lake that covers the remains of the former town. When his daughter's life unravels, she retreats to Casablanca and is soon immersed in the complicated family stories that lurk below the surface of everyday life.

School Library Journal hailed Michael J. Daley's Space Station Rat as a ''thoughtful and satisfying adventure.'' Here Daley delights young listeners with his first early reader chapter book. Pinch really wants soup for lunch, but he's too lazy to make it himself. So he decides to pay a visit to his friend Dash. Together, Pinch and Dash attempt to make a cheesy spinach and potato soup. But will their effort be for nothing when they begin to disagree on the amount of pepper and hot sauce the...

A #1 New York Times best-selling author and illustrator, Calef Brown has penned numerous hit books for young people and has been featured in publications like Newsweek, Rolling Stone, the New Yorker, and more. Packed with humor and clever wordplay, Boy Wonders is the perfect book for inquisitive listeners whose favorite question is Why? In humorous poems sure to delight children, Brown poses puzzling queries like "Is water scared of waterfalls?" and "Are phones annoyed when no one calls?" ...

Author Philip Reeve was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize Children's Book Award. In 1851 a mysterious visitor to Art Mumby's space home has plans for a calamity that will destroy not only the entire British Empire, but also the known universe. Can disaster be prevented with help from Art's irritating sister Myrtle, a few exotic space creatures, and an extraterrestrial pirate? "Both the story line and the language demonstrate Reeve's respect for his readership."-Booklist