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Larger than life Maniac Magee is a modern folk hero, particularly in the small town of Two Mills, Pennsylvania where he brings together people from opposite sides of the track. Unforgettable characters deal poignantly, often humorously, with race, poverty, and more in this contemporary tall tale.

Discover the inside story of the Civil Rights Movement through the eyes of one of its most iconic figures, the late Congressman John Lewis. March is the award-winning, #1 bestselling graphic novel trilogy recounting his life in the movement, co-written with Andrew Aydin and drawn by Nate Powell. This commemorative set contains all three volumes of March in one edition.

Marcus Vega is six feet tall, 180 pounds, and the owner of a premature mustache. When you look like this and you’re only in the eighth grade, you’re both a threat and a target. After a fight at school leaves Marcus facing suspension, Marcus’s mom decides it’s time for a change of environment. She takes Marcus and his younger brother to Puerto Rico to spend a week with relatives they don’t remember or have never met. But Marcus can’t focus knowing that his father — who walked out of their lives ten years ago — is somewhere on the island. So begins Marcus’s incredible journey, a series of misadventures that take him all over Puerto Rico in search of his elusive namesake. Marcus doesn’t know if he’ll ever find his father, but what he ultimately discovers changes his life. And he even learns a bit of Spanish along the way. ALA Notable Children’s Book for Middle Readers, 2019.

She was born free in New York City during slavery and turmoil in the United States and went on to graduate from an all-white high school. Maritcha Lyon’s story is drawn from her memoir, augmented by primary source material to bring a girl and the time in which she lived into focus for contemporary readers.

The incredible true story of a World War I nurse who brought medical care to the Appalachians: Mary Breckinridge, trained as a nurse during World War I, rode on horseback into the isolated mountains of Appalachia and never looked back. Instead, she spent her life fording icy streams and climbing untracked mountains to bring medical help to those in need.

Primary sources are used to relate the life of an enslaved woman who achieved freedom to become Mary Todd Lincoln’s highly esteemed dressmaker and friend.

Similar to others by this author/illustrator duo, rhymes and digitally created illustrations encourage an understanding of math concepts and critical thinking. And as in others, answers and explanations are provided.

Readers can count or they group things to solve the engaging math riddles. Digital illustrations make a complete and appealing way to solve math problems while gaining an understanding of underlying concepts.

Rhyming riddles pose problems that require critical thinking, grouping, and problem solving skills. These intriguing problems are enhanced by computer generated illustrations and conclude with a logical presentation of the answers.

A dozen famous paintings are used to launch problem solving by grouping. Poems focus on items in the image and pose a problem to solve. Answers as well as an art explanation are provided at the end.

Matthew Henson, an African American, accompanied Robert Peary to the North Pole where together they placed a flag. The courage and perseverance of this remarkable man is revealed through his voice and luminous illustrations.

Mattie and the Machine is a fictionalized yet historically accurate account of Margaret E. Knight’s fight to obtain recognition as a 19th century female inventor (she would eventually be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006). This entertaining tale is filled with romance, competition, and treachery, and features a feisty and brilliant female heroine who excels in STEM-related tasks.

In this graphic novel, Spiegelman writes of his father’s struggle as a Jew in Poland during World War II. In comic book form, the Jews are depicted as mice, the Nazis as cats, and those who side with the Nazis are pigs. Spiegelman won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for this work.

Twelve-year-old Maya discovers her father is the keeper of the gateway between our world and The Dark, and when he goes missing she’ll need to unlock her own powers and fight a horde of spooky creatures set on starting a war.

The bold story of Maya Lin, the visionary artist-architect who designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. As a child, Maya Lin loved to study the spaces around her. She explored the forest in her backyard, observing woodland creatures, and used her house as a model to build tiny towns out of paper and scraps. The daughter of a clay artist and a poet, Maya grew up with art and learned to think with her hands as well as her mind. From her first experiments with light and lines to the height of her success nationwide, this is the story of an inspiring American artist: the visionary artist-architect who designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Twelve-year-old Cici has just moved from Taiwan to Seattle, and the only thing she wants more than to fit in at her new school is to celebrate her grandmother, A-má’s, seventieth birthday together.

Since she can’t go to A-má, Cici cooks up a plan to bring A-má to her by winning the grand prize in a kids’ cooking contest to pay for A-má’s plane ticket! There’s just one problem: Cici only knows how to cook Taiwanese food.

And after her pickled cucumber debacle at lunch, she’s determined to channel her inner Julia Child. Can Cici find a winning recipe to reunite with A-má, a way to fit in with her new friends, and somehow find herself too?

In Meg Medina’s follow-up to her Newbery Medal–winning novel, Merci takes on seventh grade, with all its travails of friendship, family, love — and finding your rhythm. Seventh grade is going to be a real trial for Merci Suárez. And she’s tangling again with classmate Edna Santos, who is bossier and more obnoxious than ever now that she is in charge of the annual Heart Ball.

One thing is for sure, though: Merci Suárez can’t dance — not at the Heart Ball or anywhere else. She used to talk about everything with her grandfather, Lolo, but with his Alzheimer’s getting worse each day, whom can she trust to help her make sense of all the new things happening in her life? The Suárez family is back in a touching, funny story about growing up and discovering love’s many forms, including how we learn to love and believe in ourselves.

Merci Suarez knew that sixth grade would be different, but she had no idea just how different. In a coming-of-age tale full of humor and wisdom, award-winning author Meg Medina gets to the heart of the confusion and constant change that defines middle school — and the steadfast connection that defines family. Winner 2019 Newbery Medal.

A tiny hero named Basil races to warn Merlin of an evil plot devised by Rhita Gawr. Book one of the Merlin’s Dragon trilogy.

Twelve-year-old Mikey Pruitt is a budding entrepreneur. Inspired by his grandfather Pap Pruitt, who successfully ran all sorts of businesses, Mikey is still looking for his million-dollar idea. Unfortunately, most of his ideas — from a roadside general store to croquet lessons — haven’t taken off. It isn’t until kid drag queen Coco Caliente, Mistress of Madness and Mayhem (aka eighth grader Julian Vasquez) walks into his office (aka his family’s storage/laundry room) looking for a talent agent that Mikey thinks he’s finally found a business that will put him on the map. As newly out Mikey prepares Julian for the gig of a lifetime, he realizes there’s no rulebook for being gay—and if Julian can be openly gay at school, maybe Mikey can, too, and tell his crush, the dreamy Colton Sanford, how he feels. Full of laughs, sass, and hijinks, this hilarious, heartfelt story shows that with a little effort and a lot of love, anything is possible. 

Midnight Over Sanctaphrax is the third book of the Twig Saga – second trilogy in The Edge Chronicles. Twig Verginix has gained a formidable reputation as the young sky pirate captain who dared to sail over the Edge. But far out in open sky a storm is brewing. In its path lies Sanctaphrax – the great floating city tethered to the land by a massive chain.

Raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, at the height of Jim Crow, Dovey Johnson Roundtree felt the sting of inequality at an early age and made a point to speak up for justice. She was one of the first Black women to break the racial and gender barriers in the US Army; a fierce attorney in the segregated courtrooms of Washington, DC; and a minister in the AME church, where women had never before been ordained as clergy. In 1955, Roundtree won a landmark bus desegregation case that eventually helped end “separate but equal” and dismantle Jim Crow laws across the South. Developed with the full support of the Dovey Johnson Roundtree Educational Trust and adapted from her memoir, this book brings her important story and voice to life. 

Meet Miles Morales, a half black, half Puerto Rican high school junior in Brooklyn, New York. Only his father and his best friend, Ganke, know the truth: Miles is Spider-Man. When his spidey-sense keeps going off during school, it may be time to suit up and take care of business.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds comes the “action-packed…banter-filled” (School Library Journal, starred review) sequel to his groundbreaking young adult novel Miles Morales: Spider-Man about the adventures of the unassuming, everyday kid who just so happens to be Spider-Man.