Book Finder

Priyanka Das has so many unanswered questions: Why did her mother abandon her home in India years ago? Who is her father, and why did her mom leave him behind? For Pri, her mother’s homeland can only exist in her imagination. That is, until she find a mysterious pashmina tucked away in a forgotten suitcase. When she wraps herself in it, she is transported to a place more vivid and colorful than any guidebook or Bollywood film. In this graphic novel, the author weaves a tale about the hardship and self-discovery that is born from juggling two cultures and two worlds.

In the late 1800s lived Lizzie Magie, a clever and charismatic woman with a strong sense of justice. Waves of urban migration drew Lizzie’s attention to rising financial inequality. One day she had an idea: create a game that shows the unfairness of the landlord-tenant relationship. But game players seemed to have the most fun pretending to be wealthy landowners. Enter Charles Darrow, a marketer and salesman with a vision for transforming Lizzie’s game into an exciting staple of American family entertainment. Features back matter that includes “Monopoly Math” word problems and equations. Excellent STEM connections and resources.

Though they joined the Confederate or Union armies for a variety of reasons, women fought during the Civil War. What they experienced, how they hid their true identities, and the conditions faced by everyone is presented in lucid text and archival material. Thoroughly researched and well documented, this is a little known aspect of women in the Civil War.

After being abandoned in the woods by his parents, a young boy is resuced and adopted by a falconer. With his years of hardship and danger behind him, this boy begins to discover his magical future.

Three siblings — India, Finn, and Mouse — have less than 48 hours to pack up all their belongings and fly, without Mom, to their uncle Red’s in Colorado, after they lose their house to foreclosure. When they land, a mysterious driver meets them at the airport, and he’s never heard of Uncle Red. Like Dorothy in Oz, they find themselves in a place they’ve never heard of, with no idea of how to get home.

This inspiring memoir for young readers tells the story of Sylvia Acevedo, a Latina rocket scientist whose early life was transformed by joining the Girl Scouts and who currently serves as CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA. A meningitis outbreak in their underprivileged neighborhood left Sylvia’s family forever altered. As she struggled in the aftermath of loss, her life transformed when she joined the Brownies. The Girl Scouts taught her how to take control of her world and nourished her love of numbers and science.

Book 2 of 4

A newbie to the track team, Patina must learn to rely on her teammates as she tries to outrun her personal demons in this follow-up to the National Book Award finalist Ghost by New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds. Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and Lu are four kids from wildly different backgrounds chosen for an elite middle school track team—a team that could qualify them for the Junior Olympics if they can get their acts together.This time, Patina narrates her story. Insight into her world shows the pressure she puts upon herself to come in first and to do everything she can for her family.

In a gripping and enthralling sequel to FLY, CHEROKEE, FLY, Darryl is the proud owner of two new baby racing pigeons - and still fancies older girl Susan rotten. But he also has a problem with bullying Warren Spigott, who threatens to harm the birds - and especially the one Darryl has named Pawnee Warrior, which is to begin its early training in Warren’s father’s pigeon-loft… With the help of his new friend Suzie, Darryl knows that, to protect his birds, he must now become a warrior himself.

Lonnie, aka Locomotion (first introduced in Locomotion) tries to connect with his sister and to prevent forgetting their “real” parents. As he writes Lili, readers learn about his life including his foster brother who has returned from the Iraq war.

It’s 1953 and 11-year-old Penny dreams of a summer of butter pecan ice cream, swimming, and baseball. This coming-of-age story is populated by a cast of vivid family characters and it explores the things that tear them apart and the things that bring them back together. The book includes an Author’s Note with photographs and additional background on World War II, Internment camps, and 1950s America.

There are no monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. Jam and her best friend, Redemption, have grown up with this lesson all their life. But when Jam meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colors and claws, who emerges from one of her mother’s paintings and a drop of Jam’s blood, she must reconsider what she’s been told. Pet has come to hunt a monster, and the shadow of something grim lurks in Redemption’s house. Jam must fight not only to protect her best friend, but also to uncover the truth, and the answer to the question: How do you save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist?

Phineas, a railroad construction foreman, was blasting rock near Cavendish, Vermont, in 1848 when a thirteen-pound iron rod was shot through his brain. Miraculously, he survived to live another eleven years and become a textbook case in brain science. At the time, Phineas Gage seemed to completely recover from his accident. But he was changed.

His case astonished doctors in his day and still fascinates doctors today. What happened and what didn’t happen inside the brain of Phineas Gage will tell you a lot about how your brain works and how you act human.

Pick Me Up is an encyclopedic non-fiction book primarily intended for children. With gorgeous full-color spreads and an edgy, vivid design, a title for the Internet generation covers facts on history, geography, science, and natural history, and includes a detailed index to make each subject simple to find.

A few days after her 13th birthday, Georgia receives an unexpected gift–a strange, formal letter, all typed up and signed anonymous–granting her free admission to the Brandywine River Museum for a whole year. And things begin to change.
An accessible novel in poems, Pieces of Georgia offers an endearing protagonist–an aspiring artist, a grieving daughter, a struggling student, a genuine friend–and the poignant story of a broken family coming together.

Tired of being singled out at her mostly-white private school as someone who needs support, high school junior Jade would rather participate in the school’s amazing Study Abroad program than join Women to Women, a mentorship program for at-risk girls.

The year is 1862, and 12-year-old P.K. “Pinky” Pinkerton is on the run from Whittlin’ Walt and his gang of ruthless desperados. P.K. is determined to hold on to Ma’s last priceless possession: the deed to a large amount of land and silver mines in the Nevada Mountains. P.K. will have to be both clever and cunning to evade the band of outlaws. All this is seen through the eyes of P.K., a half-Lakota kid with Asperger Syndrome, which makes him chronically unable to interpret the intentions of people around him.

Have you ever tried to write a poem about a pizza? How about a pig? This book gives you the inside scoop on writing poetry and shows you how you can turn your own experiences and stories about your family, your pets, and your friends into poems,

Twelve-year-old Hanako and her family, reeling from their confinement in an internment camp, renounce their American citizenship to move to Hiroshima, a city devastated by the atomic bomb dropped by Americans at the end of World War II.

Summertime is filled with joy for a Black child―skateboarding and playing basketball―until his community is deeply wounded by a police shooting. As fall turns to winter and then spring, fear grows into anger, then pride and peace.

A powerful story about the extraordinary mind of a young nonverbal girl with autism, her passion for space exploration, and the bond between sisters.

How and when police use force, and what constitutes excessive force, is central to the debate over policing and race. This book examines use-of-force policies and training, militarization of police, the role of body cameras and video, officer accountability, and the future of policing.

In middle school, words aren’t just words. They can be weapons. They can be gifts. The right words can win you friends or make you enemies. They can come back to haunt you. Sometimes they can change things forever.

When cell phones are banned at Branton Middle School, Frost and his friends Deedee, Wolf, and Bench come up with a new way to communicate: leaving sticky notes for each other all around the school. It catches on, and soon all the kids in school are leaving notes—though for every kind and friendly one, there is a cutting and cruel one as well.

In the middle of this, a new girl named Rose arrives at school and sits at Frost’s lunch table. Rose is not like anyone else at Branton Middle School, and it’s clear that the close circle of friends Frost has made for himself won’t easily hold another. As the sticky-note war escalates, and the pressure to choose sides mounts, Frost soon realizes that after this year, nothing will ever be the same.

In Dakota Territory in the 1880s, half-Chinese Hanna and her White father face racism and resistance to change as they try to make a home for themselves.

A winner of the Caldecott Award for Illustrators, Anita Lobel writes her memoir growing up in Krakow, Poland, during the Holocaust. She was only five when the Nazis invaded, and she is sent to live with their Catholic nanny in the country. Anita and her brother are eventually discovered and deported to a concentration camp where they live until the liberation. Art and books become her saving grace when she finally comes to America as a teenager.