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After battling deadly space piranhas in Sector 7 of the Cosmos, Rocket and Groot crash-land on a planet made entirely of strip malls! Sounds like paradise, right? Wrong. It doesn’t take long for Rocket to discover that the place is infested with raccoon-eating toilets! That’s right. KILLER toilets! Badly injured from the piranha fight, the totally-butt-kicking-duo have no ship, no guns, no money, no food, no water but they have each other. Oh, and Veronica, the totally awesome super-intelligent tape dispenser! (She told us to say that).

From the day a horse stepped on her tiny foot and crippled her, Oyuna’s life has been intertwined with these animals. Now a grandmother, she tells her young granddaughter of her escapades riding in Kublai Khan’s military and her role in saving the Khan’s herd of white horses.

Kiara has Asperger’s syndrome, and it’s hard for her to make friends. She wishes she could be like her hero Rogue — a misunderstood X-Men mutant who used to hurt anyone she touched until she learned how to control her special power. When Chad moves in across the street, Kiara hopes that, for once, she’ll be able to make friendship stick. When she learns his secret, she’s so determined to keep Chad as a friend that she agrees not to tell. But being a true friend is complicated and it might be just the thing that leads Kiara to find her own special power. The story celebrates everyone’s ability to discover and use whatever it is that makes them different.

A stunning repackage of Mildred D. Taylor’s 1977 Newbery Award-winning masterpiece with cover art by two-time Caldecott Honor Award winner Kadir Nelson and an introduction by Jacqueline Woodson, just in time for its 40th Anniversary! 

Set in Mississippi at the height of the Depression, this is the story of one family’s struggle to maintain their integrity, pride, and independence in the face of racism and social injustice. And it is also Cassie’s story—Cassie Logan, an independent girl who discovers over the course of an important year why having land of their own is so crucial to the Logan family, even as she learns to draw strength from her own sense of dignity and self-respect.

Have you ever been in love with someone your parents hated? Have you ever sneaked out to go on a date? How far would you be willing to go to be with your soul mate? Romeo and Juliet face these very questions. After they meet and fall in love, they discover that their families hate each other. But Romeo and Juliet have to be together, even if everyone wants them to be apart. Looking for a companion text? Try Romiette and Julio by Sharon Draper, a contemporary version of the classic featuring a biracial couple fighting against their families’ prejudice to prove their love for each other.

African-American Romiette begins dating Hispanic Julio when he moves to her Cincinnati high school from Texas in this retelling of Romeo and Juliet.

Cousins Clay and Addison were like brothers, growing up together in the projects, until they were ripped apart by a family argument. When they are reunited in a drug-treatment program, they try to work out their issues like a family. But one night, one wrong decision, leaves Clay shaken and Addison dead. And in the rash of events that follow, the truth of what actually happened on the rooftop of the apartment building is caught up in a clash of politics and racial issues. Will Clay be able to rise above the lies and face the truth?

After German forces occupy Denmark during World War II, fifteen-year-old Julie Weinstein and fifteen-year-old Niels Nelson and their friends and families try to cope with their daily lives, finding various ways to resist the Nazis and, ultimately, to survive.

Following her grandmother’s death, Jez and her twin brother Jay turn eleven and get the opportunity to learn the root work that has been a part of their family’s Gullah Geechee culture for generations.

Emily Grierson is in love with Homer Barron, but is very upset that he has not proposed to her. Distraught, Emily buys arsenic, which some believe she will use to commit suicide. However, Homer and Emily disappear; only the servant goes to and from the home. What horrifying surprise will the townspeople find when they finally go into Emily’s house?

Drawn from the author’s own experiences, this is the moving story of a young Jewish girl, Rosemarie Brenner, and her experiences in a concentration camp during World War II.

The fabulously inventive tale of Hamlet as told from the worm’s-eye view of the bewildered Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor characters in Shakespeare’s play. Echoes of Waiting for Godot resound, reality and illusion mix, and where fate leads heroes to a tragic but inevitable end.

“Rotten English” spans the globe to offer an overview of the best non-standard English writing of the past two centuries, with a focus on the most recent decades. The book collects the poetry, essays, short stories, and novels of the best in global vernacular writing from Mark Twain to Junot Diaz.

Twelve-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life. Which is near impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his disability. But the summer Catherine meets Jason, a surprising, new sort-of friend, and Kristi, the next-door friend she’s always wished for, it’s her own shocking behavior that turns everything upside down and forces her to ask: What is normal?

Meet Jenna Boller, star employee at Gladstone Shoe Store in Chicago. Standing a gawky 5’11” at 16 years old, Jenna is the kind of girl most likely to stand out in the crowd — for all the wrong reasons. But that doesn’t stop Madeline Gladstone, the president of Gladstone’s Shoes, from hiring Jenna to drive her cross country in a last ditch effort to stop Elden Gladstone from taking over his mother’s company and turning a quality business into a shop-and-schlock empire. Now Jenna Boller shoe salesperson is about to become a shoe-store spy as she joins her crusty old employer for an eye-opening adventure that will teach them both the rules of the road — and the rules of life. (from Penguin.com)

Interviews with a well-known female sculptor provide insight into her work and the times in which she created them. Liberal photographs, many in color, and where the originals can be viewed enhance this sophisticated look.

At some point in their lives, all young people believe their parents are evil … but what if they really are? Six teenage friends discover their parents are all secretly super-powered villains, and they find strength in one another. Together, they run away from home and straight into the adventure of their lives - vowing to turn the tables on their evil legacy.

When a diphtheria epidemic hits her 1840 village, 13-year-old Jessie discovers it is actually a 1995 tourist site under unseen observation by heartless scientists, and it’s up to Jessie to escape the village and save the lives of the dying children.

A journalistic comic book about the Bosnian War, it describes the author’s experiences during four months spent in Bosnia in 1995–96, and is based on conversations with Bosniaks trapped within the enclave of Goražde.

The four Casson children, whose mother, Eve, is a fine-arts painter, have all been given the names of paint colors. Cadmium (Caddy), Saffron (Saffy), Indigo, and Rose. When Saffy discovers quite by accident that she has been adopted, she is deeply upset, though the others assure her that it makes no difference at all. Saffy is the daughter of Eve’s twin sister, who lived in Siena, Italy, and died in a car crash. Grandad brought Saffy, as a very small child, back from Siena. At Grandad’s death he leaves something to each of the children. To Saffy, it is “her angel,” although no one knows its identity. How Saffy discovers what her angel is, with the help of an energetic new friend, lies at the heart of this enchanting story. Unforgettable characters come alive in often deeply humorous and always absorbing events to be treasured for a long, long time

Sparks will fly in this hip-hop-hot teen novel that mixes social protest and star-crossed romance, from Newbery Medal winner Kwame Alexander (The Crossing). Two high school seniors are thrown together when they unexpectedly end up leading the biggest social protest this side of the Mississippi — with a lot of help from social media.

The “Hollywood” where Sammy Santos and Juliana Ríos live is not the West Coast one, the one with all the glitz and glitter. This Hollywood is a tough barrio at the edge of a small town in southern New Mexico. Sammy and this friends—members of the 1969 high school graduating class—face a world of racism, dress codes, war in Vietnam and barrio violence. In the summer before his senior year begins, Sammy falls in love with Juliana, a girl whose tough veneer disguises a world of hurt.

It’s 2032, and in this near-future America, all citizens are chipped and everyone is tracked—from buses to grocery stores. It’s almost impossible to survive as an undocumented immigrant, but that’s exactly what sixteen-year-old Vali is doing. She and her family have carved out a stable, happy life in small-town Vermont, but when Vali’s mother’s counterfeit chip starts malfunctioning and the Deportation Forces raid their town, they are forced to flee. Now on the run, Vali and her family are desperately trying to make it to her tía Luna’s in California, a sanctuary state that is currently being walled off from the rest of the country. But when Vali’s mother is detained before their journey even really begins, Vali must carry on with her younger brother across the country to make it to safety before it’s too late. 

This classic of environmental and nature writing, arranged by season, provides a poetic view through the window of the Leopold family farm in the Wisconsin meadows. Even 60 years after this book’s original publication, Leopold’s closing comments on land ethic and conservation are surprisingly relevant.