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In 1881, 12-year-old Rodzina Clara Jadwiga Anastazya Brodski wishes she didn't have to board the orphan train in Chicago. But she has no home, no family, and no choice. Rodzina doesn't believe the orphans are on their way out West to be adopted by good families. She's sure they will become slaves to strangers. Anyway, who would ever adopt a large, tough, stubborn girl of Polish origin? As the train heads west, all Rodzina has is a small suitcase and her family memories from the past.

In a heartwarming first-person account, dePaola retells his experiences at home and in school when he was a boy. 26 Fairmount Avenue is full of humor, drama, suspense and just the day-to-day ups and downs of a little boy's life.

Twelve-year-old Olivia Hales has a foolproof plan for winning a million dollars so that she and her little sister, Berkeley, can leave behind Sunny Pines Trailer Park. But first she has to: Fix the swamp cooler and make dinner and put Berkeley to bed because her mom is too busy to do all that. Write another letter to her dad even though he hasn't written back yet. Teach Berk the important stuff, like how to make chalk drawings, because they can't afford day care and Olivia has to stay home from school to watch her.

In this eagerly awaited sequel to A House Called Awful End, Eddie Dickens narrowly avoids being blown up, trampled by horses, hit by a hot-air balloon, and arrested...only to find himself falling head over heels for a girl with a face like a camel's and into the hands of a murderous gang of escaped convicts, up on the misty moors, who have a "little job" for him to do.

Nobody wants to adopt the Shluffmuffin twins. Wally's feet stink something awful, and Cheyenne is allergic to everything. Then why are the Mandible sisters so eager to take them home? And what sort of old maids would choose to live in a place called Dripping Fang Forest, where zombies wander the woods singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and 10-foot-long glowing slugs want to suck the feet right off your ankles?

What if John Henry had a son? Twelve-year-old Ray is haunted by the strangest memories of his father, whom Ray swears could speak to animals. Now an orphan, Ray jumps from a train going through the American South and falls in with a medicine show train and its stable of sideshow performers. The performers turn out to be heroes, defenders of the wild, including the son of John Henry. They are hiding the last of the mythical Swamp Sirens from an ancient evil known as the Gog.

Four orphans have escaped from the Home for Friendless Children. One is Lucy, who used to talk and sing. No one knows why she doesn't speak anymore; silence is her protection. The orphans find work and new friends at a traveling circus. Lucy loves caring for the elephants, but she must be able to speak to them, and to warn others of danger. If Lucy doesn't find her voice, she'll be left behind when the circus goes on the rails. Meanwhile, people are searching for Lucy, and her puzzling past is about to catch up with her.

Gray is already bigger than all the other sharks in his clan, or shiver. He can’t stop growing, and when his hunger gets him into trouble, he’s banished from the reef. Luckily his best friend Barkley comes with him…but their hunt for food forces them to journey deep into the dangerous Big Blue. Then Gray and Barkley accidentally swim into Goblin Shiver territory. They have no choice but to join the shiver. They’ll help fight against the rival sharks of Razor Shiver in return for training, protection, and food. But who can Gray and Barkley trust?

Best friends Tamanna and Yasmine cannot believe their good fortune when a school is set up in their Afghan village; however, their dreams for the future are shattered when the Taliban burn down the school and threaten the teacher and students with death. As Tamanna faces an arranged marriage to an older man, and the Taliban target Yasmine’s Western-educated family, the girls realize they must flee.

For 16-year-old Ben Bancroft - a kid with cerebral palsy, no parents, and an overprotective grandmother - the closest thing to happiness is hunkering alone in the back of the Rialto Theatre and watching Bride of Frankenstein for the umpteenth time. The last person he wants to run into is drugged-up Colleen Minou, resplendent in ripped tights, neon miniskirt, and an impressive array of tattoos.

It's 1944. World War II is raging. Jayna's big brother, Rob, is her only family. When Rob is called to duty on a destroyer, Jayna is left in their small town in upstate New York with their cranky landlady. But right before he leaves, Rob tells Jayna a secret: they may have a grandmother in Brooklyn. Rob found a little blue recipe book with her name and an address for a bakery. When Jayna learns that Rob is missing in action, she's devastated. Along with her turtle, Theresa; the recipe book; and an encouraging, ghostly voice as her guide, Jayna sets out for Brooklyn in hopes of finding the family she so desperately needs.

Do you ever think you’re someone else once in a while, but can’t quite remember who you are? Or maybe you dream about events that seem to be happening to someone else, yet you resonate completely with them—as if they are happening to you? Somewhere Over the Rainbow is a visionary novel—part fact, part fiction—about the reality of reincarnation and spiritual awakening. The story takes you on a universal quest for knowledge and presents an entertaining adventure through this earth experience we call life as it offers a lighthearted look into the ups and downs of being spiritual in a...

A ghost saved 12-year-old Maddie's life when she was an infant, her Granny Lane claims, so Maddie must always remember that she is special. But it's hard to feel special when you've spent your life being shuttled from one foster home to another. And now that she's at the East Tennessee Children's Home, Maddie feels, well, less than ordinary. Six-year-old Ricky Ray, who came to the Home after his parents failed to come back from a party, thinks Maddie's the cat's meow. But what does a little boy like that know?

Spending Christmas alone was their plan…but things didn’t quite work out according to plan…all the better because no one should spend Christmas alone…The last thing Mac would ever have believed that he’d be doing a few days before Christmas was to find himself driving through a couple feet of water…but he was. His RV was filled with neighbors and friends and a couple of kids they picked up along the way after their car flooded out. Emily wasn’t expecting guests when she woke up that morning but that’s exactly what she’s getting ready for… And Christmas is just around the...

Autumn leaves are falling in Hedge Hollow, and the change in season brings with it a spiny surprise...another hedgehog! Is it friend or foe? Or is it...family? On the one paw, Hedgehog is excited to meet one of her own kind, but on the other paw, she has never felt so different—or distant—from her old friends. Where does Hedgehog belong, and who does she belong with? A journey upriver through an unfamiliar forest just might lead her home….

Annabel Grey is primed for a proper life as a young lady in Victorian England. But when her mother suddenly disappears, she's put in the care of two eccentric aunts who thrust her into a decidedly unladylike life, full of potions and flying broomsticks and wizards who eat nothing but crackers. Magic, indeed! Who ever heard of such a thing?

So much...life...family...all that is most important to us...can change in a single day...a single moment...Home Again is the second book in the ongoing story of the Return to Summit Falls series. Summit Falls is a small town in the middle of nowhere that could be anywhere. It’s small enough that even though you might not know everyone…you know who everyone is. And they know you. Years ago four young men left their hometown of Summit Falls. Each of them ready to take on whatever the world had to throw at them. Now, years later, two of them have returned home. Adam Dane and Jonah ...

When 12-year-old Casey's sole guardian - her stepmother Sylvia - doesn't come home one night, Casey believes she's run off with her boyfriend. The question is - will Sylvia come back? And even more urgent - how will Casey fend for herself in their New York City apartment?

Puppies Hocus and Pocus are still waiting to be adopted from the Shelter for Slightly Magical Pets. Even though Hocus can see two minutes into the future and Pocus can turn bad feelings into bubbles (which he eats!), nobody seems to want them. This could be because the two keep causing mischief so they won’t be separated. When Jinx the witch uses a “spell for home” potion to help a color-changing tortoise find his match, the puppies know what to do: sneak both their hairs into the mixture to ensure they get adopted together.

For eleven-year-old Gao Sheng, home is the lush, humid jungles and highlands of Laos. Home is where she can roll down the grassy hill with her younger siblings after her chores, walk to school, and pick ripe peaches from her family’s trees. But home becomes impossible to hold onto when U.S. troops pull out of the Vietnam War. The communists will be searching for any American allies, like Gao Sheng’s father, a Hmong captain in the Royal Lao Army who fought alongside the Americans against the Vietnamese. If he’s caught, he’ll be killed.