Sneak Peek

Check out one of these great books, chosen as some of the best by kids like you! All titles are available from IPL with your library card, with most available in multiple formats.

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On a foggy night in Amsterdam, a man falls from a rooftop to the wet pavement below. It's Alfie McQuinn, the notorious cat burglar, and he's dying. As sirens wail in the distance, Alfie manages to get out two last words to his young son, March: "Find jewels."

But March learns that his father is not talking about a stash of loot. He's talking about Jules, the twin sister March never knew he had. No sooner than the two find each other, they're picked up by the police and sent to the world's worst orphanage. It's not prison, but it feels like it.

March and Jules have no intention of staying put. They know their father's business inside and out, and they're tired of being pushed around. Just one good heist, and they'll live the life of riches and freedom most kids only dream about.

Watch out! There are wild kids on the loose and a crime spree coming...
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Could an entire city really burn to the ground?

Oscar Starling never wanted to come to Chicago. But then Oscar finds himself not just in the heart of the big city, but in the middle of a terrible fire! No one knows exactly how it began, but one thing is clear: Chicago is like a giant powder keg about to explode.

An army of firemen is trying to help, but this fire is a ferocious beast that wants to devour everything in its path, including Oscar! Will Oscar survive one of the most famous and devastating fires in history?
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Lily loves her half-brother, Adam, but she has always struggled with him, too. He's definitely on the autism spectrum--though her step-father, Don, can barely bring himself to admit it--and caring for him has forced Lily to become as much mother as sister. All Lily wants is for her step-father to acknowledge that Adam has a real issue, that they need to find some kind of program that can help him. Then maybe she can have a life of her own.

Adam's always loved dolphins, so when Don, an oncologist, hears about a young dolphin with cancer, he offers to help. He brings Lily and Adam along, and Adam and the dolphin--Nori--bond instantly.

But though Lily sees how much Adam loves Nori, she also sees that the dolphin shouldn't spend the rest of her life in captivity, away from her family. Can Adam find real help somewhere else? And can Lily help Nori regain her freedom without betraying her family?
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Ten-year-old Sugar lives on the River Road sugar plantation along the banks of the Mississippi. Slavery is over, but laboring in the fields all day doesn't make her feel very free. Thankfully, Sugar has a knack for finding her own fun, especially when she joins forces with forbidden friend Billy, the white plantation owner's son.

Sugar has always yearned to learn more about the world, and she sees her chance when Chinese workers are brought in to help harvest the cane. The older River Road folks feel threatened, but Sugar is fascinated. As she befriends young Beau and elder Master Liu, they introduce her to the traditions of their culture, and she, in turn, shares the ways of plantation life. Sugar soon realizes that she must be the one to bridge the cultural gap and bring the community together.

Here is a story of unlikely friendships and how they can change our lives forever.
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Rose Howard is obsessed with homonyms. She's thrilled that her own name is a homonym, and she purposely gave her dog Rain a name with two homonyms (Reign, Rein), which, according to Rose's rules of homonyms, is very special. Not everyone understands Rose's obsessions, her rules, and the other things that make her different - not her teachers, not other kids, and not her single father.

When a storm hits their rural town, rivers overflow, the roads are flooded, and Rain goes missing. Rose's father shouldn't have let Rain out. Now Rose has to find her dog, even if it means leaving her routines and safe places to search.
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12-year-old Charlie is a fantasy football guru. He may be just a bench warmer for his school's football team, but when it comes to knowing and loving the game, he's first-string. He even becomes a celebrity when his podcast gets noticed by a sports radio host, who plays Charlie's fantasy picks for all of Los Angeles to hear. Soon Charlie befriends the elderly owner of the L.A. Bulldogs -- a fictional NFL team -- and convinces him to take a chance on an aging quarterback.

After that, watch out . . . it's press conferences and national fame as Charlie becomes a media curiosity and source of conflict for the Bulldogs general manager, whose job Charlie seems to have taken. It's all a bit much for a kid just trying to stay on top of his grades and maintain his friendship with his verbal sparring partner, Anna.
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Midnight Gulch used to be a magical place, a town where people could sing up thunderstorms and dance up sunflowers. But that was long ago, before a curse drove the magic away. Twelve-year-old Felicity knows all about things like that; her nomadic mother is cursed with a wandering heart.

But when she arrives in Midnight Gulch, Felicity thinks her luck's about to change. A "word collector," Felicity sees words everywhere---shining above strangers, tucked into church eves, and tangled up her dog's floppy ears---but Midnight Gulch is the first place she's ever seen the word "home." And then there's Jonah, a mysterious, spiky-haired do-gooder who shimmers with words Felicity's never seen before, words that make Felicity's heart beat a little faster.

Felicity wants to stay in Midnight Gulch more than anything, but first, she'll need to figure out how to bring back the magic, breaking the spell that's been cast over the town . . . and her mother's broken heart.
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Galileo. Newton. Salk. Oppenheimer.
Science can change the world . . . but can it go too far?

Eleven-year-old Ellie has never liked change. She misses fifth grade. She misses her old best friend. She even misses her dearly departed goldfish. Then one day a strange boy shows up. He’s bossy. He’s cranky. And weirdly enough . . . he looks a lot like Ellie’s grandfather, a scientist who’s always been slightly obsessed with immortality. Could this pimply boy really be Grandpa Melvin? Has he finally found the secret to eternal youth?

With a lighthearted touch and plenty of humor, Jennifer Holm celebrates the wonder of science and explores fascinating questions about life and death, family and friendship, immortality . . . and possibility.
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Things to know about Billy Miller:

He's worried about 2nd grade
He thinks bats are cool
His little sister is annoying
He had a spectacular accident this summer
He doesn't like poetry much
His dad makes really good cookies
Ned is his best friend
His mom likes rainy days
He thinks Emma Sparks is a pain
He can run really fast
This is his year

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True: Delly Pattison likes surpresents (presents that are a surprise). The day the Boyds come to town, Delly's sure a special surpresent is on its way. But lately, everything that she thinks will be good and fun turns into trouble. She's never needed a surpresent more than now.

True: Brud Kinney wants to play basketball like nothing anybody's ever seen. When the Boyds arrive, though, Brud meets someone who plays like nothing he's ever seen.

True: Ferris Boyd isn't like anyone Delly or Brud have ever met. Ferris is a real mysturiosity (an extremely curious mystery).

True: Katherine Hannigan's first novel since her acclaimed Ida B is a compelling look at the ways friendships and truths are discovered.

It's all true ( . . . sort of).
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Albie almost understands why he is starting fifth grade at a new school. It’s got something to do with the things he can’t quite do, like subtract numbers inside his head or figure out the words in books. Fortunately, Albie also gets a kindhearted new sitter named Calista, who can turn Albie’s sadness into happiness simply through the magic of donuts.

But even Calista can’t stop the mean kid at school from calling Albie names, or make Albie’s parents see how hard he tries in school. As every kid knows, some problems take more than donuts to solve.
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The adventure of a lifetime begins between two sofa cushions....

When River, Freak, and Fiona discover a mysterious sofa sitting at their bus stop, their search for loose change produces a rare zucchini-colored crayon. Little do they know this peculiar treasure is about to launch them into the middle of a plot to conquer the world!

The kids' only hope is to trap the plot's mastermind when he comes to steal the crayon. But how can three kids from the middle of nowhere stop an evil billionaire? With the help of an eccentric neighbor, an artificially intelligent domino, a DNA-analyzing tray, two hot air balloons, and a cat named Mucus, they just might be able to save the planet.

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Wanted: One amazing forever home for one amazing sixth grader.

"My name is Gaby, and I'm looking for a home. Having the nicest clothes or cell phone isn't important, but I'd like to have a cat that I can talk to when I'm home
alone."

When Gaby Ramirez Howard starts volunteering at the local animal shelter, she takes special pride in writing adoption advertisements. Her flyers help the cats and
dogs there find their forever homes: places where they'll be loved and cared for, no matter what.

Gaby is in need of a forever home herself. Her mother has recently been deported to Honduras and Gaby doesn't know where to turn. Meanwhile, Gaby's favorite shelter cat, Feather, needs a new place to live. Gaby would love to adopt her-- but if Gaby doesn't have a place that feels like home to her, how can she help Feather?
Available as a downloadable ebook.

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Jennifer—

Things here have gotten very bad.

My girl, when you opened the Way, something happened. It has been weeks since you left, and spring has still not come. The rains continue, every day. Winter has been creeping back in. The river through town is flooding, and none of the farmers have been able to put in their crops.

I am afraid that something from that world is spilling over into ours.

You must come home at once. I need you here.

But Fer can't go home yet. Ever since she went through the Way, she's felt an attachment to this new world and its magic, and senses that it is perilously out of balance. The key to healing the land and defeating its powerful ruler lies in Fer's past and the parents she never knew. She must discover who she is and unleash her inner warrior before the worlds on both sides of the Way plunge into a never-ending winter.
Available as a downloadable ebook.

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Jake and Lily are twins.

Even though they seem pretty different, they feel exactly the same, almost like two halves of one person. When one of them gets hurt, the other can feel it. They can communicate without words. And mysteriously, every year on their birthday, they sleepwalk to a train station in the middle of the night.

But the year they turn eleven, everything changes. Their parents announce it's time for separate bedrooms, and Jake starts hanging out with a pack of boys on the block. Lily is devastated—not to mention really, really mad. And as she struggles to make friends and get a life apart from her twin, Jake finds himself dealing with a neighborhood bully and has to decide what kind of person he really is.
Available as downloadable ebook or e-audiobook.

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Melody has lived in Royal, Indiana, for as long as she can remember. It's been just her and her father, and she's been okay with that. But then she overhears him calling someone Honey -- and suddenly it feels like everyone in Royal has a secret. It's up to Melody and her best friend, Nick, to piece together the clues and discover why Honey is being hidden.

Meanwhile, a dog named Mo is new to Royal. He doesn't remember much from when he was a puppy . . . but he keeps having dreams of a girl he is bound to meet someday. This girl, he's sure, will change everything
Available as downloadable ebook and e-audiobook.

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Raised in South Carolina and New York, Jacqueline Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world.

Woodson’s eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become.
Available as downloadable ebook and e-audiobook.

Someone is looking for Magnus Chase, and after two years living on the streets in Boston, this 16-year-old knows he needs to lie low until he has a little more information. When he overhears the man and his daughter, who are handing out flyers with Magnus’s picture on it, he realizes that he is being sought by his uncles and a cousin, whom he hasn’t seen in ten years – and whom his mother warned him away from right before she died.

Curiosity leads Magnus to break into his uncle’s house in search of clues about why his family is looking for him after all these years of not caring. But he lingers longer than he should and Uncle Randolph prevents his escape.

Claiming Magnus’s life is in danger, Randolph persuades him to get in his car, and they take a speedy drive to the Longfellow Bridge. As explosions and fires draw near, Uncle Randolph explains to Magnus that he is the son of a Norse god; that today, his 16^th birthday, he has attained manhood and will be able to resurrect his father’s powerful sword from the bottom of the Charles River, where it has lain for centuries. And the perpetrator of the pyrotechnics is after the same souvenir.

In true Riordan style, the non-stop action is a little over the top. Our hero is just this side of a smart-aleck – a little snarky, a little irreverent. Supporting characters are well-defined with their own quirks that add to the humor of the book.

Riordan sets the opening scene and many subsequent ones in Boston, which is brilliant. In the late 1800s, a Harvard professor was convinced that the Vikings had set up housekeeping in the Boston area, and he managed to get a statue of Leif Erikson erected on a main thoroughfare in the city. He was also responsible for including copies of Viking ship mastheads on the pillars of the Longfellow Bridge. He based all of this on wishful thinking and supposition, and Boston has lived with it ever since. Boston landmarks are prominent in the story. (The famous Swan Boats in the public garden are used to great comedic effect – but you have to read the entire book to get there.)

Norse mythology is a tangled thicket of nine worlds, and it helped that I had read up on it a bit. With giants, elves, dwarves, major gods, lesser gods, and even people, there is a lot to keep track of. While the story is complex, it isn’t confusing. And what a romp! Riordan hits this one out of Fenway Park.