ELA

Maya thought she had the greatest friends in the world. But suddenly, BAM!, she's out of the group, with no idea of why her friends have dropped her. The listener will find out, though, as the story of why Maya has been shunned unfolds through five skillfully intertwined, sometimes scorching, first person narratives.

With uncanny precision and unsparing accuracy, Amy Goldman Koss explores the world of middle school cliques, and exposes the "mean girl" phenomenon in this insightful look at the real world behind the headlines.

What do you do when your mother disappears and a strange man starts stalking you? If you're Kevin and Holly Kidd, you try to lose yourself in the wacky world of Venice Beach, California, where boardwalk entertainers do everything from juggling watermelons to telling fortunes as they try to make a living. Soon Kevin and Holly are making a new home among these larger-than-life characters. But just when Holly seems set to achieve her dream of starring in an opera, their stalker reappears, more menacing than ever. What is he after? And how can Kevin save the show—and his sister?

On March 23, 1889, President Benjamin Harrison signed a proclamation opening two million acres of Oklahoma land to settlement. A month later, with a teeming crush of pioneers, the Oklahoma Land Rush was on.

When Cal Lavender's mother has an unfortunate "episode" in the library, a police officer takes Cal to the "Pumpkin House"—a group home where Cal must stay until her mother is able to care for her again. Stranded with four hurt, troubled girls and an eccentric old woman known as "the Knitting Lady", Cal thinks this can't possibly be her real life. Or can it?