Meet the Carters: Mr. and Mrs. Carter, 10-year-old daughter Keisha, five-year-old Razi, baby Paolo, and Grandma Alice. Together, they run Carters' Urban Rescue, the place you call when you've got an animal where it shouldn't be. In their first adventure, there's a baby alligator at the city pool, which will seriously interfere with opening day, especially Keisha's cannonball practice. So it's up to the whole family to figure out what to do with the poor guy who has no business hanging around Michigan. Luckily for all of them, and thanks to some serious ingenuity from Keisha, the answer is closer than they ever could have imagined. Sue Stauffacher turns to her first series effort with Animal Rescue Team. With compelling plots based on actual events in her community, Sue has created a lovable cast of characters of boys and girls, young and old, who feel like people you'd meet at your neighborhood block party. Written in an accessible and engaging style meant to appeal to those independent readers looking to be excited and entertained, and with subplots about friendship, siblings, the environment, and animal conservation, along with plenty of humor, these will be a hit with teachers and librarians, and parents, as well as kids themselves.

Chaos ensues when Keisha's father brings an escaped alligator home to Carter's Urban Rescue, but it gets out of the bathroom while Grandma is guarding it.

A humorous tale about acceptance, social justice and keeping an open mind. Though he’s scared at first, a boy who encounters an alligator in the woods discovers all the creature wants is companionship — and leftovers! — and the two become friends. But the mayor of the boy’s town won’t have it. He makes a proclamation, “NO ALLIGATORS! Blah, blah, blah.” Which the townspeople agree with, at first. Then they realize how friendly the alligator is (and how nice it is to have someone eat their leftovers!), and they want him to stay. Can they all come together and find a way to keep the alligator in their town? See you later, alligator? Not if these townspeople can help it!

Gator's moving and he gets encouragement from his old friends to make new friends in his new neighborhood.

That's right: Serge and Coleman do spring break! One spring break location obviously isn't enough for Serge A. Storms, so he must hit them all, traveling through various historic locales, spewing nuggets of history at anyone who won't run away, and dispensing his own signature brand of Sunshine State justice. Along the trail, he and his sidekick, Coleman, attract a growing following of the nation's top college students . . . and a mysterious gang that leaves a trail of young bodies in its wake. Then there are the coke smugglers gone legit and a pair of the most dangerously sexy bartenders ever to mix a rum runner. After years of quiet, a legendary Miami kingpin from the anything-goes eighties is suddenly back in the news . . . along with one of the state's most psychotic monsters. So pack the cooler, load the car, and head to where the water is warm for a spring vacation you won't soon forget—no matter how much you might try!

Vanished? Liza Poole lives with her mother in one of the last balanced ecosystems in North America -- the Gumbo Limbo Hammock deep within the lush kingdom of the Florida Everglades. Some may think it strange to live outdoors, but Liza feels lucky to live it strange to live outdoors, but Liza feels lucky to live in her small yellow tent amidst tropical birds and exotic plants. And at the center of this natural paradise lies Dajun, the majestic alligator who protects Gumbo Limbo's environment. Then, one day, a state official arrives with frightening orders. Dajun is scaring people nearby -- he must be killed! Liza takes action to save the invaluable 'gator, but suddenly, he is nowhere to be found. Now, she must find Dajun before it's too late, and her search will lead her into the heart of an exciting eco mystery!

When Bridget the alligator arrives in the mail, she's only the size of a key chain! But after Zack soaks her in water, she grows into a real live alligator. Bridget wrestles the garden hose and swings from the monkey bars. And what other alligator can do cartwheels? Children's Books of 1989 (Library of Congress)

"All you can do is be who you is." Suzanne Marie Sabine Chicot Thibodeaux (called Sue for short) lives on a houseboat deep in Louisiana's Atchafalaya Swamp. One lazy summer afternoon when the air grows heavier than a catfish's bath towel, a hurricane swoops Sue up -- only to drop her like a hot patate into the swamp below. Sue finds herself nose-to-snout with a queen-sized, prickly-backed mama Alligator. Luckily, Mama Coco is no ordinary gator. She invites Sue into her family and teaches her all she knows. Sue tries hard to be an alligator; still, every once in a while, she recalls a wisp of a familiar song and begins to wonder: Who am I -- a Gator or a Girl? How this spirited heroine claims her identity and her name -- Alligator Sue -- makes a funny, affecting, and wise tale, illustrated with irresistible joie de vivre.

With a keen eye for detail and a lyrical style, Jeff Klinkenberg sets his sights on the contradictions that make up the Sunshine State. No one else would think to engage a professional symphony orchestra tuba player to find out whether bull gators will thunderously bellow back at a low B-flat during mating season (they do, but only to that pitch). From fishing camps and country stores to museums and libraries, Klinkenberg is forever unearthing the magic that makes Florida a place worth celebrating.