From the author of the Project (Un)Popular series and Too Cool For This School, a fun middle school story about a girl determined to make the best of any situation. Imagine being Camille McPhee. She has low blood sugar, so she carries extra food in a cooler. Would you want to do that? Didn't think so. And you wouldn’t want to fall under the school bus. That happened to Camille too! Her cat, Checkers, is lost. And her best friend, Sally, moved to Japan. It would be hard to stay optimistic, right? But Camille is what her mom calls HOPEFUL. Because really? There are plenty of things to be positive about: gifted reading a nonsqueaky mattress eating banned foods the big blue butterfly Even making a new friend. Imagine that! "This book about friendship and loss kindly teaches that life is pretty much what one is willing to make of it." --School Library Journal, starred review "[A] touching debut." --Kirkus Reviews

Ten-year-old Camille McPhee relates the ups and downs of her fourth-grade year at her Idaho elementary school as she tries to adjust to the absence of her best friend, maintain control of her low-blood sugar, cope with the intensifying conflict between her parents, and understand the importance of honesty and fairness.

This book provides a wealth of read-aloud titles and related activities that provide busy teachers with the tools to help students in grades K–12 become successful writers. Teachers can always benefit from new techniques that allow them to teach writing in a more engaging and enjoyable manner, and a resource that identifies a plethora of excellent children's books that help students become successful writers would also be helpful. Books That Teach Kids to Write introduces busy educators to the finest in children's literature in all genres, appropriate for readers in grades K through 12; and provides effective ideas for using those books to stimulate and improve student writing. This book discusses language use and other critical components of good writing, showcasing the children's books and specific activities that can help both primary and secondary school students. Included reproducibles for the writing exercises make lesson planning simple, while the sheer number of titles discussed and the extensive bibliographies provided minimize the time teachers must spend researching books to use with their students. An appendix includes more writing instruction resources, such as children's books, websites, and professional texts.

Twelve-year-old Lane Cisco has good friends, a secret boyfriend, and the position of sixth-grade captain at Rio Chama Middle School, but life gets complicated when her off-beat cousin Angelina arrives for an extended visit.

This fascinating picture book tells the unique, quirky, and true story of how one man in Idaho saved 76 beavers from destroying a town by parachuting them into uninhabited wetlands. In 1948, the town of McCall, Idaho was growing rapidly. World War II was over, and the little town tucked away in the mountains began to boom. There was only one problem. As the town expanded, they found beavers everywhere. A beaver here, a beaver there, and it didn’t take long to realize that humans and beavers weren’t great cohabitators. But one clever and resourceful Fish and Game Warden named Elmo Heter had an idea. Heter knew that the beavers were integral to the wetlands, so keeping the well-being of the beavers in mind he set out to find a way to relocate them. After a few failed attempts, he finally landed on a wild idea… parachutes. Using a surplus of parachutes left over from WWII and creating a special box with air holes designed to pop open when it hit the ground, Heter devised a way to parachute the beavers into Idaho’s backcountry, an area that beavers hadn’t inhabited in decades. Kirsten Tracy’s fascinating and playful nonfiction text pairs beautifully with Luisa Uribe’s detailed illustrations to bring this compelling true story to life.

Bessica Lefter is back in this hilarious, all-too-relatable middle school novel that "will have readers laughing aloud" (Booklist). Now that Bessica’s the half mascot at her middle school and made some new friends, she finally feels like she’s fitting in. But Alice, the other half mascot, hates her. And after some mean texts, Bessica’s friendship with Sylvie might be over. Bessica doesn’t want drama. She’s got her first big game to worry about. Not even taking care of gorgeous Noll Beck’s lizard or deciding whether to crash Sylvie’s party can distract her. Bessica will be facing off as mascot against T.J. the Tiger, who has a reputation for embarrassing the competition. Letting him make fun of her would be like letting him humiliate her whole school. Bessica’s worked hard to have some social status. And she’ll work even harder to keep it. . . . "[Bessica's] endearing qualities keep one rooting for her." --School Library Journal "A fun story." --Midwest Book Review "Informative and worthwhile." --VOYA

Two middle school BFFs experience the highs and lows of friendship, boys, sixth-grade politics, sister drama, and popularity in this funny and smart sequel to Project (Un)Popular! Perry can’t figure out what she’s doing wrong. Her best friend, Venice, has a boyfriend, making her feel totally left out—especially when Venice doesn’t seem to have time for Perry or her problems. Yearbook has gotten a little bit better, but Anya is still out to get her, and instead of getting to work on something fun, Perry’s stuck covering the “What’s Hot” section. Even her attempt to help the geeks is backfiring. And when her older sister takes one of the biggest dorks at school under her wing, Perry feels completely betrayed. Now Hayes, a boy she barely knows, is hanging around and giving her stuff, and Perry panics. She doesn’t want a boy to be crushing on her—especially Hayes. And social media makes everything more complicated. Is it even possible for Perry to turn things around and make sixth grade awesome? "The drama of crushes, frenemies, and hovering parents is spot-on."--Kirkus Reviews

Perfect for summer reading is this first book in a fun new series about two middle school BFFs as they experience the highs and lows of friendship, boys, sixth grade politics, sister drama, and popularity. Middle school isn’t a popularity contest. It’s a war. Perry and her best friend, Venice, are excited to be yearbook photographers and tell the story of their school through their art. But that’s before they find out the truth: the spontaneous moments they’re supposed to capture are all faked. Yearbooks should include everybody—even the dorks. But Perry feels totally stuck. Until she starts taking flattering shots of popular people, none of her candids will ever be chosen. Fighting back isn’t going to win her any friends—she might even lose some. It's time to decide what’s more important: fitting in . . . or standing out.

From the author of the Project (Un)Popular series and Too Cool For This School, a funny, authentic story about fitting in, growing up, and making it in middle school! After an unfortunate incident at the hair salon, Bessica is not allowed to see her best friend, Sylvie. That means she's going to start middle school a-l-o-n-e. Bessica feels like such a loser. She wants friends. She's just not sure how to make them. It doesn't help that her beloved grandma is off on some crazy road trip and has zero time to listen to Bessica. Or that Bessica has a ton of homework. Or that gorgeous Noll Beck thinks she's just a kid. Or that there are some serious psycho-bullies in her classes. Bessica doesn't care about being popular. She just wants to survive—and look cute. Is that too much to ask when you're eleven? "Funny, goofy, anxious, and absolutely emotionally authentic." --The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Starred Review "Many a middle school girl will find a piece of herself in Bessica Lefter." --VOYA

Half-Hazard is the Winner of the Emily Dickinson First Book Award from the Poetry Foundation for a debut by an American poet over forty. Half-Hazard is a book of near misses, would-be tragedies, and luck. As Kristen Tracy writes in the title poem, “Dangers here. Perils there. It’ll go how it goes.” The collection follows her wide curiosity, from growing up in a small Mormon farming community to her exodus into the forbidden world, where she finds snakes, car accidents, adulterers, meteors, and death-marked mice. These wry, observant narratives are accompanied by a ringing lyricism, and Tracy’s knack for noticing what’s so funny about trouble and her natural impulse to want to put all the broken things back together. Full of wrong turns, false loves, quashed beliefs, and a menagerie of animals, Half-Hazard introduces a vibrant new voice in American poetry, one of resilience, faith, and joy.