“It’s Hermione Granger meets ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ meets the Ice Capades meets ‘Mean Girls.’” For all its disparate ingredients, though, PEASPROUT CHEN: FUTURE LEGEND OF SKATE AND SWORD speaks in a single, strong voice, thanks to its spirited heroine." —The New York Times "Massively entertaining...Peasprout Chen is a future legend, indeed." —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review Welcome to Pearl Famous Academy of Skate and Sword, where the blades are sharp and the competition is fierce. Peasprout Chen dreams of becoming a legend of wu liu, the deadly and beautiful art of martial arts figure skating. As the first students from the rural country of Shin to attend Pearl Famous Academy of Skate and Sword, Peasprout and her little brother Cricket have some pretty big skates to fill. They soon find themselves in a heated competition for top ranking. Tensions rise when the dazzling pearl buildings of the Academy are vandalized and outsider Peasprout is blamed for the attacks by her rivals ... and even some friends. Now, she must uncover the true vandal to ensure peace between Shin and Pearl – all while becoming a champion.

“It’s Hermione Granger meets Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon meets the Ice Capades meets Mean Girls." —The New York Times "Takes on weighty and relevant questions of gender, ability, leadership, immigration... with intelligence, deftness and precision." —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review Now in her Second Year at Pearl Famous Academy of Skate and Sword, Peasprout Chen strives to reclaim her place as a champion of wu liu, the sport of martial arts figure skating. But, with the new year comes new competition, and Peasprout’s dreams are thwarted by an impressive transfer student. Yinmei is the heir to the Shinian throne and has fled her country for Pearl. When she excels both academically and socially, Peasprout begins to suspect that Yinmei is not a refugee at all but a spy. When the Empress of Shin threatens to invade the city of Pearl, Peasprout makes a bold decision. To keep her enemy close, Peasprout joins Yinmei's “battleband," a team that executes elaborate skating configurations that are part musical spectacle, part defensive attack. In Henry Lien's Peasprout Chen: Battle of Champions, Peasprout guides her battleband on a mission to save Pearl, and learns what it truly means to be a leader.

Discover how your diet may affect your creativity, how going vegan is like giving yourself brain food, and how to incorporate veganism into your life. When author and certified vegan lifestyle coach Camille DeAngelis is asked how she feels satisfied on a vegan diet, she thinks of the moment in James and the Giant Peach when the Grasshopper and the Centipede fret that they have nothing to eat until James points out that they’re traveling inside an enormous piece of fruit. There is plenty, Camille reminds us in this self-help motivational book for artists and creatives. Everything we could ever want to eat, and more, is all around us. Because we live in a culture in which the eating and wearing of animals is taken for granted, we rarely recognize our limiting meat-centric mindset. But if we can employ our imagination to create worlds from scratch, we can surely use it to envision a new way of seeing ourselves in relation to the animals we eat. On the other side of this brain transformation is a lifestyle that is ideal for our own health and emotional well-being and is much more environmentally sustainable. Camille believes that creative hobbies and habits reinvigorate one’s primary work. But she knits, sews, embroiders, and bakes for the pleasure of it, too. Her productivity and brain power have been remarkable since going vegan seven years ago, and even more importantly, she no longer feels any of the frustration or uncertainty artists tend to accept as part of the creative process. If you’re a creative suffering from brain fog, A Bright Clear Mind can help. Praise for A Bright Clear Mind “If you are a maker or an artist who feels anxious, depressed or just plain not feeling up to par, I urge you to read this book. In the pages you will discover how to wake up your life force by embracing a more connected way of living and eating.” —Elise Marie Collins, author of Super Ager: You Can Look Younger, Have More Energy, A Better Memory and Live a Long and Healthy Life “DeAngelis roundly disproves the theory that plant-eaters are somber moralists . . . Getting to peer into the lives and creative processes of these vegan visionaries makes me want to write and dance and organize my cupboards and make a tofu frittata.” —Victoria Moran, author of Creating a Charmed Life and Main Street Vegan

Caregiver involvement is key to a child's reading success story, and libraries are in the perfect position to provide the guidance needed for parents and caregivers to embrace their role as their children's first and most enduring teachers. Libraries offer many programs and services for children, but sometimes caregivers are left out of the equation, especially once children start school. Nevertheless, parents and caregivers are an integral part of literacy development, and libraries are a great place for them to witness modeling practices and participate in engaging family programs that encourage early literacy. Mary Schreiber combines personal experience and professional research with the programming expertise of youth librarians from across the country in this guide for libraries looking to make an even greater impact on the level of literacy attained by the children they serve. In Partnering with Parents, readers will find a wealth of information on how to talk to caregivers about the different stages of a child's reading life, what books to recommend to excite both caregivers and children about reading, and ways to encourage parent and caregiver participation in library programming, with additional information on working with and providing programming for diverse families. Whether you are a veteran in the profession or brand new to working with families, you will find something in this book that will help you to make your library a more integral part of the education community.

From We Need Diverse Books, the organization behind Flying Lessons & Other Stories, comes another middle-grade short story collection--this one focused on exploring acts of bravery--featuring some of the best own-voices children's authors, including R. J. Palacio (Wonder), Rita Williams-Garcia (One Crazy Summer), Linda Sue Park (A Long Walk to Water), and many more. Not all heroes wear capes. Some heroes teach martial arts. Others talk to ghosts. A few are inventors or soccer players. They're also sisters, neighbors, and friends. Because heroes come in many shapes and sizes. But they all have one thing in common: they make the world a better place. Published in partnership with We Need Diverse Books, this vibrant anthology features thirteen acclaimed authors whose powerful and diverse voices show how small acts of kindness can save the day. So pay attention, because a hero could be right beside you. Or maybe the hero is you. AUTHORS INCLUDE: William Alexander, Joseph Bruchac, Lamar Giles, Mike Jung, Hena Khan, Juana Medina, Ellen Oh, R. J. Palacio, Linda Sue Park and Anna Dobbin, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Ronald L. Smith, Rita Williams-Garcia, and short-story contest winner Suma Subramaniam “As with the two previous anthologies from We Need Diverse Books, this collection admirably succeeds in making available to all readers a wider and more representative range of American voices and protagonists.” -The Washington Post