Deborah Hopkinson

Vampires, ghosts, wizards, angels—they’re hard to escape in books these days. But every once in a while, a kid longs for an old-fashioned summer adventure story, which is exactly what Craig Moodie delivers in his exciting new novel, Into the Trap.

Eddie Atwell is the 12-year-old son of a lobster fisherman on Fog Island. The local lobstermen are being hit by a series of thefts: Nearly 10,000 pounds of lobster have disappeared from fishermen’s holding areas. Meanwhile, Eddie’s father is laid up with a shoulder injury. Eddie wants to help out by catching some striped bass, even though he’s not supposed to go out fishing alone.

That’s how Eddie finds himself on Greenhead Island early one August morning, staring with shock into a tidal pool full of stolen lobsters. Eddie manages to hide from the two thieves who come to check their cache, but he recognizes their voices. One is Jake Daggett, his sister’s boyfriend. What’s worse, Jake recognizes Eddie’s skiff, and he and the other thief, Marty, take it, leaving Eddie stranded.

Luckily for Eddie, an unlikely rescuer is at hand. Briggs Fairfield, a rich, nerdy New York kid who’s AWOL from a nearby sailing camp, is happy to have Eddie aboard. Eddie doesn’t think he and this rich kid have much in common—until he realizes that the camp counselor who has been tormenting Briggs is none other than Marty, one of the lobster thieves. Eddie and Briggs decide to join forces to rescue the lobsters and bring the thieves to justice.

Full of sailing lore and page-turning excitement, Into the Trap is the perfect book to stick into a duffel bag for a young camper—along with a flashlight for reading under the folds of a sleeping bag.

Vampires, ghosts, wizards, angels—they’re hard to escape in books these days. But every once in a while, a kid longs for an old-fashioned summer adventure story, which is exactly what Craig Moodie delivers in his exciting new novel, Into the Trap.

Eddie Atwell is the 12-year-old…

Author Gary Schmidt has won many fans with his luminous, heartfelt novels, including two Newbery honor titles, Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy and The Wednesday Wars. His moving new book, Okay for Now, is a companion to the latter novel. It follows Holling Hoodhood’s friend, Doug Swieteck, who moves to the small town of Marysville, New York, which he at first calls “The Dump,” in the summer of 1968.

Like Holling, Doug faces challenges at home. His father, who keeps up a litany of complaints about his new job at the Ballard Paper Mill, is stern and abusive at home. Doug and his middle brother, Christopher, have learned to watch out for the moments where their dad’s hands might “flash out.” His older brother, Lucas, is fighting in Vietnam.

But in his first days in the new town Doug begins to find some unlikely friends, including a girl named Lil Spicer, who befriends Doug and gets him a job doing Saturday deliveries for her father’s deli (five dollars a Saturday, plus tips). There are also Mr. Powell and Mrs. Merriam at the town library, who prove to be unlikely allies in Doug’s journey from a lonely, embittered outsider to a kid who is fully part of his community.

Doug’s repeat visits to the library are rather a surprise to his brother—and to Doug himself. Doug is not a reader—far from it. The library offers a different kind of magic. When Doug wanders up the cool marble staircase to the second floor, he discovers a square table with a glass case on it. And in that glass case is the most terrifying and beautiful thing he has ever seen: an Arctic tern illustrated by John James Audubon. So terrifying and beautiful that Doug just has to try his hand at drawing it, under the patient guidance of the mild and friendly Mr. Powell.

Before long, Doug finds himself solving problems: how to draw feathers of a tern so they look as if they are “plunging against the air like all get-out” and how to draw the “stupid foot of the stupid puffin . . . who was trying not to drown.”

As the summer ends and Doug begins to endure the challenges of being the new eighth grader at Washington Irving Junior High School, his newfound abilities to solve problems as an artist begin, very slowly, to spill over into the problems in his life. In the process he is able to convert enemies into allies, to find a way to help his brother, Lucas, pick up the pieces of a new life, and to make something precious, yet broken, almost whole again.

Like all Gary Schmidt’s novels, this is a rich and multi-layered story that weaves together themes of redemption, creativity and possibility. Okay for Now reminds us that the best children’s literature is not just for young readers, but for all of us.

Author Gary Schmidt has won many fans with his luminous, heartfelt novels, including two Newbery honor titles, Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy and The Wednesday Wars. His moving new book, Okay for Now, is a companion to the latter novel. It follows Holling Hoodhood’s…

As Ruby Red begins, Gwen Shepherd is just an ordinary 16-year-old living in London with her mother, brother and sister and her eccentric extended family in a “posh” house full of paintings and antique furniture. She attends St. Lennox High School with her best friend, Lesley.

But on closer inspection, “ordinary” may not be exactly the right word to describe Gwen. First, she just happens to be able to see and converse with James, a young local ghost. (“Like so many ghosts, he refused to accept that he wasn’t alive anymore.”) Second, although the family tradition predicts that her cousin Charlotte is meant to be the special one, destined for magic, something extraordinary is about to happen to Gwen.

One day in the school cafeteria, Gwen finds herself overcome by the strangest sensation: a dizzying feeling, a bit like swooping down from the top on a roller coaster ride. And suddenly she finds herself transported to the past. As Gwen discovers, it is she—not Charlotte—who has inherited the time-travel gene that runs through her family lineage.

Gwen has a lot of ground to make up. She must learn the rules of time travel—and fast, too—because Gwen and her time-traveling counterpart, a boy named Gideon, are at the center of a desperate quest to track all the previous time travelers to close the Circle so that the Secret of the Twelve will be revealed.

An enormous success in Germany where it was first published (the English version has been translated by Anthea Bell), Ruby Red ends on a cliffhanger, with many of its mysteries unresolved. Teen readers will be eager to find out what happens to Gwen and Gideon in their next adventures, to be revealed in the second book of the trilogy, Sapphire Blue, followed by Emerald Green.

As Ruby Red begins, Gwen Shepherd is just an ordinary 16-year-old living in London with her mother, brother and sister and her eccentric extended family in a “posh” house full of paintings and antique furniture. She attends St. Lennox High School with her best friend,…

One day, 12-year-old Daralynn Oakland is grounded for going fishing in Doc Lake without telling her mother. Daralynn can’t help but spend the afternoon pouting, especially since being grounded means she will miss going on an airplane ride with her daddy, a pilot, her older brother, Wayne Junior, and little sister, Lilac Rose.

But as it turns out, being grounded keeps Daralynn alive: three members of her family are killed when the plane crashes. Now Daralynn and her mother, Hattie, must face the future alone in their small town of Digginsville, Missouri, population 402.

The tragedy changes life for mother and daughter in so many ways that Daralynn begins to think of her life as divided into two parts: B.C. (Before the Crash) and A.D. (After the Deaths). Before, she had been part of a family of five, and shared a bedroom with her sister. Now there are just the two of them, and she has her own room. To make things worse, her mother doesn’t “do” sad well and won’t talk about the past. So Daralynn takes to writing to her father and siblings, afraid that if she doesn’t keep them in her heart she might forget them.

Some practical things change too. Daralynn gets so many dolls after the accident (237 to be exact) that people start calling her Dolly. She doesn’t particularly like the dolls, but her grandmother, Mamaw, sure does. And Daralynn’s mom, Hattie, does such a fine job fixing Lilac Rose’s hair in her coffin that she gets hired by the local funeral parlor to do dead people’s hair ($45 a corpse).

Their income from the funeral parlor is soon put at risk when the handsome and dashing Mr. Clem Monroe arrives in town. He takes to courting Daralynn’s Aunt Josie (owner of The Summer Sunset Retirement Home for Distinguished Gentlemen). He also opens a new crematorium—directly competing with the Danielson Family Funeral Home where Hattie works.

But is Clem’s business on the up and up? Is he just after Aunt Josie’s heart, or is he really trying to steal her money?

As Daralynn tries to solve the puzzles that unfold—and possibly save her aunt from making a dreadful mistake—she also faces the mysteries of grieving. While her subject matter is serious, author Kate Klise brings humor and warmth to this heartfelt story of healing and hope.

One day, 12-year-old Daralynn Oakland is grounded for going fishing in Doc Lake without telling her mother. Daralynn can’t help but spend the afternoon pouting, especially since being grounded means she will miss going on an airplane ride with her daddy, a pilot, her older…

“I’ll call you Dust Devil, and from now on we’ll ride together. I reckon I’ve finally found the horse that can carry me.”

So declares Swamp Angel, the wildest wildcat and most wonderful woodswoman in all of Tennessee. Well, actually, Swamp Angel has moved on since we saw her last, to magnificent Montana, Big Sky country, a place grand enough for Swamp Angel’s size and energy. It is there, while wrestling a dust storm, that she finds Dust Devil, her horse and sidekick.

And just in time. Because before she can croon a cowboy ballad, Swamp Angel must face the notorious Backward Bart (half rattlesnake, half badger and half mad hornet) and his gang of Flying Desperados.

Anne Isaacs and Paul Zelinsky, who teamed up to create the Caldecott Honor book Swamp Angel, have created a fabulous original folktale in this long-awaited sequel. Isaacs’s rollicking prose is perfectly matched with Zelinsky’s humorous, accomplished art.

Backward Bart, the bad guy in this tall tale, is so big his hands are the size of shovels, and his varmints are so ornery no self-respecting horse will carry them. So, naturally, they ride mosquitoes. And as everyone knows, mosquitoes in Montana are monsters. Why, “A Montana mosquito can carry a heavy suitcase and two watermelons on each wing without sweating.” What’s worse, their stingers are as long as swords.

Swamp Angel is up for the challenge. But, as Sheriff Napalot informs her, the law says that only a man can be deputized to join the posse to hunt down an outlaw. Luckily, there’s no law that says a woman can’t round up a mosquito! So Swamp Angel and Dust Devil set off on a mission to outride and outsmart Bart’s mosquitoes—and their riders.

Dust Devil is a big and spectacular in every way. And it’s sure to garner a lot of buzz (pun intended). Even better, Dust Devil will delight boys and girls whether they’re sitting around the campfire, or curled up in their bedrolls for one last story after a hard day on the trail.

“I’ll call you Dust Devil, and from now on we’ll ride together. I reckon I’ve finally found the horse that can carry me.”

So declares Swamp Angel, the wildest wildcat and most wonderful woodswoman in all of Tennessee. Well, actually, Swamp Angel has moved on since…

In The Year Money Grew on Trees, first-time children’s author Aaron R. Hawkins, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, mines his own childhood memories of working in his family’s apple orchard. The result is as warm and delicious as a slice of apple pie.

It’s only February, but Jackson Jones, who lives on a dirt road in New Mexico, is already thinking about a summer job. His father wants him to work in the local junkyard. His neighbor, Mrs. Nelson, offers an alternative: If he can prove that he is a true heir to her late husband’s 300 apple trees, she will give the orchard to him. There’s only one catch—first he has to make $8,000 from this year’s crop and pay it to Mrs. Nelson.

Without revealing the precise details of the deal to anyone, even his parents, Jackson recruits a motley crew of cousins and siblings to tackle the challenge of bringing the orchard back to life. The kids supply the hard work, day in and day out. Advice (such as it is) must come from the one book on apple growing Jackson manages to track down in the school library, along with tips from adults in the community. Little by little, Jackson and his crew find out what they need to know, from pruning to fertilizing, thinning, irrigating and picking. The text is enhanced by the author’s delightful drawings—maps of the orchard, sketches of a tree before and after pruning, and diagrams of such essentials as the irrigation system. Teachers will be pleased to see how Jackson uses math to figure out his anticipated profits and expenses in the quest to become the orchard’s new owner.

The Year Money Grew on Trees yields a harvest of riches, not only as a wonderful story of one boy’s resourcefulness but as a humorous and insightful portrait of a community. Take a bite!

In The Year Money Grew on Trees, first-time children’s author Aaron R. Hawkins, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, mines his own childhood memories of working in his family’s apple orchard. The result is as warm and delicious as a slice of apple pie.

While young people might recognize the name of Marie Curie, the stories of many other women who pursued scientific research throughout history remain unknown. In Summer Birds: The Butterflies of Maria Merian, Margarita Engle introduces young readers to the fascinating figure of Maria Merian, a 17th-century naturalist and illustrator who advanced knowledge about butterflies, moths and other insects.

With its clear, lyrical text and charming, richly colored artwork by Julie Paschkis, Summer Birds focuses on Merian’s efforts to capture insects (secretly so that she wouldn’t be accused of witchcraft) to study them.

Engle sets the stage by telling readers that “summer birds” was a medieval term for butterflies and moths. In the 1600s, people thought these creatures were very mysterious—appearing as they do in warm weather, but disappearing again at the end of summer. In fact, some people thought these insects came from the mud, as if by magic, and might be evil.

From the time she was a young teen, though, the German-born Merian set out to study and record the life cycle of butterflies and other insects, helping to disprove the notion of “spontaneous generation” from mud through her research.

With her botanical illustrations, she chronicled the details of the insects’ life cycle, being careful, for instance, to record which leaves certain caterpillars ate.

Through Merian’s reflections on her future dreams, readers get a sense of where her pursuits eventually will take her: “I will be free to travel to faraway lands, painting all sorts of rare summer birds and flowers. .  . Someday I will put my paintings into a book. Then everyone will know the truth about small animals that change their forms.”

Summer Birds includes a historical note about Merian’s life and career. She traveled to South America to pursue her studies and published books about the life cycles of flowers and insects.

Children are always fascinated by the magic of butterflies and moths emerging from cocoons. While it stands on its own as a lovely picture book that children and families will enjoy, Summer Birds is also a welcome addition to literature about the fascinating history of science.

Deborah Hopkinson wrote about another woman scientist in Maria’s Comet, a book on America’s first woman astronomer, Maria Mitchell.

While young people might recognize the name of Marie Curie, the stories of many other women who pursued scientific research throughout history remain unknown. In Summer Birds: The Butterflies of Maria Merian, Margarita Engle introduces young readers to the fascinating figure of Maria Merian, a…

In Emily’s Fortune, Newbery Award-winning author Phyllis Reynolds Naylor has penned a fast-paced Western adventure perfect for summer afternoons. The story is a delightful departure for this versatile writer, and a wonderful comic romp for young readers.

The heroine, Emily Wiggins, is a shy eight-year-old. She lives with her mother, who works for the wealthy Miss Luella Nash (also known as Loony Lu). Emily is quiet and well-behaved, and it’s a good thing. Miss Nash is of the firm belief that children should be seen (rarely) and not heard (at all).

One day, a terrible carriage accident leaves Emily alone in the world—except for her turtle, Rufus, and some well-meaning neighbors. At this momentous crossroad, Emily sets her hopes on going to live with kind Aunt Hilda in Redbud, a long stagecoach ride away. But all is not resolved so easily. Miss Catchum, of the infamous Catchum Child-Catching Services, informs Emily that she must live with mean and nasty Uncle Victor.

“Now what in a devil’s doughnut should Emily do?” Run away on the next stagecoach, of course. And that’s exactly what Emily does, launching a series of adventures that test her gumption, her new friendship with a (stray) boy named Jackson and even the steely nerves of Rufus the turtle. Readers will find themselves on the edge of their seats asking, “What in pickin’ poppies could possibly happen next?”

With its colorful old-West expressions, delightful illustrations by Ross Collins and inventive use of fonts aimed at grabbing even the most reluctant reader’s attention, Emily’s Fortune is just the book to launch a summer of reading adventures. 

In Emily’s Fortune, Newbery Award-winning author Phyllis Reynolds Naylor has penned a fast-paced Western adventure perfect for summer afternoons. The story is a delightful departure for this versatile writer, and a wonderful comic romp for young readers.

The heroine, Emily Wiggins, is a shy eight-year-old. She…

“Put on your veil, grab your hive tool, and light up your smoker we’re going into a beehive,” begins The Hive Detectives: Chronicle of a Honey Bee Catastrophe

With its clear, readable text, amazing photographs and attractive design, the latest title in the “Scientists in the Field” series not only takes readers inside a beehive, but provides a fascinating look at how scientists and beekeepers are working together to research an alarming drop in honey bees.

Readers of The Hive Detectives will feel like investigators themselves. The first chapter provides an engaging introduction to beekeeping by following the activities of Mary Duane, who keeps bees in her backyard as a hobby. Readers see Mary preparing a smoker and using hive tools to check the health of her bees.

Thanks to this background, it’s easy for readers to appreciate the plight of Dave Hackenberg, a commercial beekeeper, who in November 2006 discovered that 400 of his hives were mysteriously decimated. Author Loree Griffin Burns, who has a Ph.D. in Biology and writes about science for children, follows Hackenberg’s quest to bring the honey bee catastrophe to the attention of policymakers and scientists. A center spread provides short bios of four of the researchers who ultimately collaborated on investigations to discover what might be causing colony collapse disorder (CCD) throughout the country.

The Hive Detectives not only tells a compelling story, it is a visual feast, with high quality photographs, an exceptionally appealing design that draws the reader into the topic and a clear, concise glossary. Just as the scientists are profiled in a scrapbook format, the same layout is used to provide information on the parts of the insect and “bios” of the bees that comprise a hive: drones, workers and queen.

Scientists are still looking for the causes of CCD, but it’s clear that chemicals and pesticides play a crucial role. Books like The Hive Detectives are integral to helping young readers—and their parents—gain a better understanding not only of how scientists work to solve real-life problems, but how all of us can be part of solutions by the choices we make.

And that’s definitely a sweet discovery.

 

Deborah Hopkinson’s newest book (also about bees) is entitled The Humblebee Hunter: Inspired by the Life and Experiments of Charles Darwin and his Children. 

“Put on your veil, grab your hive tool, and light up your smoker we’re going into a beehive,” begins The Hive Detectives: Chronicle of a Honey Bee Catastrophe

With its clear, readable text, amazing photographs and attractive design, the latest title in the “Scientists in the…

Karen Healey’s debut novel, Guardian of the Dead, takes place at a boarding school in New Zealand, where Ellie Spencer is living away from home for the first time. As the novel begins, she seems concerned with normal teenage pastimes—settling into a new school environment, getting a bit tipsy with her friend Kevin, becoming involved in a play and catching glimpses of handsome day student Mark Nolan, who inspires daydreams as she sits in her Classics class.

The fantasy elements of the story evolve slowly, and Ellie herself is surprised by her increasingly intense interactions with Mark. When she literally runs into him, she experiences a physical shock, realizing that “the perfect planes of his pale face had rearranged themselves into something frightening.” But as unsettling as her encounters with Mark become, Ellie finds herself turning to him for help when her friend Kevin seems to be in danger from a mysterious woman named Reka. In her efforts to save Kevin, Ellie must learn to trust her own emerging powers as well as the world Mark opens for her—a mythological world populated by mist-dwelling Maori fairy people, known as the patupaiarehe, who need human lives to gain immortality. The incredible battle that follows tests Ellie’s commitment to her friends, her country and her growing love for Mark.

Guardian of the Dead will appeal to readers who are fans of young adult authors such as Holly Black and Libba Bray. And without a doubt, Healey will soon have many fans of her own.

Karen Healey’s debut novel, Guardian of the Dead, takes place at a boarding school in New Zealand, where Ellie Spencer is living away from home for the first time. As the novel begins, she seems concerned with normal teenage pastimes—settling into a new school environment,…

It's the summer of 1899, 50 miles outside of Austin, Texas, and Calpurnia Tate's entire family, with the exception of her eccentric grandfather, is suffering from the heat. Nicknamed Callie Vee, the 11-year-old is the only girl, smack in the middle of six brothers. She has some secret weapons to deal with the heat–a spot all her own where she can strip down to her chemise and float in the cool San Marcos River, and a plan to surreptitiously cut an inch off her hair every week so her mother won't notice.Callie Vee loves making scientific observations, and when her favorite brother Harry gives her a notebook, she sets out to become a bona fide naturalist. In the process she finds that Grandaddy, who mostly keeps to himself in a shed called the laboratory out back, is a true kindred spirit.  He not only has a copy of Mr. Darwin's Origin of Species, but has corresponded with the great scientist himself.  As Grandaddy's partner, Callie Vee learns to become a keen observer of all around her, from plant and insect life to Harry's courting behavior.

At the same time that Callie Vee feels possibilities opening, the net of social expectations draws closer around her. Her attempts at the domestic arts aren't going so well, even though she tries to meet her mother's expectations.

Calpurnia Tate is not just another "spunky heroine."  She is sincere in her struggles to master tatting and knitting, and begins to realize how hard she may have to fight to become a scientist. Kelly is able to show the full weight of the pressures upon women in the 19th century–as well as the excitement of discovery. 

Her mother may find it "dangerous" when Callie Vee wanders, but by the time the year ends and 1900 begins, Calpurnia has a sign that perhaps the new century might bring her closer to the future she imagines for herself.

Peppered with quotes from Darwin and timed perfectly for his bicentennial, this warm, fully realized portrait of a family has the hallmark of a classic.

Deborah Hopkinson wrote about Mr. Darwin in Who Was Charles Darwin? Her new book is Keep On! The Story of Matthew Henson, Co-Discoverer of the North Pole.

It's the summer of 1899, 50 miles outside of Austin, Texas, and Calpurnia Tate's entire family, with the exception of her eccentric grandfather, is suffering from the heat. Nicknamed Callie Vee, the 11-year-old is the only girl, smack in the middle of six brothers. She…

The Devil’s Paintbox begins in April 1865. At the close of the Civil War, 16-year-old Aiden Lynch and his younger sister, Maddy, are near starvation, the sole survivors on their family’s Kansas farm. So when a man named Jefferson Jackson shows up looking to recruit workers for a Seattle lumber camp, Aiden knows his only chance is to convince the man that taking them along is worth the risk.

In this compelling coming-of-age adventure for teens, Victoria McKernan, author of the acclaimed Shackleton’s Stowaway for middle-grade readers, doesn’t shy away from some of the grittier aspects of life in the old West. Aiden’s journey is marked by hardship, tragedy and conflict. Through Aiden’s experiences, readers glimpse a changing world, where settlers, soldiers, timber workers, Civil War veterans, women and Native Americans struggle for existence.

Aiden is a likeable, engaging hero, and the secondary characters stand out as real individuals of the time. For instance, the wagon train’s doctor is a man trying to recover from his war experiences. A young woman Aiden meets explains why she is forced to make her living as a prostitute. McKernan also captures the dramatic, often random events that transformed people’s lives: a difficult crossing, an encounter with a rattlesnake, an outbreak of disease.

Smallpox and its tragic effects on Native Americans are major themes of the novel. The book gets its title from the words of a doctor describing this dreaded disease: “This death is a devil child playing with a paintbox, just spattering all over. You reach out to grab its hand and make it stop, but you find this devil child is made of smoke.”

Through his unlikely friendship with Tupic, a Nez Perce boy, Aiden is thrown headfirst into the controversies surrounding the vaccination of Indians against smallpox. The author’s extensive research makes Aiden’s world accessible to readers, whether it’s daily life on a wagon train, or learning to survive in the harsh world of Pacific Northwest timber camps.

The Devil’s Paintbox is a wonderful choice for teens—both boys and girls—who want a break from a diet of fantasy, science fiction and of course, vampires.

The Devil’s Paintbox begins in April 1865. At the close of the Civil War, 16-year-old Aiden Lynch and his younger sister, Maddy, are near starvation, the sole survivors on their family’s Kansas farm. So when a man named Jefferson Jackson shows up looking to recruit…

Like most 12 year olds, Mibs (short for Mississippi) Beaumont is looking forward to her 13th birthday. But in the Beaumont family, this means a lot more than just becoming a teenager at last. On her special day, Mibs will discover her very own "savvy," her special, paranormal power.

Before that fateful day, Mibs can only speculate what her savvy will be. It might be a bit overwhelming, like her brother Fish’s tendency to cause terrible weather. It might be electric through and through, just like her brother Rocket’s power. Or it might be gentle, like her mother’s gift of making everything turn out, well, perfect.

But just before Mibs’ big day, her beloved poppa is in a traffic accident. Her mother and Rocket drive off to be with him (Rocket is needed to power the old station wagon!), leaving the rest of the family with Grandpa Bomba (whose savvy is, well, making new places. Where do you think the entire state of Idaho came from, anyway?).

When Mibs suspects her savvy might help Poppa wake up, she has to find a way to get the 90 miles to Salina, Kansas, even if it means commandeering the pink bus of the Heartland Bible Supply company. And if Mibs thinks she can undertake this journey alone, well, fate would have it otherwise.

Mibs is destined to share the ride not just with the Bible delivery-man, Lester, but with the preacher’s kids, the snooty Bobbi and the sweet Will Junior. And then of course there’s a small stowaway, her moody little brother, Samson. And that’s just the beginning!

During this event-filled journey, Mibs discovers that her savvy—along with her first impressions about people—might be different than she expected. She also comes to realize that although the Beaumonts have often been outcasts, it’s possible to find community in unexpected places.

Ingrid Law’s debut novel Savvy is already a hit with tween readers and is being mentioned as a Newbery contender. If you thought the road trip in the film Little Miss Sunshine was wild, hold onto your hat! Or better yet, open up Savvy and settle in for a delightful read.

Like most 12 year olds, Mibs (short for Mississippi) Beaumont is looking forward to her 13th birthday. But in the Beaumont family, this means a lot more than just becoming a teenager at last. On her special day, Mibs will discover her very own "savvy,"…

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