Nielsen’s writing unfolds like a movie, using intrigue, suspense, drama, and emotion like brilliant-colored, textured paints that enliven a blank canvas. Readers feel the pain of impossible decisions, the darkness of misguided means for well-intended ends, and the victory of wisdom and perseverance. A masterful, breathtaking first in a trilogy. Content is best for middle-grade readers.

The hard-hitting plot creates suspense and action that will appeal to reluctant readers. NOTE: Sensitive readers may have difficulty with brief descriptions of organized dog-fighting. However, the book provides great opportunities to discuss problem-solving and decision-making.

The fast-paced story captures the desperation some families experienced when the Berlin Wall was erected. As the protagonist and her brother face critical decisions, readers will explore their own thinking and possible choices given the story's extraordinary circumstances. The result is a reading-based thrill ride.

In this sequel to "Beardance," Cloyd ventures into the wilderness to find and protect the last grizzly bears in Colorado. An ALA Best Book for Young Adults.

Young Livy returns to visit her grandmother in Australia after a five-year separation. Though she initially remembers little of the previous visit, her memories begin to return when she rediscovers her best friend, Bob, waiting in her closet. She soon realizes no one else can see Bob! Bob helps Livy begin to recover precious old memories as they make thrilling new ones together exploring the bush. ...

Charming free verse vignettes from the childhood of Jacqueline Woodson draw the reader into a life rich with feelings, scents, sounds, and sensations within an African-American family. Mentions of Rosa Parks, the Civil Rights marches and segregated lunch counters provide great points of discussion. However, the focus is simple family times: catching fireflies, church meetings, Saturday night shamp ...

Call Across the Sea tells of Henny Sinding, a Danish girl who grew up piloting her father’s delivery boat across the inlet to the Baltic Sea. During the increasing NAZI occupation of 1943, she evades soldiers and distributes forbidden news while fearing for her Jewish neighbors. All of her skills and her courage will be needed to spirit Jewish families safely across the sea to Sweden. Her ingenu ...

Chickadee, Atim, Otter, and Sam are tweens on a mission! The national gathering of the Cree Peoples is meeting on their Windy Lake land, but the sudden disappearance of the sacred relics from their location threatens Windy Lake’s reputation among the other Cree tribes. Blending traditional native tracking methods and 21st Century technology they search diligently to restore Windy Lake’s honor, ...

This complex exploration of communication unfolds through the dog's narration. The author imagines what an earnest dog may have said to help his autistic person understand and to encourage him to respond with a spoken word. We, readers, begin to grasp the intracacies of intuition and inference, and the frustrations of misunderstandings. Well-meaning parents and teachers miss the big picture when o ...

Crossover is an engaging set of free verse poems describing events in the lives of 7th grade twin boys throughout their basketball season. The poems are charming and engaging, some in a rap style. The short, pithy style and athletic allusions will appeal to middle school boys. The story is told through one brother’s eyes, and sibling rivalry between the two is a part of the plot. The parents are ...

This is a story that explores the harbor of safety family can be, regardless of wealth or documentation. But when this family is suddenly ripped apart, the strength of familial roots translates into maturity as a son assumes the role of sibling caretaker, family comforter, and eventually, determined class leader. A well-written, relevant story that instructs with heart and intelligence.

Marting explores loss, grief, and loneliness by interweaving three seemingly disparate stories in alternating chapters. Readers follow heartbreaking and heartwarming moments of a stray dog, the tragedy and restoration of a family who suffers life-changing loss, and the growth of a boy who knows, especially after his best friend moves away, that a dog would fix his sad heart. While the mood is heav ...

Florian and his ""Theory Of All Small Things,"" or ""TOAST,"" will remind readers of Sherlock Holmes and his ability to notice what others miss. It's enough of a theory to bring the FBI calling, seeking help in solving a major art heist. Both a mystery and an adventure, young readers will find the roller coaster ride of a plot engaging from start to finish. May be of special interest to reluctant ...

Grasping Mysteries imagines snapshots throughout the lives of seven high-achieving women of science using free verse poetry. From childhood, each woman had an inborn passion for mathematics. Each faced discouragement from family members, two from their own mothers. Each used grace and firmness to overcome barriers placed on their ambitions, their sex, and their race and went on to make groundbreak ...

Doors seem to close at every turn in this exciting basketball-based book. The Wasps' community center is closing. The team is disbanding. Money is gone. All these happen in the midst of a local championship tournament. Young sports fans will enjoy the play-by-play descriptions of the critical games while experiencing a story that illustrates that sometimes character overcomes resources.

Desperate tale of a family’s survival during the winter of 1944, a time the Dutch call Hongerwinter. Papa and older sister, Els, are away as resistance fighters, and Mamma has died. Alone, thirteen-year-old Dirk must safely transport himself and little sister Anna across NAZI-held countryside to rejoin their relatives. They meet many people, but they never know who is friend or who is foe.

Eight-year-old J.D. turns a tragic home haircut into a thriving barber business in this hilarious new illustrated chapter book series J.D. has a big problem--it's the night before the start of third grade and his mom has just given him his first and worst home haircut. When the steady stream of insults from the entire student body of Douglass Elementary becomes too much for J.D., he takes matters ...

Little Charlie is but a 12-year-old sharecropper’s son. When his father dies, Charlie is bribed to join a cruel slave catcher on a mission to Dee-troit for two runaways. The journey is bitter, and the Cap’n he accompanies is evil, lying to everyone along the way. Charlie desperately needs the money but does not trust the Cap’n. On his journey Charlie learns of the brutal punishments for slav ...