Material appropriate for young adults
WOULD YOU RATHER know what’s going to happen or not know? A summer night. A Saturday. For Natalie’s amazing older sister, Claire, this summer is fantastic, because she’s zooming off to college in the fall. For Natalie, it’s a fun summer with her friends; nothing special. When Claire is hit by a car, the world changes in a heartbeat. Over the next four days, moment by moment, Natalie, her parents, and their friends wait to learn if Claire will ever recover.
The record-breaking, bestselling sequel to Spud!
It’s 1991, and John “Spud” Milton’s journey to manhood is still creeping along at a snail’s pace. Nearly fifteen, Spud’s starting his second year at boarding school and—to his utter mortification—he’s still a spud!
To make things worse, his dorm mates, the legendary Crazy Eight, have an unusual new member (Roger the cat), and his house is home to a new batch of unruly first years. Spud is soon plagued with women trouble, coerced into expulsion-worthy adventures, and frustrated to find his dreams of fame in tatters after landing the part of the Dove of Peace in a disastrous production of Noah’s Ark.
Join Spud as he takes another tentative step forward while all around him the madness continues. . . .
A collection of short stories which focus on the difficult journeys teens take on their way to adulthood.
A twelve-year-old boy learns about death and the conflicts that grip his Central American country when he’s pressed into military service and trained as a soldier.
A teenage girl recounts the suffering and persecution of her family under the Nazis–in a Polish ghetto, through deportation, and in concentration camps.
The author tells the story of how one of the greatest boats of ancient Egypt came to be built—and built again. In the shadow of the Great Pyramid at Giza, the most skilled shipwrights in all of Egypt are building an enormous vessel that will transport Cheops, the mighty pharaoh, across the winding waterway and into a new world.
There the ships lie until they are discovered by accident in 1954, carefully unearthed, and reconstructed under the direction of the chief of the Restoration Department of Egyptian Antiquities with the help of Nile boat builders.
It’s never fun when a great summer comes to an end. Particularly when one argues with one’s adorable, but grossly insensitive, boyfriend the night before school starts. It’s such a terrible fight, Jess doesn’t know—are they broken up? Should she apologize? Too bad Jess is spending all her time in detention and can’t talk to Fred to figure it out. A sadistic new English teacher has decided Jess needs an attitude adjustment, and Jess can’t seem to stop making terrible mistakes. When she ends up pantless in her own backyard, Jess is left to ask herself: Where did she go wrong? And what can be done to make it up to Fred and salvage this horrible, horrible year?
Just when things were going so well. Jess had the perfect summer planned: She and Fred, lounging in the park, gazing into one another’s eyes and engaging in witty repartee. It was going to be so romantic. And then her maddening mum stepped in: She suddenly announced a two-week “road trip” to Cornwall to visit Jess’s dad, something Jess might have enjoyed, actually, were it not for the monstrously bad timing. Not only will this force Jess and Fred apart for two whole weeks, it will also leave the darling and handsome Fred in the clutches of Jess’s blindingly beautiful best friend, Flora—who, you might recall, expressed an interest in Fred not too long ago. As if all this weren’t enough, Jess’s mum seems to expect her to weep at the grave of every departed literary hero in Britain’s long history. It’s absolute torture. And little does Jess know, a huge surprise awaits her when she visits her dad at his home for the first time in years.
Diego Rivera’s energy, physique, love for women, and work were all “bigger than life.” Born in a small Mexican mining town in 1886,he drew his way through childhood, entered art school at ageten, and later traveled throughout Europe, studying the great masters andimitating their techniques. When he returned to Mexico in 1921, he foundhis own unique style. He began painting the poetry of the common people –working, suffering, fighting, seeking joy, living, and dying — on thewalls of public buildings. His murals were passionate, controversial, political,and enormous — like the painter himself.
Ayisha and Ahmed know there is trouble. Something is not right with this American archaeologist and his wife. Supposedly tourists. Why are they so interested in the ancient manuscripts of Timbuktu? Could they really be plotting to steal one? Well, they are more than old manuscripts to Ayisha and Ahmed—they are a rich part of their own heritage. No way are the two teens going to let this happen! They risk everything to stop them, embarking on a desperate quest that takes them across the desert, through a deadly heat, a sweeping sandstorm and finally to the port city of Korioume to confront and trap the wily thieves—and save a treasure of Timbuktu.