Friendship

Best Friends

Gemma and Alice have been best friends since they were born on the same day in the same hospital—it doesn’t matter that Gemma loves soccer while Alice prefers drawing, or that Gemma is always getting into trouble while Alice is a model student and daughter. But when Alice has to move to Scotland with her family, their friendship is put to the test. Is Best Friends Forever stronger than five hundred miles? Readers will relate to the heroic efforts the girls make to maintain their friendship and the small disasters of ‘tween life that they encounter along the way.

A Promise Is a Promise

Bruno the marmot hibernates all winter, and upon waking in the spring, he discovers the most beautiful dandelion outside his burrow. The two quickly become friends, playing together every day. But when summer comes, the dandelion asks Bruno to trust her, so he obliges her request to blow her seeds away into the wind. Devastated that his friend is no longer with him, Bruno is lonely until next winter’s hibernation. When he wakes again, he discovers that an amazing surprise sprouted while he slept.

Ping Pong Pig

“Ping Pong Pig” loves to leap, jump, and bounce all over Apple Tree Farm. He is far too busy having fun all day to help with the chores. Soon he lands into a big mess, and he’s up to his ears in trouble. Will he learn to help his friends before pigs fly?

Sam Tells Stories

When Sam changes schools, he tells some pretty amazing stories about himself but after a few days, when he confesses that he is just boring, regular Sam, he finds that he still has friends–and a talent that makes him more interesting.

Nim at Sea

This time Nim’s the fish-out-of-water as she stows away on a cruise ship to save her kidnapped sea lion friend. Accompanied by her likeable iguana, Fred, the island girl lands with a splash in Manhattan, on the run from a very Bad Guy, and on her way to reunite with her friend, cowardly adventure novelist Alex Rover.

The House of the Scorpion

The House of the Scorpion By Nancy Farmer is about Matthew who is a clone of El Patrón, a powerful drug lord of the land of Opium, which is located between the United States and Mexico. For six years, he has lived in a tiny cottage in the poppy fields with Celia, a kind and deeply religious servant woman who is charged with his care and safety. He knows little about his existence until he is discovered by a group of children playing in the fields and wonders why he isn’t like them. Though Matt has been spared the fate of most clones, who have their intelligence destroyed at birth, the evil inhabitants of El Patrón’s empire consider him a “beast” and an “eejit.” When El Patrón dies at the age of 146, fourteen-year-old Matt escapes Opium with the help of Celia and Tam Lin, his devoted bodyguard who wants to right his own wrongs. After a near misadventure in his escape, Matt makes his way back home and begins to rid the country of its evils.

Inside the Walls of Troy

Helen is renowned as the most beautiful woman in the world. Her divine beauty will lead her to a lifetime of adventure–from her kidnapping at age 12, through an arranged marriage, to a passionate affair that will ultimately bring about the Trojan War. Cassandra, the sister of Helen’s true love, has the gift, or curse, to predict the future. When she foresees the ruin of her family and city, caused by Helen’s arrival in Troy, she is outraged. Yet Cassandra cannot help being drawn to Helen, and as the war rages around them, the two young women develop a deep friendship. Through their eyes, the classic tale of the Trojan War is retold in an immediate and fascinating way.