Friendship

Priscilla and Rosy

A tempting boat trip tests an alley-rats loyalty to her best friend Priscilla, who lives in an alley behind a restaurant. Her best friend, Rosy, lives across the gutter near an ice cream store. After a busy week of stealing food scraps and scaring people, the two rodent pals decide to take Monday off together, so they can relax over Rosy’s new puzzle. hen Priscilla is invited out on a boat trip on Monday. What else can a rat do but accept? She can call up Rosy and tell a little fib. Maybe Priscilla could say she just remembered that she had already agreed to the trip. Maybe she could say she’s sick. After all, she can do a puzzle with Rosy any old time; a boat trip is really special. So why does Priscilla feel so ratty? A not-too-sweet tale about honoring your friends, Priscilla and Rosy introduces young readers to a refreshing new heroine who, despite her all-too human flaws, manages to do the right thing in the end. Linda Hendry’s inspired illustrations add the perfect touch of droll humor to Sharon Jennings witty and endearing story.

C’mere, Boy!

In a charming twist on the “boy wants dog” story, this time it’s a dog who begs his mama for a boy, promising to feed it, play with it and walk it; Mama points out that boys are very difficult to train, but Dog knows what he wants and in the end, the determined little canine’s perseverance pays off.

Up To Low

Young Tommy hasn’t been to the town of Low for two years – not since his mother’s death. And it’s been two years since he’s seen little Baby Bridget, the girl with the trillium-shaped eyes. But now Tommy, his father, and his father’s friend Frank are driving in a shiny new Buick up the through the Gatineau Hills to reach the small Quebecois town – a place steeped in the culture of its Irish settlers. A host of colorful characters await him in Low – Crazy Mickey, Tommy’s 100-old Irish great-grandfather; Grandma Minnie, Mickey’s 99-year-old wife; and dear Aunt Dottie, who carries a huge bottle of Lysol for washing raspberries and socks. Then there’s Mean Hughie, Baby Bridget’s abusive father who is ill with cancer. For Tommy, it’s a summer when love and death are all mixed up – and healing comes in unexpected ways.

Give Up The Ghost

Cass McKenna much prefers ghosts over “breathers.” Ghosts are uncomplicated and dependable, and they know the dirt on everybody…and Cass loves dirt. She’s on a mission to expose the dirty secrets of the poseurs in her school. But when the vice president of the student council discovers her secret, Cass’s whole scheme hangs in the balance. Tim wants her to help him contact his recently deceased mother, and Cass reluctantly agrees. As Cass becomes increasingly entwined in Tim’s life, she’s surprised to realize he’s not so bad—and he needs help more desperately than anyone else suspects. Maybe it’s time to give the living another chance….

Passing the Peace: A Counting Book for Children

This is an exceptional book by an innovative author from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Not only does it guide the young reader through the numbers 1 to 10, it does so in English, French, Inuktitut, and Inuinnaqtun. The numerical progression in the color images, which are of Inuit figures cut from fabric and arranged anew for each number, is further represented by each figure acquiring a bright red heart, reinforcing the overall theme of friendship among people of different languages and races.

Confetti Girl

Apolonia “Lina”Flores is a sock enthusiast, a volleyball player, a science lover, and a girl who’s just looking for answers. Even though her house is crammed full of books (her dad’s a bibliophile), she’s having trouble figuring out some very big questions, like why her dad seems to care about books more than her, why her best friend’s divorced mom is obsessed with making cascarones (hollowed eggshells filled with colorful confetti), and, most of all, why her mom died last year. Like colors in cascarones, Lina’s life is a rainbow of people, interests, and unexpected changes.In her first novel for young readers, Diana López creates a clever and honest story about a young Latina girl navigating growing pains in her South Texan city.

The Last Summer Of The Death Warriors

When Pancho arrives at St. Anthony’s Home, he knows his time there will be short: If his plans succeed, he’ll soon be arrested for the murder of his sister’s killer. But then he’s assigned to help D.Q., whose brain cancer has slowed neither his spirit nor his mouth. D.Q. tells Pancho all about his “Death Warrior’s Manifesto,” which will help him to live out his last days fully–ideally, he says, with the love of the beautiful Marisol. As Pancho tracks down his sister’s murderer, he finds himself falling under the influence of D.Q. and Marisol, who is everything D.Q. said she would be; and he is inexorably drawn to a decision: to honor his sister and her death, or embrace the way of the Death Warrior and choose life. Nuanced in its characters and surprising in its plot developments–both soulful and funny–Pancho & D.Q. is a “buddy novel” of the highest kind: the story of a friendship that helps two young men become all they can be.

The Party for Papa Luis / La fiesta para Papa Luis

A cumulative tale in which Papa Luis’s family and friends make preparations for his birthday fiesta, complete with pinata, cake, and a clown.