Since second grade, they've shared secrets, good and bad. Now in seventh grade, Alison moves into the neighborhood. Stephanie hopes all three of them can be best friends, because Stephanie really likes Alison. But it looks as if it's going to be a case of two's company and three's a crowd. Can the girls' friendship be saved?

    What do you do with an older sister who is smart, pretty, popular, and perfect?What do you do when you realize she's the best sister ever?What do you do when you find out she's gone...and you didn't get to say goodbye?Thirteen-year-old Elly Rowan asks herself those questions—and one more... Why Did She Have to Die?

    Stotan: A cross between a Stoic and a SpartanIt's the last swimming season for Walker, Nortie, Lion, and Jeff, and their coach is building their self-discipline in a grueling four-hour-a-day test of stamina designed to bring them to the outer edge of their capabilities.As it turns out, Stotan Week is also the week in which secrets are revealed, and the four friends must draw upon their new strengths for an endurance they never knew they'd need.

    Includes her highly acclaimed Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Morgan's Passing, The Tin Can Tree, and If Morning Ever Comes.

    Jamaica really likes the toy dog and wants to keep it! But with the help of her family, Jamaica decides that it could belong to a kid, just like her. What will Jamaica decide to do? With simple yet vivid text and gentle illustrations, this hopeful and relatable story of lost-and-found will add to every child's toolbox of understanding how to be an empathetic person in our big and beautiful diverse world.

    Spooner thinks she's one of the world's more promising cellists. The world thinks so too. Given up by her mother on the day she was born, she believes she has almost raised herself--with just a bit of guidance from her unconventional father, Taxi. When Sib finally asks Taxi to take her to meet her mother for the first time, she knows it might mean breaking away from the man who has raised her. Finding your own path often means leaving those you love, and Sib is willing to take the risk. Yet as she and her dad wind their way across the country to San Francisco, Sib discovers she may not be as "self-made" as she thought. And as she learns more about the man she thought she knew, she finds out it's not simply her music that makes her special, but also the love from the parent she might have to leave behind.1986 Best Books for Young Adults (ALA)1987 Fanfare Honor List (The Horn Book)Best Books of 1986 (SLJ)Best of the 80's (BL)Young Adult Choices for 1988 (IRA)1987 Teachers' Choices (IRA)1987 Books for the Teen Age (NY Public Library)Best of the 80's (English Journal)

    Sloan is a time bomb waiting to go off. Behind his kindly public persona is an intolerant, demanding parent who terrorizes his children. Neal escapes his father in the world of music, but his frail brother Georgie is headed for a breakdown that almost no one will realize.

    He's stopped working and refuses to leave the house. Nick and his mother deny the mental illness of his father, but the problem doesn't go away. They must learn to face it together. ALA Best Book for young adults.

    A twelve-year-old black girl's preparations for the prestigious King Academy's entrance exam are disrupted when her best friend is killed.

    A Harvard student from New Jersey investigates her roommate's mysterious death.

    Features • Features 140 Readers of about the same difficulty (10 in each set). • Gives students a sense of accomplishment in completing an entire book in 8 pages. • Provides decoding practice, application with a phonetically controlled vocabulary. • Checks comprehension with a sequencing activity at the back of each book.

    Truly engaging.--Sassy.

    A young girl discovers the ocean's majestic character when she joins her uncle on a sailing trip.