Birdie Plays Dress-Up

by Sujean Rim

$6.99

Birdie just loves to play dress-up, trying on all of her fancy clothes, shoes, and accessories to find the perfect new look. Dresses make her feel like a princess, and sunglasses make her feel like a movie star...but in the end, Birdie realizes that the most fun person to be is herself.

Young readers will love this adorable little girl with a passion for fashion.

Recommended for ages 4+.

I'll Save You Bobo!

by Eileen Rosenthal
and Marc Rosenthal

$14.99

The irresistible stars of I Must Have Bobo! return in another everyday adventure in domestic disharmony.

Willy wants to write a storybook starring Bobo--and act out revenge fantasies on Earl, but Earl keeps wrecking the story--hence Willy's desire to act out revenge fantasies!

Quit it, Earl...and stop stealing Bobo! But sometimes it only takes a small thing to realize that even sworn enemies have something in common. For instance: Bobo and Earl both have very snakey tails! Is that a truce? Don't count on it.

Recommended for ages 3-6.

Leo Geo and His Miraculous Journey
Through the Center
of the Earth

by Jon Chad

$15.99

An intrepid explorer climbs down, down, down the page as he voyages through the center of the earth in this unusually inventive comic adventure. Intrepid explorer Leo Geo is heading off on a mission into the unknown. With science as his sidekick, he intends to tunnel his way to the center of the earth.

Of course, things never turn out quite the way you expect when you're burrowing your way through the earth's layers. Before long, Leo is forced to leave his tunneling machine behind, and he climbs, crawls, and falls to his destination while dodging giant centipedes, man-eating quadclops, and an evil army of subterranean malvisors bent on invading the surface.

Kids will be drawn in by the unusual format of this inventive comic, following Leo as he climbs deeper and deeper into a very long and skinny book--and they may learn a few things about geology as they go.

Recommended for ages 7-10.

House Held Up by Trees

by Jon Klassen and
Ted Kooser

$16.99

From Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Ted Kooser and rising talent Jon Klassen comes a poignant tale of loss, change, and nature's quiet triumph.

When the house was new, not a single tree remained on its perfect lawn to give shade from the sun. The children in the house trailed the scent of wild trees to neighboring lots, where thick bushes offered up secret places to play.

When the children grew up and moved away, their father, alone in the house, continued his battle against blowing seeds, plucking out sprouting trees. Until one day the father, too, moved away, and as the empty house began its decline, the trees began their approach.

At once wistful and exhilarating, this lovely, lyrical story evokes the inexorable passage of time, and the awe-inspiring power of nature to lift us up.

Recommended for ages 5-8.

Stars in the Shadows

by Charles R. Smith Jr.
and Frank Morrison

$14.99

Meet Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and other baseball heroes in this unique radio broadcast reenactment of a legendary All-Star Game, marking a pivotal time in sports history. 1934, Chicago. Come step back in time to witness the best of the best Negro League players take each other on in one of the most fascinating All-Star ballgames in American history. Using a unique radio broadcast transcript, Coretta Scott King Award-Winner Charles R. Smith, Jr. has recreated this momentous event with a lively play-by-play retelling of the second annual Negro League East-West Game.

Meet legendary players like Satchel Paige, Turkey Stearness, and Cool Pappa Bell. Hang in the stands with the fans, and experience this exhilarating untold, true story with a lyrical twist.

Stars in the Shadows is a must-have for any baseball aficionado or anyone interested in forgotten history. Beautifully packaged and with incredible black-and-white illustrations by Frank Morrison, this is a rare and extraordinary book.

Recommended for ages 8-12.

Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms

by Lissa Evans

$14.95

Enter a wonderful world filled with real magic, mystery, and danger. As if being small and having S. Horten as his name isn't bad enough, now 10-year-old Stuart is forced to move far away from all his friends.

But on his very first day in his new home, Stuart is swept up in an extraordinary adventure: the quest to find his great-uncle Tony--a famous magician who literally disappeared off the face of the earth--and Tony's marvelous, long-lost workshop.

Along the way, Stuart reluctantly accepts help from the annoying triplets next door, and encounters trouble from another magician who's also desperate to get hold of Tony's treasures.

A quirky, smart page-turner, Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms will enchant young readers--as well as teachers, librarians, and parents. Long-listed for the Carnegie Medal (2012) and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize (2011)

Recommended for ages 8-13.

Ruby Redfort Look
Into My Eyes

by Lauren Child

$16.99

Hey, buster! Crack open this new series starring Ruby Redfort - Clarice Bean's favorite all-action heroine--and you will literally be at the edge of your wits.

Everyone knows that Clarice Bean is exceptionordinarily keen on the Ruby Redfort books. Now in her own starring role, Ruby, a genius code-cracker and daring detective, along with her sidekick butler, Hitch, work for a secret crime-busting organization called Spectrum.

Ruby gets into lots of scrapes with evil villains, but she's always ice-cool in a crisis. Just take a classic screwball comedy, add heaps of breathtaking action, multiply it by Lauren Child's writing genius, and what have you got? Only the most exciting new middle-grade series since, like, ever.

Recommended for ages 10-13.

I Hunt Killers

by Barry Lyga

$17.99

What if the world's worst serial killer was your dad?

Jasper (Jazz) Dent is a likable teenager. A charmer, one might say. But he's also the son of the world's most infamous serial killer, and for Dear Old Dad, Take Your Son to Work Day was year-round. Jazz has witnessed crime scenes the way cops wish they could--from the criminal's point of view. And now bodies are piling up in Lobo's Nod.

In an effort to clear his name, Jazz joins the police in a hunt for a new serial killer. But Jazz has a secret: could he be more like his father than anyone knows?

Recommended for ages 15-22.

What Teachers Make

by Taylor Mali

$19.95

The right book at the right time: an impassioned defense of teachers and why our society needs them now more than ever.

Former middle-school teacher and teachers' advocate Taylor Mali struck a chord with his passionate response to a man at a dinner party who asked him what kind of salary teachers make--a poetic rant that has been seen and forwarded millions of times on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

Based on the poem that inspired a movement, What Teachers Make is Mali's sharp, funny, reflective, critical call to arms about the joys of teaching and why teachers are so vital to America today. It's a book that will be treasured and shared by every teacher in America--and everyone who's ever loved or learned from one.

Recommended for ages 18+.