A thrilling follow-up to DiTerlizzi and Black’s first Spiderwick Chronicles book, The Seeing Stone has Jared and Mallory rescuing Simon from a band of goblins. When the young boy is kidnapped, Thimbletack leads Jared to a stone that allows him to have “the sight,” or the ability to see magical creatures. Soon, the brother and sister are outfoxing a hungry troll, working with a helpful goblin named Hogsqueal to thwart the other goblins, and taking care of a wounded griffin. With more enchanted action than the first book and a …

Like Joey Pigza, Bradley Chalkers doesn’t fit in with the other kids in his fifth-grade class. For one thing, he’s the oldest. He’s also a liar and an attention-seeking bully. Many students have a “Bradley” in their own classrooms. Hopefully they will see that friendship and understanding go a long way toward helping kids like Bradley triumph over their own obstacles.

Borden Watson’s father is a logger in Northern California and he has lost his job because logging in that region has been halted to protect the endangered spotted owl. When Borden brings home an abandoned baby owl, his father yells, “Shoot him!” But calmer heads prevail and the owl is allowed to remain in the house. Before long, the presence of the owl causes a turn-around in the lives and attitudes of the people who live there.

Angela Johnson’s original new picture book pays tribute to the men, “from Native Americans to Europeans to Asians to Africans,” who with their “blood, sweat, and courage” have built America’s bridges, railroads, and skyscrapers. Poetic text and dramatic watercolors illustrate the hard work and danger these men faced.

In November 1960, America watched as six-year-old Ruby Bridges, surrounded by U.S. marshals, walked through a crowd of threatening segregationists to enter her elementary school. Forty years later, Bridges tells how she made civil rights history by being one of the first African American students to attend an all-white school in New Orleans.

The famous verses from the Book of Ecclesiastes inspired Caldecott medalists Leo and Diane Dillon to create this tribute to the cycles of life. Every verse in the book is accompanied by a full spread of artwork, each done in the style of a different culture. In all, the Dillons present 16 pairs of paintings showing cultures as diverse as ancient Greece, medieval Europe, aboriginal Australia, pre-conquest Mexico, 17th-century Ethiopia, and Imperial China. Notes at the end of the book explain more about each culture and the significance of the …

Ibn Battuta, a young Moroccan, was like other Muslims of the 14th century. He was a scholar who could recite the Koran, and he dreamed of a pilgrimage, or “hajj,” to Mecca. But unlike other Muslims and many other men, he made a 75,000-mile journey from Tangiers to China. During 29 years of traveling, Ibn Battuta saw amazing sights and learned a lot about the world. His travel sayings reflect more than places on a map. Ibn Battuta believed, “Traveling — it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a …

When ten-year-old Winnie Foster stumbles upon the Tuck family’s disturbing secret, she is forced to come to terms with her conflicting emotions. She feels drawn to the loving, gentle and rather eccentric Tucks, but what they tell her is too incredible to be believed. Doomed to—or blessed with—eternal life after drinking from a magic spring, the Tuck family tries to make Winnie understand that the terrible magic of the forest spring can never be revealed. The consequences to the world could prove to be disastrous! But then an unexpected complication …

Critically acclaimed when it was first published, Tuck Everlasting has become a much-loved, well-studied modern-day classic. This anniversary edition features an in-depth interview conducted by Betsy Hearne in which Natalie Babbitt takes a look at Tuck Everlasting twenty-five years later.

From the moment a fired-up teenager from Kentucky won 1960 Olympic gold to the day in 1996 when a retired legend, hands shaking from Parkinson’s, returned to raise the Olympic torch, the boxer known as “The Greatest” waged many a fight. Some were in the ring, against opponents like Sonny Liston and Joe Frazier; others were against societal prejudice and against a war he refused to support because of his Islamic faith. Charles R. Smith Jr.’s rap-inspired verse weaves and bobs and jabs with relentless energy, while Bryan Collier’s bold …