New YA Books

To the Mountaintop: My Journey Through the Civil Rights Movement - Charlayne Hunter-Gault
Starting with the inauguration of Barack Obama in 2009 and working back to the early 1960s, Hunter-Gault covers many of the significant moments in the civil rights movement, including her own pivotal role in desegregating the University of Georgia.

Chopsticks - Jessica Anthony
In a love story told in photographs and drawings, Glory, a brilliant piano prodigy, is drawn to Frank, an artistic new boy, and the farther she falls, the deeper she spirals into madness until the only song she is able to play is "Chopsticks."

Wonder - R.J. Palacio
Ten-year-old Auggie Pullman, who was born with extreme facial abnormalities and was not expected to survive, goes from being home-schooled to entering fifth grade at a private middle school in Manhattan, which entails enduring the taunting and fear of his clasassmates as he struggles to be seen as just another student.

Penny and Her Song - Kevin Henkes
Penny comes home from school eager to share her very own song, but must wait until the time is right to teach it to her parents and the babies.

The Humming Room - Ellen Potter
Twelve-year-old orphan Roo Fanshaw is sent to live with an uncle she never knew in a largely uninhabited mansion on Cough Rock Island and discovers a wild river boy, an invalid cousin, and the mysteries of a hidden garden.

The Crowfield Demon - Pat Walsh
In March of 1348, the awakening of an ancient evil drives fay creatures from the woods, causes Crowfield Abbey to crumble, and haunts the dreams of the monks, but the demon seems especially drawn to Will, who is beginning to realize the significance of his Sight.

One Cool Friend - Toni Buzzeo
Elliot, a very proper young man, feels a kinship with the penguins at the aquarium and wants to take one home with him.

Z Is for Moose - Kelly Bingham
Moose, terribly eager to play his part in the alphabet book his friend Zebra is putting together, then awfully disappointed when his letter passes, behaves rather badly until Zebra finds a spot for him.

Secrets of the Garden - Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
Depicts a family of four who make their garden their summer home as they prepare the soil, plant seeds, water the garden, and watch for a harvest of vegetables.

Here Come the Girl Scouts - Shana Corey
A one hundreth anniversary tribute to the Girl Scouts founder describes how she rejected the conventions of Victorian culture and introduced her pioneer family's passion for service, adventure, and independence to the girls of her time.

Just Behave, Pablo Picasso! - Jonah Winter
Pablo Picasso may have been a world-famous artist, but that doesn't mean no one ever called his artwork "ugly." Any kid who's been told what to draw, or heard mean things about something they made, will relate to this story about how Pablo faced down his critics and made something truly original.

New Pop-Up Book

Chanukah Lights - Michael J. Rosen
Counts the candles of a menorah on each night of Hanukkah while recalling images of Jewish life in different places and times, such Herod's temple in Jerusalem, a shtetl in Russia, and a refugee ship bound for the New World.

New Children's Books

Suppose You Meet a Dinosaur: A First Book of Manners - Judy Sierra
Illustrates basic polite behavior that one might need to use while grocery shopping at the same time as a dinosaur.

Over and Under the Snow - Kate Messner
Over the snow, the world is hushed and white, but under the snow is a secret world of squirrels and snowshoe hares, bears and bullfrogs, and many others who live outside in the woods during the winter.

Tales for Very Picky Eaters - Josh Schneider
A father tells outlandish stories while trying to get his young son, who is a very picky eater, to eat foods he thinks he will not like. Theodor Seuss Geisel Award

Aesop's Fables - Beverley Naidoo
Here are 16 of Aesop's wise, witty and timeless fables, portrayed for the first time in an African setting. This is an exciting new interpretation of one of the world's great classics. This unique story collection is vividly illustrated by Beverley Naidoo's fellow South African Piet Grobler, an internationally acclaimed illustrator.

Detective Little Boy Blue - Steve Metzger
With the help of his nursery rhyme friends, Little Boy Blue, who now runs a detective agency, solves the mystery of the missing Miss Muffet.

New Nonfiction Books

A Black Hole Is Not a Hole - Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano
Introduces black holes, describing their physical features, how they were discovered, what causes them, and where they exist in space.


Music Games for Every Month - Jeanette Morgan
This collection of reproducible worksheets includes note spellers, matching activities, word searches, and more, all incorporating music concepts and skills such as pitch and rhythm recognition, music history, and music vocabulary.

Witches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem - Rosalyn Schanzer
Tells the story of the victims, the accused witches, and the scheming officials that turned a mysterious illness into a witch hunt. Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal Honor

Black & White: The Confrontation Between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene "Bull" Connor - Larry Dane Brimner
In the nineteen fifties and early sixties, Birmingham, Alabama, became known as Bombingham. At the center of this violent time in the fight for civil rights, and standing at opposite ends, were Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene "Bull' Connor. From his pulpit, Shuttlesworth agitated for racial equality, while Commissioner Connor fought for the status quo. Relying on court documents, police and FBI reports, newspapers, interviews, and photographs, author Larry Dane Brimner first covers each man's life and then brings them together to show how their confrontation brought about significant change to the southern city. Robert L. Sibert Informational Book Medal Honor

New Books

Hurricane Dancers - Margarita Engle
Quebrado has been a slave on captain Bernadino de Talavera's pirate ship for years, but when a hurricane sinks the ship and kills most of the crew, Quebrado escapes to safety and finds acceptance and refuge in a nearby village. Pura Belpre Honor Books

Diego Rivera: His World and Ours - Duncan Tonatiuh
An introduction to the life, career, and influence of the Mexican painter Diego Rivera.


Marisol McDonald Doesn't Match/Marisol McDonald No Combina - Monica Brown
Marisol McDonald, a biracial, nonconformist, soccer-playing pirate-princess with brown skin and red hair, celebrates her uniqueness.




Kids Can Compose - Nicole LeGrand
Lead your students through the compositional process with this collection of hands-on, fun-filled lessons designed for your elementary students.

New Children's Books

Kindred Souls - Patricia MacLachlan
Ten year-old Jake shares a special bond with his grandfather, Billy, but when Billy asks Jake to build him a sod house, Jake is not sure he wants to do it.

Another Brother - Matthew Cordell
Davy the sheep wishes he had time alone with his parents, as he did before his twelve brothers came along and started imitating his every move, but when his wish comes true Davy misses playing with the youngsters.

Fortune Cookies - Albert Bitterman
Illustrations feature tabs that can be pulled to reveal fortunes inside fortune cookies. Seven fortune cookies foretell a child's fortunes for each day of the week.

New Activity and Idea Book

Teaching Physics with Toys: Hands-On Investigations for Grades 3-9
Bonus CD-ROM includes: student pages (rtf and PDF format), templates, K'NEX parts inventories, K'NEX assembly diagrams, experiment planning guide handout, scientific inquiry process handout, well-designed graph handout, applicable National Science Education Standards, and cross-curricula writing masters.

New DVDs

A Time for Justice: America's Civil Rights Movement
This kit gathers teaching materials depicting the battle for civil rights, recalling the crises in Montgomery, Little Rock, Birmingham, and Selma, and revealing the heroism of the individuals involved.

Mighty Times: The Children's March
In May of 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. asked black people of Birmingham, Alabama to go to jail in the cause of racial equality. The adults were afraid to go to jail and so the school children marched and over 5000 of them were arrested. This led President Kennedy to sponsor the 1964 Civil Rights Act which eventually led to the march on Washington. Contains vintage film footage, re-stagings of some activities and interviews with some of the protesters.

Starting Small
Designed for in-service programs, this training tool for early grades educators profiles classrooms in which peace, equity and justice are guiding themes. The kit includes a 58-minute film in DVD format with closed-captioning; and 250-page text with classroom profiles, commentary, activities and a resource guide.

Viva la Causa

Using historical footage and dramatic reenactments, this film focuses on one of the seminal events in the march for human rights -- the grape strike and boycott led by César Chávez and Dolores Huerta in the 1960s. Thousands of people from across the nation joined in a struggle for justice for the some of the most exploited people in the United States.

New Children's Books

Garmann's Secret - Stian Hole
Garmann makes friends with Johanna, the twin sister of the girl who torments him at school, when they discover that they both love adventures and talking about outer space.

Peter Is Just a Baby - Marisabina Russo
A big sister relates some of her accomplishments, which her baby brother is far from able to do.

Jonah's Whale - Eileen Spinelli
A contented whale one day sees a ship tossed on the waves by a storm and obeys God's command to save a drowning man by swallowing him.

I Lay My Stitches Down - Cynthia Grady
A volume of evocative and moving poems considers the experiences of slaves in a variety of circumstances including a house slave, a mother who loses her daughter on the auction block, and a slave fleeing through the Underground Railroad.

John Jensen Feels Different - Henrik Hovland
John Jensen, a crocodile, cannot quite understand why he feels so different from everyone else, but a kindly doctor reassures him that no one is exactly the same as anyone else.

New YA Book

The Disenchantments - Nina LaCour
Colby's post-high school plans have long been that he and his best friend Beth would tour with her band, then spend a year in Europe, but when she announces that she will start college just after the tour, Colby struggles to understand why she changed her mind and what losing her means for his future.

New Children's and Young Adult Books

The Boy on Cinnamon Street - Phoebe Stone
Since a tragedy she cannot remember, thirteen-year-old Louise has changed her name, given up gymnastics, moved in with her grandparents, and locked her feelings inside but through her friends Reni and Hen and notes from a secret admirer she begins to find herself again.

Bad Kitty for President - Nick Bruel
Kitty decides to run for President of the Neighborhood Cat Association.


Charles Dickens and the Street Children of London - Andrea Warren
A biography of Charles Dickens, discussing how his father's debts forced him to go to work in a shoe polish factory, and looking at how his observations of the poor led him to write novels with an eye toward bringing attention to the plight of London's destitute children.

New Professional Book

STEM Student Research Handbook - Darci J. Harland
Provides a comprehensive resource for high school teachers and students for the design and implementation of a research project or experiment, and includes generating research ideas, safety and ethical issues, background research, writing hypotheses, proposal writing, descriptive statistics, and more.

New Children's Books

The Day Tiger Rose Said Goodbye - Jane Yolen
A cat whose kitten days are far behind her says goodbye to her human family, and the animals and places that have made her life special, before leaving this life behind.

Question Boy Meets Little Miss Know-It-All - Peter Catalanotto
A curious boy with non-stop questions meets a girl who seems to know all the answers.



Words Set Me Free - Lesa Cline-Ransome
A biography of the early life of Frederick Douglass, one of the first leaders of the antislavery movement, discussing his childhood on as a slave child on a plantation, then at eight he was sold to Hugh and Sophia Auld in Baltimore, and explains that learning to read was the key to his freedom.

Looking at Lincoln - Maira Kalman
Wanting to know about the real man behind the sixteenth president's legendary character, a little girl learns about Lincoln's beliefs regarding universal freedom as well as lesser-known aspects of his life, from his love of Mozart and his wife's vanilla cake to his pet dog and the way he kept notes in his stovepipe hat.

Freedom's a-Callin Me - Ntozake Shange
A collection of poems brings to life the treacherous journey of the travelers on the Underground Railroad, in a universal story about the human need to be free.

Jazz Age Josephine - Jonah Winter
This tribute to the life of iconic jazz entertainer Josephine Baker depicts her disadvantaged youth in a segregated America, her unique performance talents, and the irrepressible sense of style that helped her overcome racial barriers.

North: The Amazing Story of Arctic Migration - Nick Dowson
Presents a tribute to the migrations of millions of creatures to the Arctic, including depictions of the cyclical journeys of gray whales, caribou and more.

The Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers - Lisa Campbell Ernst
The Gingerbread Girl, who once escaped the fox that devoured her brother, must now try to save from a similar fate the animal crackers she received as a birthday gift.

We March - Shane W. Evans
Illustrations and brief text portray the events of the 1963 march in Washington, D.C., where the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a historic speech.

Hans My Hedgehog: A Tale from the Brothers Grimm - Kate Coombs
Riding a rooster and playing magical music on his fiddle, a young man, who is half hedgehog, half human, wins the hand of a beautiful princess.


A Boy Called Dickens - Deborah Hopkinson
Narrates the tale of twelve-year-old Charles Dickens who, despite poverty and long hours of factory work, still has time to discover and share the stories of other residents of 1824 London. Includes author's note about Dickens' life and some of the books he wrote.

Otis and the Tornado - Loren Long
When a tornado threatens his farm, Otis the tractor must try to save the animals, including the unfriendly bull.