National Network for Equitable Library Service

A middle-grade fantasy and nonstop adventure, The Train to Impossible Places by debut author P. G. Bell is as fun as it is full of heart and the first book of a planned trilogy. A train that travels through impossible places. A boy trapped in a snow globe. And a girl who is about to go on the adventure of a lifetime. The Impossible Postal Express is no ordinary train. It's a troll-operated delivery service that runs everywhere from ocean-bottom shipwrecks to Trollville and to space.

Miri lives on a mountain where, for generations, her ancestors have quarried stone and lived a simple life. Then word comes that the king's priests have divined her small village the home of the future princess. In a year's time, the prince himself will come and choose his bride from among the girls of the village. The king's ministers set up an academy on the mountain, and every teenage girl must attend and learn how to become a princess.

National Book Award Longlist * Bank Street Children's Book Committee Best Book of the Year "Beautifully written and elegantly structured, this fantasy is as real as it gets."—Franny Billingsley, author of Chime The Real Boy, Anne Ursu's follow-up to her widely acclaimed and beloved middle grade fantasy Breadcrumbs, is a spellbinding tale of the power we all wield, great and small. On an island on the edge of an immense sea there is a city, a forest, and a boy named Oscar.

Critically acclaimed author Cammie McGovern's powerful and heartwarming middle grade novel will appeal to readers who loved R. J. Palacio's Wonder, Holly Sloan's Counting by 7s, and Lynda Mullaly Hunt's Fish in a Tree. "This brave story, told with wry humor, is inspirational," raved Ann M. Martin, New York Times bestselling author of Rain Reign. Fourth grade is not going at all how Benny Barrows hoped. He hasn't found a new best friend. He's still not a great bike rider—even though his brother George, who's autistic, can do tricks.

Clive King's wonderful classic, Stig of the Dump, is now available to download, complete and unabridged and read by the brilliant Tony Robinson.Barney is a solitary little boy, given to wandering off by himself. One day he is lying on the edge of a disused chalk-pit when it gives way and he lands in a sort of cave. Here he meets 'somebody with a lot of shaggy hair and two bright black eyes' wearing a rabbit skin and speaking in grunts. He names him Stig. Of course nobody believes Barney when he tells his family all about Stig, but for Barney cave-man Stig is totally real.

A child describes his hen and the beautiful eggs she lays.

Imagine a world where kings prick their fingers as they sew, wolves wear heels, and princesses race to rescue sleeping princes ... People have been telling fairy tales to their children for hundreds of years. And for almost as long, people have been rewriting those fairy tales - to help their children imagine a world where they are the heroes. Karrie and Jon were reading their child these stories when they hit upon a dilemma, something previous versions of these stories were missing, and so they decided to make one vital change. They haven't rewritten the stories in this book.

When the grownup virus hits, kids who live in the same apartment building must cope with strange new rules and extended time at home with parents and siblings. And they survive brilliantly, each in their own way. Twin boys throw themselves into an independent research assignment on prehistoric people and embrace their own devolution. A budding track star is encouraged to run laps on his balcony by a neighbor who has a secret crush on him. A classroom troublemaker reaches out to a teacher when his own father begins to exhibit signs of mental illness.

When Charlie's artist mother is invited to visit a school in Cuba, the whole family goes along on the trip. But the island they discover is a far cry from the all-inclusive resorts that Charlie has heard his friends talk about. Charlie has never visited a country as strange and puzzling as Cuba -- a country where he often feels like a time traveler. Where Havana's grand Hotel Nacional sits next to buildings that seem to be crumbling before his very eyes.

<p>Coyote Columbus story: Thomas King uses a bag of literary tricks to shatter the stereotypes surrounding Columbus's voyages. In doing so, he invites children to laugh with him at the crazy antics of Coyote, who unwittingly allows Columbus to bring about the downfall of her human friends. And he makes the point that history is influenced by the culture of the reporter.</p>