Being small is a big concern for Chig Kalpin. Like the insects that catch folks unawares with their bites on a summer evening, Chig is small enough and silent enough that she’s near about invisible. But she has a heartfelt desire to become a big person, both in stature and in spirit, and soon her adventures culminate with the Great Niplak Train Disaster, where she helps the folks in the hills and hollers of southern Indiana make it through the Great Depression with a little more to spread between the covers of their sandwiches. Haven’t heard of it? Well, as Chig might say, “Set a spell and turn the page.”
Janie is not exactly sure why her daddy is riding a bus from Indianapolis to Washington, D.C. She knows why she has to go-to stay out of her mother's way, especially with the twins now teething. But Daddy wants to hear a man named Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speak and, to keep out of trouble, Janie is sent along. Riding the bus with them is a mishmash of people, black and white, young and old. They seem very different from Janie. As the bus travels across cities and farm fields to its historic destination, Janie sees firsthand the injustices that many others are made to endure. She begins to realize that she's not so different from the other riders and that, as young as she is, her actions can affect change.Though fiction, Riding to Washington is a very personal story for Gwenyth Swain as both her father and grandfather rode to Washington, D.C., to participate in the 1963 civil rights march on the nation's capital. Ms. Swain's other books include Chig and the Second Spread and I Wonder As I Wander. She lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. Artist David Geister has entertained audiences for years with his costumed portrayals of historic characters from the nineteenth century, and his artwork reflects his interest in history and dramatic storytelling. Riding to Washington is his third title with Sleeping Bear Press. David lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Complete Year for Grade 2 provides a whole year’s worth of practice for essential school skills including common and proper nouns, prefixes and suffixes, compound words, addition and subtraction with regrouping, word problems, measurement, and more. Thinking Kid'(R) Complete Year is a comprehensive at-home learning resource with 36 lessons—one for each week of the school year! Practice activities for multiple subject areas, including reading, writing, language arts, and math, are included in each weekly lesson to ensure mastery of all subject areas for one grade level. Complete Year lessons support the Common Core State Standards now adopted in most US states. Handy organizers help parents monitor and track their child’s progress and provide fun bonus learning activities. Complete Year is a complete solution for academic success in the coming school year.
Emma is spending the summer with her Scottish cousins—who are wonderful material for her attempt to win the School Prize for most interesting holiday diary. The cousins, lofty Andy, reserved Fiona, and fierce Roddy, are experimenting with their grandfather's dilapidated old mini-submarine to see if they can find a monster in the family loch. Emma Tupper's Diary is a sometimes terrifying, sometimes broadly hilarious adventure novel in the spirit of From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and I Capture the Castle. Praise for Emma Tupper's Diary: "Fish out of water Emma must spend the summer in Scotland with cousins she’s never met. They’re somewhat older and get along fine with minimal adult supervision. Even when they plot to take an old submarine out on the nearby loch for a spin, adding a Nessy-like monster head to the top for fun, there’s no one around to urge caution. It’s the sort of family where everyone is whip-smart, conversations are fast and fascinating, and statements of fact are rarely truthful. All of which makes for one extremely suspenseful and surprisingly thought-provoking adventure."—Gwenyth Swain (author of Chig and the Second Spread) "One of my favorite childhood books. . . . Its themes and plot have come around again, and a smart production company should scoop it up for a film adaptation."—Atomic Librarian "An enthralling book, with fascinating characters, told with humor and wit, and with a story that just might, barely, be possible."—Book Loons "Comedy of manners? Ecological allegory? Adventure? Farce?"—Kirkus Reviews Praise for Peter Dickinson's children's books: "One of the real masters of children's literature."—Philip Pullman "Peter Dickinson is a national treasure."—The Guardian "Magnificent. Peter Dickinson is the past-master story-teller of our day."—The Times Literary Supplement Peter Dickinson is the author of over fifty books including Eva, Earth and Air, The Dancing Bear, and the Michael L. Printz honor book The Ropemaker. He has twice received the Crime Writers' Association's Gold Dagger as well as the Guardian Award and Whitbread Prize. He lives in England and is married to the novelist Robin McKinley.
The landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision Dred Scott v. Sandford, in which the slave Dred Scott was denied freedom for himself and his family, raised the ire of abolitionists and set the scene for the impending conflict between the northern and southern states. While most people have heard of the Dred Scott Decision, few know anything about the case's namesake. In this meticulously researched and carefully crafted biography of Dred Scott, his wife, Harriet, and their daughters, Eliza and Lizzie, award-winning children's book author Gwenyth Swain brings to life a family's struggle to become free. Beginning with Dred's childhood on a Virginia plantation and later travel with his masters to Alabama, Missouri, Illinois, and the territory that would become Minnesota, this "family biography" vividly depicts slave life in the early and mid-nineteenth century. At Fort Snelling, near St. Paul, Dred met and married Harriet, and together they traveled with their master to Florida and then Missouri, finally settling in St. Louis, where the Scotts were hired out for wages. There they began marshalling evidence to be used in their freedom suit, first submitted in 1846. Their case moved through local and state courts, finally reaching the U.S. Supreme Court in 1857. But the Court's decision did not grant them the freedom they craved. Instead, it brought northern and southern states one step closer to the Civil War. How did one family's dream of freedom become a cause of the Civil War? And how did that family finally leave behind the bonds of slavery? In Dred and Harriet Scott: A Family's Struggle for Freedom, Swain looks at the Dred Scott Decision in a new and remarkably personal way. By following the story of the Scotts and their children, Swain crafts a unique biography of the people behind the famous court case. In the process, she makes the family's journey through the court system and the ultimate decision of the Supreme Court understandable for readers of all ages. She also explores the power of family ties and the challenges Dred and Harriet faced as they sought to see their children live free.
I’m Lucy Rose and here’s the thing about me: I am eight and according to my grandfather I have the kind of life that is called eventful, which means NOT boring. According to my mom and my grandmother I’m what they call a handful. And according to my dad I am one smart cookie. I say I am one girl who is feeling not-so-sure about things on account of my parents got a separation. Plus my mom and I just moved to Washington, D.C. Plus I haven’t met any friends yet but I do know someone who is not one and that is Adam Melon, who I call Melonhead. Here’s another thing about me: most of the time I am plain hilarious. First-time author Katy Kelly introduces us to an original thinker who’s got a lot on her mind and she’s ready to share (minus the boring parts, of course). Lucy Rose is an unforgettable, one-of-a-kind girl with spark, spunk, and one great pair of cowgirl boots! (No kidding!)
Sam Krupnik sets out to concoct a special perfume as a surprise for his mother's birthday, a fragrance that is to be made up of all her favorite smells.
By the author of The Solders' Night Before Christmas, a powerful free verse novel told with lyricism and hope, about friendship, abuse, grief, and courage. Cecelia prides herself on being the lookout in the woods behind her Texas home. After all, a person as skinny and gullible as Redbud, the new kid at school, needs someone to watch over him. Besides, with Pop spending all his time in the garden, Sis off with her boyfriend, and Cecelia’s mom dead and gone, it’s not like Cecelia has anything else to do. When Redbud trusts her enough to show her where he lives and introduces her to his father, the rigid sergeant major, Cecelia doesn’t know what to think. Maybe Redbud just needs more discipline, like the sergeant major says. Or maybe she isn’t the lookout, the scout, that she thought she was. "An easy read and beautiful poetry." --Booklist
