The Velveteen Rabbit

Nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.

Like the Skin Horse, Margery Williams understood how toys--and people--become real through the wisdom and experience of love. This reissue of a favorite classic, with the original story and illustrations as they first appeared in 1922, will work its magic for all who read it

Zorgamazoo

Zorgamazoo is the story of a young girl; a shadowy, subterranean creature; a bizarre lottery; a secret map; an imminent alien invasion; and a sport that brings together the finer points of cricket, swimming and chess. It also has lobotomies. Basically, it’s about saving the universe from boredom. And it rhymes—all 280 pages worth.

The Best School Year Ever

When anything goes wrong at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School, from the hexing of Bus Six to the mysterious disappearance of the kindergarten gerbil, it's sure to have a Herdman behind it. The Herdmans are more than famous -- they're outlaws. They smoke cigars, lie, and set fire to things, and that's only when they bother to come to school!

Then a school project forces the students to think of compliments for all their classmates -- including the Herdmans. Is it possible that behind their outrageous pranks there may be something good about this crazy clan after all?

Sarah, Plain and Tall

"I will come by train. I will wear a yellow bonnet. I am plain and tall." A heartwarming story about two children, Anna and Caleb, whose lives are changed forever when their widowed papa advertises for a mail-order bride. Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton from Maine answers the ad and agrees to come for a month. Sarah brings gifts from the sea, a cat named Seal, and singing and laughter to the quiet house. But will she like it enough to stay? Anna and Caleb wait and wonder -- and hope.

All About Sam

Everyone knows Sam Krupnik. He's Anastasia's pesty but lovable younger brother.

This is Sam's big chance to tell things exactly the way he sees them.  He has his own ideas about haircuts, nursery school, getting shots, and not eating broccoli.  Sam thinks a lot about being bigger and stronger, about secret codes and show-and-tell.

Make way for your little brother, Anastasia.  Here for the first time is Sam Krupnik's life story.  What a life!

Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School & Other Scary Things

Alvin Ho is an Asian American second grader who is afraid of everything—elevators, tunnels, girls, and, most of all, school. He’s so afraid of school that, while he’s there, he never, ever, says a word. But at home he’s a very loud superhero named Firecracker Man, a brother to Calvin and Anibelly, and a gentleman-in-training, so he can be just like his dad.

Freckle Juice

Nicky has freckles: they cover his face, his ears, and the whole back of his neck. Sitting behind him in class, Andrew once counted eighty-six of them, and that was just a start! If Andrew had freckles like Nicky, his mother would never know if his neck was dirty.

One day after school, Andrew works up enough courage to ask Nicky where he got his freckles. When know-it-all Sharon overhears, she offers Andrew her secret freckle juice recipe for fifty cents. It's a lot of money, but Andrew is desperate. At home he carefully mixes the strange combination of ingredients. Then the unexpected happens...

Original Adventures of Hank the Cowdog

It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it. Guts, glory, danger, and sacrifice are all in a day's work for Hank the Cowdog.

Hank has been accused of murder! In a fit of despair, Hank resigns his position as Head of Ranch Security and decides to join the outlaw coyotes. There he's known as Hunk (that's Hank in coyote language). Hank meets Missy Coyote, sister to Scraunch — the meanest, roughest, toughest, most notorious coyote in the whole country. If Scraunch found Hank with his sister... Well, look out for trouble.

Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher

If Howard Morton and Freddie the Frog Killer were trying to hold you down so that Mary Lou Hutton could kiss you, you might run as fast as Jeremy Thatcher did the day he stumbled into Mr. Elives' Magic Shop. And if you stumbled into that strange shop, you, too, might be asked to make a choice. What would you buy? The Chinese rings? The Skull of Truth? Or the dragon's egg?

And if you did buy the dragon's egg, what would you do when you found out you were supposed to hatch it?

Miss Rumphius

Miss  Rumphius is the story of Alice Rumphius and her desire to do three things: live by the sea, go to faraway places and make the world a more beautiful place. This third desire is instilled in young Alice by her wise old grandfather, and is mostly what this special story is about. After Alice listens to her grandfather's stories of faraway places, Alice tells him she, too, will go to faraway places and she will eventually settle by the sea. Alice's grandfather intones, that is all well and good, but you must also do a third thing. "You must do something to make the world more beautiful."