November/December 2011
— Two astronauts on a routine mission are redirected to stop a massive meteorite heading for Earth, but fail, crash-landing on the devastated planet to become humanity's new beginning.
— A boy watches snow transform the landscape and records the lives of forest creatures, while his father sees only an eyesore to remove.
— A young poet confronts racist taunts of 'Go back to Asia' by questioning where anyone truly belongs, reminding us that only Native Americans aren't immigrants to this land.
— In 1976 apartheid South Africa, a boy secretly joins student uprisings until police arrest his mother, forcing him to send his siblings to safety and flee to join guerrilla fighters.
— Forge, by Laurie Halse Anderson; Atheneum: New York, 2010; $16.99 Picture this: you are ordered to build a shelter in the icy, cold snow wearing an old, worn shirt and...
— A sudden storm transforms a sunny afternoon in the park, sending a child running and slipping on raindrops as darkness overtakes the day.
— A lonely fifth-grader who feels invisible meets Lizzy, a quirky new student with electric blue eyes who notices her red Converse and offers genuine friendship.
— A young musician describes the physical and emotional experience of playing a brass instrument, from cold valves to the music flowing through her body.
— A Chinese-American teenager struggles with her immigrant family's stories of hardship until visiting her father's childhood home in rural China transforms her understanding.
— A girl sneaks out at night to the boardwalk, discovers a manatee tangled in a net, rescues it with her parents' help, and later travels to Florida to release it.