Showing titles in Difficult Discussions

Who is Ruby Lavender? She used to have a fun life, until her Yoo-hoo-drinking, pink muumuu-wearing, best friend of a grandmother up and left for Hawaii to spend the summer with her new (smelly) grandbaby. Now Ruby is stuck in boring old Halleluia, Mississippi, reading to her chickens, sweeping...

By May 1963, African Americans in Birmingham, Alabama, had had enough of segregation and police brutality. But with their lives and jobs at stake, most adults were hesitant to protest the city’s racist culture. Instead, children and teenagers—like Audrey, Wash, James, and Arnetta— marched...

Willa Joe is up on the roof at Aunt Patty's house. She went up to see the sunrise, and Little Sister followed her, like she always does. But by mid-morning, Willa Jo is still up on that roof, and she knows it wasn't just the sunrise that brought her there. Audrey Couloumbis has perfectly...

Another powerful story in the Logan Family Saga and companion to Mildred D. Taylor's Newbery Award-winning Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. With the depression bearing down on her family, there isn’t much that Cassie Logan can count on anymore. But there is one thing that hasn’t changed—the...

For fans of Hatchet and Island of the Blue Dolphins comes Theodore Taylor’s classic bestseller and Lewis Carroll Shelf Award winner, The Cay. Phillip is excited when the Germans invade the small island of Curaçao. War has always been a game to him, and he’s eager to glimpse it...

In her first novel since winning the Newbery Medal, Katherine Applegate delivers an unforgettable and magical story about family, friendship, and resilience. Jackson and his family have fallen on hard times. There's no more money for rent. And not much for food, either. His parents, his little...

Josh Cameron is basketball royalty–MVP of the Championship Boston Celtics and a media darling with a spotless reputation. He’s got it all, including something he never even knew he had: a daughter. Twelve-year-old Molly Parker catches Josh off guard. Molly claims her mother, Jen, revealed...

David Almond’s Printz Honor–winning novel celebrates its 10th anniversary! Ten-year-old Michael was looking forward to moving into a new house. But now his baby sister is ill, his parents are frantic, and Doctor Death has come to call. Michael feels helpless. Then he steps into the crumbling...

"The last book that I really loved (which makes it great to me) was probably Iggie’s House... When I think about the fact that it was published in 1970 and addresses white flight, I’m enamored by Blume’s courage." –Jason Reynolds, bestselling author of Long Way Down, in The New York...

Winner of the 2016 Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production An exceptionally moving story of triumph against all odds set during World War 2, from the acclaimed author of Jefferson’s Sons and for fans of Number the Stars. Nine-year-old Ada has never left her one-room apartment. Her...

A girl's friendship with a lonely black hole leads her to face her own sadness in this original, funny, and touching middle grade novel for fans of Crenshaw and Flora & Ulysses. When eleven-year-old Stella Rodriguez shows up at NASA to request that her recording be included in Carl Sagan's...

Jessie Bollier often played his fife to earn a few pennies down by the New Orleans docks. One afternoon a sailor asked him to pipe a tune, and that evening Jessie was kidnapped and dumped aboard The Moonlight, a slave ship, where a hateful duty awaited him. He was to play music so the slaves...

What does it mean when the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence is your father and also your slave master? Beverly, Harriet, Madison, and Eston are Thomas Jefferson’s children, but their mother is a slave, so they must keep their father’s identity secret. They get special...

From the #1 bestselling author of Heat, Travel Team and Fantasy League comes a story of heroes, family, the thrills of skateboarding, and football. When the Brighton Bears suit up on game day, 12-year-old Tommy Gallagher is the toughest kid on the football field. And the bravest. After all, his...

Skiff Beaman has a boatload of problems. Ever since his mother died, his father doesn’t want to get up off the TV couch–even when the Mary Rose, his fishing boat, sinks at the dock. Twelve-year-old Skiff’s been bailing out Rose by himself for months, getting up before dawn to pump out the...

Pepper's fourteenth birthday is a momentous one. It's the day he's supposed to die. Everyone seems resigned to it—even Pepper, although he would much prefer to live. But can you sidestep Fate? Jump sideways into a different life? Naïve and trusting, Pepper sets a course through dangerous...

Newbery Honor–winning author Gennifer Choldenko deftly combines humor, tragedy, fascinating historical detail, and a medical mystery in this exuberant new novel. San Francisco, 1900. The Gilded Age. A fantastic time to be alive for lots of people . . . but not thirteen-year-old Lizzie Kennedy...

Elise and Franklin have always been best friends. Elise has always lived in the big house with her loving Uncle and Aunt, because Elise's parents died when she was too young to remember them. There's always been a barn behind the house with eight locked doors on the second floor. When Elise and...

A Newbery Medal Winner When Amos Fortune was only fifteen years old, he was captured by slave traders and brought to Massachusetts, where he was sold at auction. Although his freedom had been taken, Amos never lost his dinity and courage. For 45 years, Amos worked as a slave and dreamed of...

In an unnamed Third World country, in the not-so-distant future, three “dumpsite boys” make a living picking through the mountains of garbage on the outskirts of a large city. One unlucky-lucky day, Raphael finds something very special and very mysterious. So mysterious that he decides to...