Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

When Matt leaves his kindergarten class for a quick trip to the bathroom, he never imagines what will happen next. He suddenly finds himself in a stranger’s car traveling to an unfamiliar place. But who is this man, and is he really a "stranger"? When the school bell rings and Matt is nowhere to be found, his sister, Bonnie, is frantic. She quickly realizes that her little brother is not lost, but missing!... (more)

Yellow Star

by Jennifer Rozines Roy

Yellow Star is a Marshall Cavendish publication.

Do You Know The Monkey Man?

by Dori Hillestad Butler

FOR THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD SAMANTHA, life consists of too many unanswered questions. Why has her father not tried to contact her all these years? How could he have allowed her twin sister to drown in Clearwater Quarry when they were only toddlers? And how can Samantha's mother expect her to accept some man she hardly knows as her new father? Samantha already has a father out there. Somewhere. A fateful decision... (more)

The Million Dollar Putt

by Dan Gutman

Blind golfing, anyone? Edward Bogard - Bogie for short - may be blind, but he can learn just about anything he sets his mind to: riding a bike, parasailing, playing guitar. Even though many things come easily to him, he stunned when he hits at a driving range and finds he has the swing of a pro. But blind golfing is a team sport, and Bogie needs a coach. Enter Birdie, the kooky and mysterious girl next door.... (more)

Taking Care of Moses

by Barbara O'Connor

Who left the baby at the Rock of Ages Baptist Church? Randall Mackey has a secret. He knows who left the baby on the steps of the Rock of Ages Baptist Church. But he can't tell anyone, not even his best friend, Jaybird. And he certainly can't let Jaybird's little sister, Althea, find out because she'd be sure to shout it from the rooftops. Randall can't tell because Queenie Avery was also there, and he wants to... (more)

Free Baseball

by Sue Corbett

Felix knows his dad was a famous baseball player in Cuba—and that his father risked everything to send Felix to America. But his mom won’t reveal anything else. When a baseball team with Cuban players comes to town, Felix wonders if they knew his dad and sneaks into their locker room to ask. That’s when the players mistake him for their new batboy. Determined to uncover the truth about his mysterious father, Felix... (more)

Elijah Of Buxton

by Christopher Paul Curtis

Eleven-year-old Elijah is the first child born into freedom in Buxton, Canada, a settlement of runaway slaves just over the border from Detroit. He’s best known in his hometown as the boy who made a memorable impression on Frederick Douglass. But things change when a former slave steals money from Elijah’s friend, who has been saving to buy his family out of captivity in the South. Elijah embarks on a dangerous... (more)

Fall Of The Templar (Grey Griffins)

by J. S. Lewis, Derek Benz

The epic battle between the Grey Griffins and forces of evil continues, as Max, Harley, and Natalia face off against Morgan La Fey and Lord Sumner. The friends also struggle to find a way to save Ernie, who remains trapped in an enchanted coma, and Max must come to terms with his father's most wicked betrayal. The Grey Griffins and the Templar knights stage the last stand-off to save the world and the Land of... (more)

Listen!

by Stephanie S. Tolan

Down the Rabbit Hole: An Echo Falls Mystery (Echo Falls)

Down the Rabbit Hole: An Echo Falls Mystery (Echo Falls)

by Peter Abrahams

Welcome to Echo Falls, home of a thousand secrets. Ingrid is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or at least her shoes are. And getting them back will mean getting tangled up in a murder investigation as complicated as the mysteries solved by her idol, Sherlock Holmes. With soccer practice, schoolwork, and the lead role in her town's production of Alice in Wonderland , Ingrid is swamped. But as things in... (more)

Larry: The King of Rock and Roll

by Iris Rainer Dart

Did you know dogs can talk? Well, neither did Cathy and her father, Tom, a songwriter struggling with a new tune—that is, until their pet dog Larry opened his mouth and helped Tom finish the song! Once Larry reveals he can not only talk but sing, there’s no stopping him. In no time, he’s on stage singing for sold-out audiences. Even the President of the United States is a fan of Larry. But soon enough, fame... (more)

Weedflower

by Cynthia Kadohata

Twelve-year-old Sumiko feels her life has been made up of two parts: before Pearl Harbor and after it. The good part and the bad part. Raised on a flower farm in California, Sumiko is used to being the only Japanese girl in her class. Even when the other kids tease her, she always has had her flowers and family to go home to. That all changes after the horrific events of Pearl Harbor. Other Americans start to... (more)

Archer's Quest

by Linda Sue Park

In Dorchester, New York, Kevin is doing his homework when suddenly an arrow comes out of nowhere and pins his baseball cap to the wall. The man who shot the arrow claims he fell off a tiger . . . and wound up in Kevin’s room. It’s not long before Kevin realizes that the man, who calls himself Chu-mong, or Great Archer, is no ordinary burglar, but a traveler from far away in both space and time. A visit to the... (more)

Tadpole

by Ruth White

“Involving as the plot is, the power of White’s work derives from her seemingly easy evocation of ordinary people as they stumble into endearing truths about human strength and vulnerability.”— Publishers Weekly , Starred “White skillfully recreates the time and place, and her superbly drawn characters possess the resiliency of spirit necessary to transform themselves.”— School Library Journal , Starred A ... (more)

Pieces of Georgia

by Jennifer Bryant

Like her mother, Georgia McCoy is an artist, but her dad looks away whenever he sees her with a sketchbook. Sometimes it’s hard to remember what it was like when her mother was still alive . . . when they were a family . . . when they were happy. But then a few days after her 13th birthday, Georgia receives an unexpected gift–a strange, formal letter, all typed up and signed anonymous–granting her free admission... (more)

Crossing the Wire

by Will Hobbs

When falling crop prices threaten his family with starvation, fifteen-year-old Victor Flores heads north in an attempt to "cross the wire" from Mexico into the United States so he can find work and send money home. But with no coyote money to pay the smugglers who sneak illegal workers across the border, Victor must struggle to survive as he jumps trains, stows away on trucks, and hikes grueling miles through the... (more)

The Wednesday Wars

by Gary D. Schmidt

Gary D. Schmidt offers an unforgettable antihero in THE WEDNESDAY WARS—a wonderfully witty and compelling novel about a teenage boy’s mishaps and adventures over the course of the 1967–68 school year. Meet Holling Hoodhood, a seventh-grader at Camillo Junior High, who must spend Wednesday afternoons with his teacher, Mrs. Baker, while the rest of the class has religious instruction. Mrs. Baker doesn’t like... (more)

Heat

by Mike Lupica

Michael Arroyo has a pitching arm that throws serious heat. But his firepower is nothing compared to the heat Michael faces in his day-to-day life. Newly orphaned after his father led the family’s escape from Cuba, Michael’s only family is his seventeen-yearold brother Carlos. If Social Services hears of their situation, they will be separated in the foster-care system—or worse, sent back to Cuba. Together,... (more)

Victory

by Susan Cooper

Two Children, Two Struggles, One Battle... One child is Sam Robbins, a powder monkey aboard HMS Victory, the ship in which Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson will die a hero's death at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The other is Molly Jennings, an English girl transplanted from London to the United States in 2006, fighting a battle of her own against loss and loneliness. This extraordinary time-shifting adventure... (more)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Book 1

The Lightning Thief

by Rick Riordan

There is no such twelve-year-old boy as Perseus 'Percy' Jackson. The Greek gods are nothing more than old myths. They certainly never have children with mortals in the 21st century, nor is there any such place as Half Blood Hill, a summer camp for demigods on eastern Long Island. Percy never met a satyr or a daughter of Athena. They most emphatically did not take a quest together across the United States to reach... (more)

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Tags: battle of the books 09

by Peg Kehret