Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Half of me was thinking , Georgina, don’t do this. Stealing a dog is just plain wrong. The other half of me was thinking , Georgina, you’re in a bad fix and you got to do whatever it takes to get yourself out of it. Georgina Hayes is desperate. Ever since her father left and they were evicted from their apartment, her family has been living in their car. With her mama juggling two jobs and trying to make enough... (more)

The Underneath

by Kathi Appelt

There is nothing lonelier than a cat who has been loved, at least for a while, and then abandoned on the side of the road. A calico cat, about to have kittens, hears the lonely howl of a chained-up hound deep in the backwaters of the bayou. She dares to find him in the forest, and the hound dares to befriend this cat, this feline, this creature he is supposed to hate. They are an unlikely pair, about to become... (more)

A Bear Named Trouble

by Marion Dane Bauer

Ten-year-old Jonathan practically lives at the Anchorage Zoo, where his father is a keeper. He loves animals, and even imagines himself inside their bodies, seeing what they see, feeling what they feel. Meanwhile, a young brown bear is wandering through the woods near Anchorage, alone and hungry. One night, while searching for food, the bear crosses paths with Jonathan, who eagerly follows him onto the zoo... (more)

Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little

Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little

by Peggy Elizabeth Gifford

It wasn't as if Moxy Maxwell hadn't tried to do her summer reading. She and Stuart Little had been inseparable all summer, like best friends. If Stuart Little wasn't in her backpack, it was in her lap . . . or holding up the coffee table . . . or getting splashed when Moxy went swimming. But now it's the end of August—the day before fourth grade. And if Moxy doesn't read all of Stuart Little immediately,... (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)

The Gold-Threaded Dress

by Carolyn Marsden

A young girl from Thailand finds that there are many shades to being American in this poignant story about longing to belong. In Thailand she was named Oy, but here in America the teachers call her Olivia. Other things are not so easy to change, however. When Oy draws a self-portrait that has brown hair and eyes round as coins, her classmate Frankie makes fun and calls her Chinese. And the popular girl,... (more)

The Cat on the Mat Is Flat

by Andy Griffiths

Muck?! Uck! YUCK! Is it just bad luck when the truck of a duck gets stuck in the muck? Nine silly rhymes, and a pig that slimes, from a writer voted BEST by The New York Times ! WARNING: This book may self-destruct if used to teach a lesson. “…The rat chased the cat. The rat chased the cat with the baseball bat. Around and around and around the mat the rat chased the cat with the baseball bat,... (more)

Eleven

by Patricia Reilly Giff

Sam is almost 11 when he discovers a locked box in the attic above his grandfather Mack’s room, and a piece of paper that says he was kidnapped. There are lots of other words, but Sam has always had trouble reading. He’s desperate to find out who he is, and if his beloved Mack is really his grandfather. At night he’s haunted by dreams of a big castle and a terrifying escape on a boat. Who can he trust to help him... (more)

Keeping Score

by Linda Sue Park

Both Maggie Fortini and her brother, Joey-Mick, were named for baseball great Joe DiMaggio. Unlike Joey-Mick, Maggie doesn’t play baseball—but at almost ten years old, she is a dyed-in-the-wool fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Maggie can recite all the players’ statistics and understands the subtleties of the game. Unfortunately, Jim Maine is a Giants fan, but it’s Jim who teaches Maggie the fine art of scoring a... (more)

Chicken Feathers

by Joy Cowley

Feather-flapping fun by one of the best-loved storytellers of our time. A talking chicken! Josh knows it sounds ridiculous, but thatÂ’s just what Semolina is. And sheÂ’s not just a talking chicken . . . sheÂ’s a spirited, sarcastic, sassytalking chicken. And with JoshÂ’s mom in the hospital about to give birth to his sister, Josh needs Semolina more than ever, even if she will only talk in front of him. But when... (more)

The Missing

Found (The Missing)

by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Thirteen-year-old Jonah has always known that he was adopted, and he's never thought it was any big deal. Then he and a new friend, Chip, who's also adoped, begin receiving mysterious letters. The first one says, "You are one of the missing." The second one says, "Beware! They're coming back to get you." Jonah, Chip, and Jonah's sister, Katherine, are plunged into a mystery that involves the FBI, a vast smuggling... (more)

Six Innings

by James Preller

Two teams, six innings, one game. A lively cast of characters—baseball-loving boys between the ages of eleven to thirteen—are playing the biggest game of their lives. With acrobatic catches, clutch hits, dramatic whiffs, and costly errors, this game is full of action. But as the book unfolds, pitch by pitch, a deeper story emerges, with far more at stake: Sam and Mike, best friends, are trying to come to terms... (more)

Bird Lake Moon

by Kevin Henkes

Spencer thought the house might be haunted. Mitch knew it wasn't. And he knew why. The whole time Spencer and Mitch hung out together at Bird Lake that summer, there were secrets keeping them apart. And maybe a secret knowledge keeping them together, too—together like members of the same tribe. Like friends.

The Winner's Walk

by Nancy Ruth Patterson

Case Callahan isn’t a star swimmer like his sister, Quinn. He’s not a champion horse trainer like his father, or a popular stage actor like his mother. Still, Case is determined to make his mark. But one effort after another – talent show, science fair, junior horse show – is a terrible failure. It isn’t until Case comes upon a lost dog that he finds his path to success. The dog, whom Case names Noah, is certainly... (more)

The Misadventures of Benjamin Bartholomew Piff

The Misadventures of Benjamin Bartholomew Piff

by Jason Lethcoe

On his eleventh birthday, sad, orphaned Benjamin Bartholomew Piff accidentally adheres to all of the wishing rules—and, in wishing for the mother lode of limitless wishes, he unknowingly sets into a motion a chain of events that threatens to disrupt the balance between the magical realm of wishes and curses. Before long, Benjamin has been recruited by the Wishworks Factory director himself to fight the evil ... (more)

The Big House

by Carolyn Coman

When the judge declares their parents guilty of embezzlement, sending them to the big house for twenty-five years, Ivy and Ray are sent to live with Marietta and Lionel Noland, their parents’ accusers. As soon as they arrive at the Noland mansion, Ivy begins planning their escape . . . and trying to find a way to free their parents. The two collect evidence, including a shrouded portrait and a hidden... (more)

The Ghost's Grave

by Peg Kehret

What Josh thought would be the dullest summer of his life, spent with his eccentric great-aunt, turns chilling when he meets the ghost of a coal miner killed in a mine explosion. Willie has been waiting years for some kind soul to dig up his leg and rebury it with the rest of him—only then will he be at peace. Josh agrees to do the grisly deed, but when he digs in the old cemetery, he finds more than Willie’s... (more)

Looking For Bapu

by Anjali Banerjee

Anu's beloved grandfather Bapu moved from India to Anu's home in the Pacific Northwest when Anu was small, and Anu is devastated when Bapu dies. But when he is visited by Bapu's ghost, he knows that there must be a way to bring him back to life -- he's just not sure how. Anu enlists his friends Izzy and Unger to help him. From shaving his head to making up fortunes in the hope of becoming more holy, Anu tries... (more)

Stella Stands Alone (w.t.)

by A. LaFaye

Stella Reid is fighting to save the home she loves. After her father is killed and her mother succumbs to yellow fever, it's up to Stella to run Oak Grove, her family's plantation. Unlike most Southerners, Stella sees herself as equal to the African Americans she works side-by-side with in the cotton fields. The white Southerners reject her, and the freed men can't trust her after generations of enduring the... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: juv fic

by Carl Hiaasen

by Barbara O'Connor