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Bear's Big Day

Salina Yoon

It's Bear's very first day of school! He wants to be grown up, so he leaves his stuffed bunny Floppy at home along with all his familiar things. But being away from his best friend is hard--and the first day doesn't turn out quite how like Bear wanted it to. Bear learns that the first day of school might not always be perfect, and being grown up doesn't have to mean giving up the things he loves.

This third book in the Bear and Floppy series from beloved, bestselling author-illustrator Salina Yoon tackles big themes like starting school and being independent, even in scary new situations.

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A Friend for Henry

Jenn Bailey

In Classroom Six, second left down the hall, Henry has been on the lookout for a friend. A friend who shares. A friend who listens. Maybe even a friend who likes things to stay the same and all in order, as Henry does. But on a day full of too close and too loud, when nothing seems to go right, will Henry ever find a friend—or will a friend find him? With insight and warmth, this heartfelt story from the perspective of a boy on the autism spectrum celebrates the everyday magic of friendship.

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Wemberley Worried

Kevin Henkes

Wemberly worried about everything. Big things. Little things. And things in between. Then it was time for school to start. And Wemberly worried even more. If you ever worry (or know someone who does), this is the book for you.

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School's First Day of School

Adam Rex

It's the first day of school at Frederick Douglass Elementary and everyone's just a little bit nervous, especially the school itself. What will the children do once they come? Will they like the school? Will they be nice to him?

The school has a rough start, but as the day goes on, he soon recovers when he sees that he's not the only one going through first-day jitters.

This delightful back-to-school picture book told from the POV of the school is a great read-aloud, and perfect for readers of all ages.

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Blue Sky Morning

Jihyun Kim

'You're not in a hurry today. Stop for a moment, and look up. The sky is so big and so blue. It's a beautiful, blue sky morning'. Eunny wakes up slowly. She gets out of bed, goes to the window to look out at the busy street, and then heads downstairs. Soon it's time for school. Eunny and Mama step out into the crisp day, but they don't rush. They notice the pretty pink petals of new flowers, the changing red-gold leaves and the big blue sky above. It's easy to be happy on a blue sky morning.

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When You Go to Dragon School

Chelsea M. Campbell

The human school is full, but don't worry, there's a spot waiting for you at the local dragon school! Even though you might not have scales or wings or the ability to breathe fire, with a little bit of courage and your own special talents, you'll have no trouble fitting in. Even if your classmates are a little bit... toothy.

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New

Niña Mata

In the big city, everything feels new.

School is new. The people are new. And the glares and stares you get for being different are new.

But new can also mean new beginnings . . .

A child's-eye view of the common immigrant experience of adjusting to an unfamiliar place, Mata's picture book debut is a delightfully illustrated masterpiece that will resonate with any child who embarks on a new adventure.

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The Stuff of Stars

Marion Dane Bauer

Before the universe was formed, before time and space existed, there was . . . nothing. But then . . . BANG! Stars caught fire and burned so long that they exploded, flinging stardust everywhere. And the ash of those stars turned into planets. Into our Earth. And into us. In a poetic text, Marion Dane Bauer takes readers from the trillionth of a second when our universe was born to the singularities that became each one of us, while vivid illustrations by Ekua Holmes capture the void before the Big Bang and the ensuing life that burst across galaxies. A seamless blend of science and art, this picture book reveals the composition of our world and beyond — and how we are all the stuff of stars.

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Sun and Moon Have a Tea Party

Yumi Heo

Sun and Moon sit down for a tea party, but they soon find out that they see the world very differently. Moon says moms and dads get their kids ready for bed, while Sun says no, they get their children ready for school. So who's right? Well, as the two come to find out, they both are. With the help of Cloud, a gentle mediator, each stays up past their bedtime and sees the world from the other's incredible point of view.

Perfect for sleepy listeners, here is a charming young picture book that will also help children see the world from different perspectives.

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Nova the Star Eater

Lindsay Leslie

Nova has a big appetite for stars, so when she decides to gobble up Earth’s Sun, panic erupts around the globe. Earth needs its Sun to survive! How will it get it back from Nova? One bright little girl just might have a solution. Sparkling with humor and interstellar adventure, this story showcases creative problem-solving and a subtle reminder to not eat someone else’s food—or stars—without asking first.

Expressive illustrations add excitement and silliness to Earth’s predicament, while a mix of the fantastical and factual provides a fun way to learn just how important our Sun is. A laugh-out-loud space adventure full of gas...and heart.

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Spirit Service

Sarena Nanua

Ghostbusters meets The Baby-Sitters Club in this supremely sweet and spooky story about four seventh graders who start a small business helping their local neighborhood spirits pass on to the other side.

All Raveena wants is to bring back her school’s beloved arts program. It’s been six months since her music-loving grandmother passed, and four since Hollows’ Peak Middle School cut its entire arts budget. Now Raveena has no way to practice music, and worse, no way to honor Grandmama’s memory.

But Raveena’s world turns on its head when she and her friends stumble upon an otherworldly discovery: an old-fashioned telephone with the ability to contact ghosts!

With her newfound possession, Raveena devises the perfect plan to raise funds for the arts program: Spirit Service, an agency that guides deceased townspeople to the afterlife by reconnecting them with their living loved ones. The best part? There are tons of spirits in need of assistance—and people willing to pay big bucks to communicate with them.

But not all spirits are interested in peacefully moving on…

To keep their neighborhood safe, Raveena and her friends must dive into the history of their town and the mysterious phone, and in the process, uncover secrets that are much closer to home.

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Run Like a Girl

Amaka Egbe

Dera Edwards knows her life is over when she's shipped off to live with her estranged father in the middle of White Suburbia. To make matters worse, Dera learns that her new school doesn't have a girls' track team, shattering her dreams of getting a track scholarship and, one day, competing in the Olympics.

Not one to give up easily, Dera joins the boys' team instead. But while she has the school administration's blessing, her new teammates and classmates are less than welcoming. Between that and her frustratingly distant father, Dera is positive her junior year is ruined.

Just as she starts to accept her status as an outsider, Dera's approached by her classmate Rosalyn, who wants to feature Dera's story in her blog. Eager to change the narrative and spend more time with Rosalyn's gorgeous cousin Gael--also known as one of the few teammates who will talk to her--Dera agrees. 

But when she goes viral and gains attention across the state, Dera's new notoriety opens the door for trolls both online and at school. Paired with her deteriorating relationship with her father, she soon finds everything to be too much. Will Dera be able to keep outrunning her problems, or will her dream be the very thing that derails her?

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Twin Cities

Jose Pimienta

FOUR STARRED REVIEWS • A critically acclaimed graphic novel with rave reviews about this timely story featuring middle school twins living on the Mexico-US border and trying to discover exactly who they are – together or apart.

“Transcendentally good.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Being twins means having a best friend forever . . . But when one goes to middle school in Mexico and the other across the border in California, can that bond withstand the distance? Luis Fernando is staying local in Mexicali, Mexico, while Luisa Teresa crosses the border every day so she can go to a private school in Calexico, California. As they try to embrace new experiences close to and far from home, the twins hit obstacles: like making new friends and navigating school pressure without the other one for support. Fernando and Teresa finally have the chance to stand on their . . . isn’t that what the always wanted? 

A unique and timely story about siblings, middle school, and peer pressure from rising star Jose Pimienta, Twin Cities is at once a relatable contemporary story and much-needed window into an experience so many kids can relate to but has rarely been seen in children’s graphic novels. 

"From start to finish, Twin Cities is a superbly crafted work of art and emotion that marks Pimienta as a creator to watch." —BookPage, starred review

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The Secret Battle of Evan Pao

Wendy Wan Long Shang

Middle school can be a battlefield... From award-winning author Wendy Wan-Long Shang comes a poignant and timely take on prejudice, bullying, and claiming our own histories, perfect for fans of Front Desk.

A fresh start. That's all Evan Pao wants as he, along with his mother and sister, flee from California to Haddington, Virginia, hoping to keep his father's notoriety a secret.

But Haddington is a southern town steeped in tradition, and moving to a town immersed in the past has its own price. Although Evan quickly makes friends, one boy, Brady Griggs, seems determined to make sure that as a Chinese American, Evan feels that he does not belong. When Evan finds a unique way to make himself part of the school's annual Civil War celebration, the reaction is swift and violent. As all of his choices at home and at school collide, Evan must decide whether he will react with the same cruelty shown to him, or choose a different path.

Wendy Wan-Long Shang, the critically acclaimed author of Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association Award for Children's Literature winner The Great Wall of Lucy Wu, weaves a timely and deeply moving portrait of all the secret battles Evan Pao must fight as he struggles to figure out how he fits into this country's past and how he will shape its future.

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It Wasn't Me

Dana Alison Levy

"Every reader will find some piece of themselves in Levy's sharp, humorous, and heartfelt novel. A twisty mystery with quirky, unforgettable characters and a positive message to boot."
--JOHN DAVID ANDERSON, the critically acclaimed author of Ms. Bixby's Last Day and Posted

The Breakfast Club meets middle school with a prank twist in this hilarious and heartwarming story about six very different seventh graders who are forced to band together after a vandalism incident.

When Theo's photography project is mysteriously vandalized at school there are five suspected students who all say "it wasn't me."

Theo just wants to forget about the humiliating incident but his favorite teacher is determined to get to the bottom of it and has the six of them come into school over vacation to talk. She calls it "Justice Circle." The six students--the Nerd, the Princess, the Jock, the Screw Up, the Weirdo, and the Nobody--think of it as detention. AKA their worst nightmare.

That is until they realize they might get along after all, despite their differences. But what is everyone hiding and will school ever be the same?

*PW Best Books *Winter Kids' Indie Next List * JLG selection * Three starred reviews

"What at first seems like a novel solely about bullying becomes a story about six kids who find their way to true friendship and fierce loyalty, and why restorative justice is worth the time and effort it takes." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

"A timely, introspective whodunit with a lot of heart." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Levy writes in an easy style with laugh-out-loud humor, offering characters that slowly reveal deeper complexity." --School Library Journal, starred review

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Maybe He Just Likes You

Barbara Dee

A 2020 ALA Notable Children’s Book
A Washington Post Best Children’s Book of 2019

Barbara Dee explores the subject of #MeToo for the middle grade audience in this heart-wrenching—and ultimately uplifting—novel about experiencing harassment and unwanted attention from classmates. 

For seventh-grader Mila, it starts with some boys giving her an unwanted hug on the school blacktop. A few days later, at recess, one of the boys (and fellow trumpet player) Callum tells Mila it’s his birthday, and asks her for a “birthday hug.” He’s just being friendly, isn’t he? And how can she say no? But Callum’s hug lasts a few seconds too long, and feels…weird. According to her friend, Zara, Mila is being immature and overreacting. Doesn’t she know what flirting looks like?

But the boys don’t leave Mila alone. On the bus. In the halls. During band practice—the one place Mila could always escape.

It doesn’t feel like flirting—so what is it? Thanks to a chance meeting, Mila begins to find solace in a new place: karate class. Slowly, with the help of a fellow classmate, Mila learns how to stand her ground and how to respect others—and herself.

From the author of Everything I Know About You, Halfway Normal, and Star-Crossed comes this timely story of a middle school girl standing up and finding her voice.”

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The Extraordinary Orbit of Alex Ramirez

Jasminne Paulino

A powerful debut novel in verse about a neurodivergent seventh grader who dreams of traveling to the stars one day.

“This story is about a boy who is certain of his own magic in the midst of the doubtful adults around him. A kid who knows not even the sky, but the stars are the limit. Which makes Paulino's debut...extraordinary.” —Jason Reynolds, author of National Book Award finalist Look Both Ways and Newbery Honor Book Long Way Down

Seventh grader Alex's favorite things to do are watching YouTube videos of rocket launches with his Papi and spending hours on the NASA website reading about astronauts and planets. He even dreams of going to space one day himself, and knows he'll have to study hard in order to get there.

But Alex is in his grade's SC (self-contained) classroom, which means doing the same dull worksheets every day and reading books his sister read back in the third grade. Worst of all, being in SC means nobody thinks he's ready to join Ms. Rosef's mainstream science class—the class Alex knows will be the first step on his path to NASA.

When his teacher says "not yet" for the millionth time, Alex decides it's time to make a change. Now he's ready to try everything he can to get the people in his life—his teachers, his parents, and the kids at school—to understand that he, Alex Ramirez, is capable of the extraordinary.

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The Boy Who Touched the Stars / El Niño Que Alcanzó Las Estrellas

José M. Hernández

Every night when he was a boy, José M. Hernández would look out the window and stare at the stars. Some were larger and brighter than others, and some twinkled as if they were alive. Later, when he saw man land on the moon on TV, he knew he wanted to be an astronaut. 

But José struggled in school because his family moved constantly and he didn't speak English. José was in second grade when his teacher convinced his parents to stop migrating and stay in the United States. José became an electrical engineer, got married and had a family, and though he was very happy, he never stopped thinking about his dream. 

So he applied to NASA to become an astronaut. His application was rejected eleven times, but he kept applying. He was finally selected for astronaut school and achieved his dream when he flew on the Space Shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station!

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We Dream of Space

Erin Entrada Kelly

A Newbery Honor Book - BookPage Best Books - Chicago Public Library Best Fiction - Goodreads Choice Awards Nominee - Horn Book Fanfare - New York Times Notable Children's Book - School Library Journal Best Book - Today Show Pick - An ALA Notable Book

"A 10 out of 10 . . . Anyone interested in science, sibling relationships, and friendships will enjoy reading We Dream of Space."--Time for Kids

Newbery Medalist and New York Times-bestselling author Erin Entrada Kelly transports readers to 1986 and introduces them to the unforgettable Cash, Fitch, and Bird Nelson Thomas in this pitch-perfect middle grade novel about family, friendship, science, and exploration. This acclaimed Newbery Honor Book is a great choice for readers of Kate DiCamillo, Rita Williams-Garcia, and Rebecca Stead.

Cash, Fitch, and Bird Nelson Thomas are three siblings in seventh grade together in Park, Delaware. In 1986, as the country waits expectantly for the launch of the space shuttle Challenger, they each struggle with their own personal anxieties. Cash, who loves basketball but has a newly broken wrist, is in danger of failing seventh grade for the second time. Fitch spends every afternoon playing Major Havoc at the arcade on Main and wrestles with an explosive temper that he doesn't understand. And Bird, his twelve-year-old twin, dreams of being NASA's first female shuttle commander, but feels like she's disappearing.

The Nelson Thomas children exist in their own orbits, circling a tense and unpredictable household, with little in common except an enthusiastic science teacher named Ms. Salonga. As the launch of the Challenger approaches, Ms. Salonga gives her students a project--they are separated into spacecraft crews and must create and complete a mission. When the fated day finally arrives, it changes all of their lives and brings them together in unexpected ways.

Told in three alternating points of view, We Dream of Space is an unforgettable and thematically rich novel for middle grade readers.

We Dream of Space is illustrated throughout by the author.

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Garvey's Choice

Nikki Grimes

Award-winning author Nikki Grimes’s beloved novel in verse Garvey’s Choice is now a graphic novel, imaginatively and dramatically illustrated by Little Shaq artist Theodore Taylor III. 

Garvey’s father has always wanted Garvey to be athletic, but Garvey is interested in astronomy, science fiction, reading—anything but sports. Feeling like a failure, he comforts himself with food. Garvey is kind, funny, smart, a loyal friend, and he is also overweight, teased by bullies, and lonely. When his only friend encourages him to join the school chorus, Garvey’s life changes. The chorus finds a new soloist in Garvey, and through chorus, Garvey finds a way to accept himself and a way to finally reach his distant father—by speaking the language of music instead of the language of sports.

Garvey’s Choice was a School Library Journal Best Book, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book, a Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor Book, and a Paterson Prize for Books for Young People Honor Book. With Theodore Taylor III’s full-color illustrations, this graphic novel edition is enthralling and inspiring.

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Lotus Bloom and the Afro Revolution

Sherri Winston

Longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature

Member of the 2023 Notable Books for a Global Society (NGBS) List

From the beloved author of President of the Whole Fifth Grade, a story about a young Black girl who summons the courage to fight against a discriminatory dress code--and stand up for herself.

Lotus Bloom just wants to express herself--with her violin, her retro style, and her peaceful vibe, not to mention her fabulous hair.

This school year, Lotus is taking her talent and spirit to the seventh grade at a new school of the arts. The one where she just might get to play under the famous maestro, a violin virtuoso and conductor of the orchestra. But Lotus's best friend, Rebel, thinks Lotus should stay at their school. Why should this fancy new school get all the funding and pull the brightest kids out? Rebel wants Lotus to help her protest, but Lotus isn't sure. If she's going to be in the spotlight, she'd rather it be for her music.

Then, when boys throw paper wads and airplanes into Lotus's afro, Lotus finds herself in trouble for a dress code violation. Lotus must choose--should she stay quiet and risk her beloved hair, or put aside her peaceful vibe and risk everything to fight back?

Inspired by real stories of Black girls fighting dress codes that discriminate against their hair and culture, beloved author Sherri Winston introduces a memorable character who finds her way to speak up for what's right, no matter what it takes.

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The Ojja-Wojja

Magdalene Visaggio

The first in a new graphic novel series from indie comic stars Magdalene Visaggio and Jenn St-Onge is a coming-of-age story about the transformative power of friendship. And an immortal demon with the power to take over the world. But mostly the friendship thing.

Welcome to Bolingbroke. It's a small town just like any other . . . or so eighth graders Val and Lanie think. They're the best of best friends--they love the same comics, they watch the same shows, and they're always there for each other. Which is important when you're queer, like Lanie, or on the spectrum, like Val, and just don't seem to fit in anywhere.

When a school project about their hometown's supernatural history leads to a for-real ghost sighting, Val and Lanie realize Bolingbroke might not be as boring as they'd always thought. But after a run-in with the resident middle school queen bee (who also happens to be Lanie's former friend), they decide to take things to the next level . . . and accidentally summon the Ojja-Wojja, a demonic presence connected to a slew of mysterious tragedies throughout Bolingbroke's sordid history.

Now all heck has broken loose. With the whole town acting weird and nowhere left to turn, it's going to be up to Val, Lanie, and their small group of friends to return things to normal--if "normal" is even something they want to return to.

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Yusuf Azeem is Not a Hero

Saadia Faruqi

At a time when we are all asking questions about identity, grief, and how to stand up for what is right, this book by the author of A Thousand Questions will hit home with young readers who love Hena Khan and Varian Johnson--or anyone struggling to understand recent U.S. history and how it still affects us today.

Yusuf Azeem has spent all his life in the small town of Frey, Texas--and nearly that long waiting for the chance to participate in the regional robotics competition, which he just knows he can win.

Only, this year is going to be more difficult than he thought. Because this year is the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, an anniversary that has everyone in his Muslim community on edge.

With "Never Forget" banners everywhere and a hostile group of townspeople protesting the new mosque, Yusuf realizes that the country's anger from two decades ago hasn't gone away. Can he hold onto his joy--and his friendships--in the face of heartache and prejudice.

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Hazel Hill Is Gonna Win This One

Maggie Horne

A "must-read for tweens and their parents" (SLJ, starred review), this funny, feminist, and queer contemporary middle grade debut follows 12-year-old loner Hazel Hill, who after one of her classmates is harassed online, devises a plan to catch the school's golden boy in the act.

Seventh grader Hazel Hill is too busy for friends. No, really. She needs to focus on winning the school-wide speech competition and beating her nemesis, the popular and smart Ella Quinn, after last year's embarrassing hyperbole/hyperbowl mishap that cost her first place.

But when Hazel discovers Ella is being harassed by golden boy Tyler Harris, she has to choose between winning and doing the right thing. No one would believe that a nice boy like Tyler would harass and intimidate a nice girl like Ella, but Hazel knows the truth--and she's determined to prove it, even if it means risking everything.

Deeply relatable and surprisingly humorous, Hazel Hill Is Gonna Win This One is a wonderfully empowering story about friendship, finding your voice, and standing up for what you believe in.

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Oliver's Great Big Universe

Jorge Cham

This laugh-out-loud illustrated series is "mind-expanding and hilarious!" says Jeff Kinney, author of the international bestselling series Diary of a Wimpy Kid.



"An absolute gem!" Lincoln Peirce, bestselling creator of Big Nate, agrees. "Will get the entire family laughing and learning together," adds Kazu Kibuishi, creator of the New York Times bestselling Amulet graphic novel series.

From the bestselling writer and creator of PHD Comics, Jorge Cham, Oliver's Great Big Universe is a diary-style series following an 11-year-old who's taking on the whole universe--if he can survive middle school first.

Oliver has a lot going on as he starts his first year of middle school--new friends, new classes, new everything. But at least there's one thing that still makes sense: science!

Determined to be an astrophysicist one day, Oliver explains everything he learns--like how the sun burps, how ghost particles fly through you, the uncanny similarities between Mercury and cafeteria meatballs, and most important, how the Big Bang is basically just like a fart in the school hallway.

Also, there are time-bending black holes, exploding supernova stars, and aliens! Well, there could be aliens.

Oliver finally feels like he's starting to figure things out . . . but can he stay out of the principal's office or catch a break from his annoying sister?

Oliver's Great Big Universe series:

Oliver's Great Big Universe (#1)

Oliver's Great Big Universe: Volcanoes Are Hot! (#2)

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Lost & Found

Mei Yu

"This bright and bubbly early reader graphic novel, based on debut creator Yu's own immigration story, validates the sometimes overwhelming nature of learning an unfamiliar language as a child in a new country." --Publishers Weekly

Being the new kid in school is scary enough. But imagine what it would be like if you were the new kid in a new school, in a new country. That's exactly the situation Mei Yu finds herself in when her family moves from China to Canada. As she navigates her new school, she discovers a unique way to learn English and makes a new friend along the way in this heartwarming story based on the author's own experiences.

 

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Iveliz Explains It All

Andrea Beatriz Arango

NEWBERY HONOR AWARD WINNER • In this timely and moving novel in verse, a preteen girl navigates seventh grade while facing mental health challenges. A hopeful, poetic story about learning to advocate for the help and understanding you deserve.

"Powerful." —Lisa Fipps, Printz Honor-winning author of Starfish

How do you speak up when it feels like no one is listening?

The end of elementary school? 
Worst time of my life.
And the start of middle school?
I just wasn’t quite right.
But this year?
YO VOY A MI.

Seventh grade is going to be Iveliz’s year. She’s going to make a new friend, help her abuela Mimi get settled after moving from Puerto Rico, and she is not going to get into any more trouble at school. . . .

Except is that what happens? Of course not. Because no matter how hard Iveliz tries, sometimes people say things that just make her so mad. And worse, Mimi keeps saying Iveliz’s medicine is unnecessary—even though it helps Iveliz feel less sad. But how do you explain your feelings to others when you’re not even sure what’s going on yourself?

Powerful and compassionate, Andrea Beatriz Arango’s debut navigates mental health, finding your voice, and discovering that those who really love you will stay by your side no matter what.

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Linked

Gordon Korman

An unforgettable novel from the New York Times bestselling Gordon Korman.

Link, Michael, and Dana live in a quiet town. But it's woken up very quickly when someone sneaks into school and vandalizes it with a swastika.

Nobody can believe it. How could such a symbol of hate end up in the middle of their school? Who would do such a thing?

Because Michael was the first person to see it, he's the first suspect. Because Link is one of the most popular guys in school, everyone's looking to him to figure it out. And because Dana's the only Jewish girl in the whole town, everyone's treating her more like an outsider than ever.

The mystery deepens as more swastikas begin to appear. Some students decide to fight back and start a project to bring people together instead of dividing them further. The closer Link, Michael, and Dana get to the truth, the more there is to face-not just the crimes of the present, but the crimes of the past.

With Linked, Gordon Korman, the author of the acclaimed novel Restart, poses a mystery for all readers where the who did it? isn't nearly as important as the why?

 

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How Baseball Happened

Thomas W. Gilbert

The fascinating, true, story of baseball's amateur origins. "Explores the conditions and factors that begat the game in the 19th century and turned it into the national pastime....A delightful look at a young nation creating a pastime that was love from the first crack of the bat."--Paul Dickson, The Wall Street Journal

Baseball's true founders don't have plaques in Cooperstown. The founders were the hundreds of uncredited amateurs -- ordinary people -- who played without gloves, facemasks or performance incentives in the middle decades of the 19th century. Unlike today's pro athletes, they lived full lives outside of sports. They worked, built businesses and fought against the South in the Civil War.

But that's not the way the story has been told. The wrongness of baseball history can be staggering. You may have heard that Abner Doubleday or Alexander Cartwright invented baseball. Neither did. You may have been told that a club called the Knickerbockers played the first baseball game in 1846. They didn't. You have read that baseball's color line was uncrossed and unchallenged until Jackie Robinson in 1947. Nope. You have been told that the clean, corporate 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings were baseball's first professional club. Not true. They weren't the first professionals; they weren't all that clean, either. You may have heard Cooperstown, Hoboken, or New York City called the birthplace of baseball, but not Brooklyn. Yet Brooklyn was the home of baseball's first fans, the first ballpark, the first statistics--and modern pitching.

Baseball was originally supposed to be played, not watched. This changed when crowds began to show up at games in Brooklyn in the late 1850s. We fans weren't invited to the party; we crashed it. Professionalism wasn't part of the plan either, but when an 1858 Brooklyn versus New York City series accidentally proved that people would pay to see a game, the writing was on the outfield wall.

When the first professional league was formed in 1871, baseball was already a fully formed modern sport with championships, media coverage, and famous stars. Professional baseball invented an organization, but not the sport itself. Baseball's amazing amateurs had already done that.

Thomas W. Gilbert's history is for baseball fans and anyone fascinating by history, American culture, and how great things began.

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The Chicago Cubs

Rich Cohen

The New York Times bestselling author of Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football “knocks it out of the park” (Vanity Fair) in this captivating blend of sports reportage and memoir, exploring the history of the 2016 World Series champions, the Chicago Cubs.

When Rich Cohen was eight years old, his father took him to see a Cubs game. On the way out of the park, his father asked him to make a promise. “Promise me you will never be a Cubs fan. The Cubs do not win,” he explained, “and because of that, a Cubs fan will have a diminished life determined by low expectations. That team will screw up your life.” 

Cohen became not just a Cubs fan but one of the biggest Cubs fans in the world. In this book, he captures the story of the team, its players and crazy days. Billy Sunday and Ernie Banks, Three Finger Brown and Ryne Sandberg, Bill Buckner, the Bartman Ball, Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo—the early dominance followed by a 107 year trek across the wilderness. It’s all here, in The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse—not just what happened, but what it felt like and what it meant. 

Featuring extensive interviews with players, owners, and coaches, this mix of memoir, reporting, history, and baseball theology—forty years in the making—has never been written because it never could be. Only with the 2016 World Series can the true arc of the story finally be understood.

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The Book of Joe

Joe Maddon

Lessons in baseball enlightenment from three-time MLB Manager of the Year Joe Maddon.



No one sees baseball like Joe Maddon. He sees it through his trademark glasses and irrepressible wit. Raised in the "shot and beer" town of Hazleton, PA, and forged by 15 years in the minors, Maddon over 19 seasons in Tampa Bay, Chicago, and Anaheim has become one of the most successful, most colorful, and most quoted managers in Major League Baseball. He is a workplace culture expert, having engineered two of the most stunning turnarounds in the past quarter century: taking the Rays from the worst record in baseball one year to the World Series the next and leading the Cubs to their first World Series title in 108 years.



Like his teams, Maddon defies convention. He is part strategist, part philosopher, part sports psychologist, and part motivational coach. In THE BOOK OF JOE, Maddon gives readers unique insights into the game, including the tension between art and data, the changing role of managers as front offices gain power, why the honeymoon with the Cubs did not last, and what it's like to manage the modern player, including stars such as Shohei Ohtani, Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, Yu Darvish, and Kris Bryant.



But you expect even more from a manager who meditates daily, admires Twain, and has only one rule when it comes to a team dress code: "If you think you look hot, wear it!" And Maddon delivers. Built on-old school values and new-school methods, his wisdom applies beyond the dugout. His mantras about leadership, mentorship, team building, and communication are meditations on life, not just baseball. Among those mantras are:



"Do simple better."

"Try not to suck."

"Don't ever permit the pressure to exceed the

pleasure."

"See it with first-time eyes."

"Tell me what you think, not what you've heard."



THE BOOK OF JOE is Maddon at his uniquely holistic best. It is a memoir of a fascinating baseball journey, an insider's look at a changing game, and a guidebook on leadership and life.

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Charlie Hustle

Keith O'Brien

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A captivating chronicle of the incredible story of one of America’s most iconic, charismatic, and still polarizing figures—baseball immortal Pete Rose—and an exquisite cultural history of baseball and America in the second half of the twentieth century • "Comprehensive, compulsively readable and wholly terrific."—The Wall Street Journal

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • WINNER OF THE PEN/JACQUELINE BOGRAD WELD AWARD FOR BIOGRAPHY

“Baseball biography at its best. With Charlie Hustle, Pete Rose finally gets the book he deserves, and baseball fans get the book we’ve been craving, a hard-hitting, beautifully-written tale that will stand for years to come as the definitive account of one of the most fascinating figures in American sports history.”—Jonathan Eig, New York Times bestselling author of King: A Life

Pete Rose is a legend. A baseball god. He compiled more hits than anyone in the history of baseball, a record he set decades ago that still stands today. He was a working-class white guy from Cincinnati who made it; less talented than tough, and rough around the edges. He was everything that America wanted and needed him to be, the American dream personified, until he wasn’t.

In the 1980s, Pete Rose came to be at the center of one of the biggest scandals in baseball history. He kept secrets, ran with bookies, took on massive gambling debts, and he was magnificently, publicly cast out for betting on baseball and lying about it. The revelations that followed ruined him, changed life in Cincinnati, and forever altered the game.

Charlie Hustle tells the full story of one of America’s most epic tragedies—the rise and fall of Pete Rose. Drawing on firsthand interviews with Rose himself and with his associates, as well as on investigators' reports, FBI and court records, archives, a mountain of press coverage, Keith O’Brien chronicles how Rose fell so far from being America’s “great white hope.” It is Pete Rose as we've never seen him before.

This is no ordinary sport biography, but cultural history at its finest. What O’Brien shows is that while Pete Rose didn’t change, America and baseball did. This is the story of that change.

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Ten Innings at Wrigley

Kevin Cook

The dramatic story of a legendary 1979 slugfest between the Chicago Cubs and the Philadelphia Phillies, full of runs, hits, and subplots, on the cusp of a new era in baseball history

It was a Thursday at Chicago’s Wrigley Field, mostly sunny with the wind blowing out. Nobody expected an afternoon game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs on May 17, 1979, to be much more than a lazy early-season contest matching two teams heading in opposite directions—the first-place Phillies and the Cubs, those lovable losers—until they combined for thirteen runs in the first inning. “The craziest game ever,” one player called it. “And then the second inning started.”

Ten Innings at Wrigley is Kevin Cook’s vivid account of a game that could only have happened at this ballpark, in this era, with this colorful cast of heroes and heels: Hall of Famers Mike Schmidt and Bruce Sutter, surly slugger Dave Kingman, hustler Pete Rose, unlucky Bill Buckner, scarred Vietnam vet Garry Maddox, troubled relief pitcher Donnie Moore, clubhouse jester Tug McGraw, and two managers pulling out what was left of their hair.

It was the highest-scoring ballgame in a century, and much more than that. Cook reveals the human stories behind a contest the New York Times called “the wildest in modern history” and shows how money, muscles, and modern statistics were about to change baseball forever.

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Homestand

Will Bardenwerper

A poignant memoir exploring small town baseball as a lens into what's right and wrong with modern America-written by an acclaimed journalist and Army Ranger who, after returning from Iraq to a painfully divided country, rediscovered its core values in the bleachers of a minor league ballpark in Batavia, New York.

"Bardenwerper finds hope in the people and community around a former minor league baseball team."-Washington Post

"Will reveal more about the prospects for America than 100 news stories about politics, and will be a lot more fun."-James Fallows, bestselling co-author of Our Towns- A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America

What happens when a minor league team-the heart and soul of a Rust Belt town in western New York-is shut down by the billionaires who run Major League Baseball?

Batavia, New York-between Rochester and Buffalo-hosted its first professional baseball game in 1897. Despite decades of deindustrialization and evaporating middle-class jobs, the Batavia Muckdogs endured. When Major League Baseball cravenly shut them down in 2020-along with forty-one other minor league teams-the town fought back, reviving the Muckdogs as a summer league team comprised of college players. As MLB considers further cuts and private equity buys up what remains, the mom-and-pop operations once prevalent in baseball are endangered. But for now, the sights and sounds of local baseball live on in Batavia-cheap draft beer and hot dogs, starry-eyed kids seeking autographs, and breathtaking summer sunsets.

With a vibrant, unforgettable cast of characters-from a librarian and her best friend whose relationship deepens with every "crepuscular hour" they spend together in the bleachers, to the former hockey brawler-turned team owner who greets regulars while working the concession stand, to the iconoclastic writer with a contagious love for his struggling hometown-Bardenwerper's Homestand exposes the beating heart of small town America, friends and neighbors coming together as the crack of the bat echoes in the summer twilight.

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The Last Manager

John W. Miller

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“Baseball books don’t get any better than this...Earl Weaver has at last been given his due.” —George F. Will

“Vivid...Most sports books are pop flies to the infield. Miller’s is a screaming triple into the left field corner.” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times

The first major biography of legendary Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver—who has been described as “the Copernicus of baseball” and “the grandfather of the modern game”—The Last Manager is a wild, thrilling, and hilarious ride with baseball’s most underappreciated genius, and one of its greatest characters.

Long before the Moneyball Era, the Earl of Baltimore reigned over baseball. History’s feistiest and most colorful manager, Earl Weaver transformed the sport by collecting and analyzing data in visionary ways, ultimately winning more games than anybody else during his time running the Orioles from 1968 to 1982.

When Weaver was hired by the Orioles, managers were still seen as coaches and inspirational leaders, more teachers of the game than strategists. Weaver invented new ways of building baseball teams, prioritizing on-base average, elite defense, and strike throwing. Weaver was the first manager to use a modern radar gun, and he pioneered the use of analytical data. By moving six-foot four-inch Cal Ripken Jr. to shortstop, Weaver paved the way for a generation of plus-sized superstar shortstops, such as Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter. He foreshadowed almost everything that Bill James, Billy Beane, Theo Epstein, and hundreds of other big-brain baseball types would later present as innovations.

Beyond being a great baseball mind, Weaver was a rare baseball character. Major League Baseball is show business, and Weaver understood how much of his job was entertainment. Weaver’s legendary outbursts offered players cathartic relief from their own frustration, signaled his concern for the team, and fired up fans. In his frequent arguments with umpires, he hammed it up for the crowds, faked heart attacks, ripped bases out of the ground, and pretended to toss umpires out of the game. Weaver also fought with his players, especially Jim Palmer, but that creative tension contributed to stunning success and a hilarious clubhouse. During his tenure as major-league manager, the Orioles won the American League pennant in 1969, 1970, 1971, and 1979, each time winning more than 100 games.

The Last Manager uncovers the story of Weaver’s St. Louis childhood with a mobster uncle, his years of minor-league heartbreak, and his unlikely road to becoming a big-league manager, while tracing the evolution of the game from the old-time baseball of cross-country trains and “desk contracts” to the modern era of free agency, video analysis, and powerful player agents. Weaver’s career is a critical juncture in baseball history. He was the only manager to hold a job during the five years leading up to and the five years after free agency upended the sport in 1976.

Weaver was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996. “No manager belongs there more,” wrote Tom Boswell. “Weaver encapsulates the fire, the humor, the brains, the childishness, the wisdom and the goofy fun of baseball.” The Last Manager tells the story of one man—belligerent, genius, infamous—who left his mark on the game for generations.

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Swing Kings

Jared Diamond



 

"The best baseball book I've read in years." -- Sam Walker * "An exhilarating story of innovation." -- Ben Reiter * "Swing Kings feels like a spiritual successor to Moneyball." -- Baseball Prospectus

 

From the Wall Street Journal's national baseball writer, the captivating story of the home run boom, following a group of players who rose from obscurity to stardom and the rogue swing coaches who helped them usher the game into a new age.

We are in a historic era for the home run. The 2019 season saw the most homers ever, obliterating a record set just two years before. It is a shift that has transformed the way the game is played, contributing to more strikeouts, longer games, and what feels like the logical conclusion of the analytics era. In Swing Kings, Wall Street Journal national baseball writer Jared Diamond reveals that the secret behind this unprecedented shift isn't steroids or the stitching of the baseballs, it's the most elemental explanation of all: the swing. In this lively narrative romp, he tracks a group of baseball's biggest stars--including Aaron Judge, J.D. Martinez, and Justin Turner--who remade their swings under the tutelage of a band of renegade coaches, and remade the game in the process.

These coaches, many of them baseball washouts who have reinvented themselves as swing gurus, for years were one of the game's best-kept secrets. Among their ranks are a swimming pool contractor, the owner of a billiards hall, and an ex-hippie whose swing insights draw from surfing and the technique of Japanese samurai. Now, as Diamond artfully charts, this motley cast has moved from the baseball margins to its center of power. They are changing the way hitting is taught to players of all ages, and major league clubs are scrambling for their services, hiring them in record numbers as coaches and consultants. And Diamond himself, whose baseball career ended in high school, enlists the tutelage of each swing coach he profiles, with an aim toward starring in the annual Boston-New York media game at Yankee Stadium.

Swing Kings is both a rollicking history of baseball's recent past and a deeply reported, character-driven account of a battle between opponents as old as time: old and new, change and stasis, the establishment and those who break from it. Jared Diamond has written a masterful chronicle of America's pastime at the crossroads.

 

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Justice Batted Last

Don Zminda

On May 1, 1951, Orestes "Minnie" Miñoso took the field for the Chicago White Sox and broke the color line for Chicago major league baseball. Ernie Banks integrated the Chicago Cubs two years later. The future Hall of Famers began their Chicago baseball careers against the backdrop of a 1951 race riot in suburban Cicero, where a white mob abetted by local police attacked a building that had rented to Black tenants.

Don Zminda's account looks at these interconnected events alongside the little-known chronicle of Chicago's slow track to integrating major league baseball. By the early 1950s, the Cubs and White Sox organizations had become rich in Black and Afro-Latino stars and talented prospects. Unlike Miñoso and Banks, however, most of these minor leaguers never advanced to the majors or, if they did, it was for little more than a cup of coffee. Zminda also profiles these players, from Charles Pope, the Cubs' first Black signee, to larger-than-life fireballer Blood Burns.

Essential and dramatic, Justice Batted Last uses the lives and careers of two Chicago legends to tell a story of integration on and off the diamond.

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Sports Illustrated Baseball's Greatest

The Editors of Sports Illustrated

Who's the greatest slugger of all time, Babe Ruth or Ted Williams? Where do Derek Jeter and Cal Ripken Jr. rank on the list of the best shortstops? At third base, would you rather have Mike Schmidt or Brooks Robinson? Is Fenway or Wrigley the better ballpark?

This book will end many arguments-and start some new ones. Sports Illustrated's has polled its Major League Baseball experts to determine the ultimate Top 10 in more than 20 categories. The rankings appear alongside stunning photography and classic stories from SI's archives. This is the best of the best in the major leagues, or, more simply, Baseball's Greatest.

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The New York Game

Kevin Baker

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • Sports Illustrated #1 Book of 2024 • A hugely entertaining history of baseball and New York City, bursting with larger-than-life figures and fascinating stories from the game’s beginnings to the end of World War II.

"You’re going to beg for extra innings. Without missing a scandal or a sensation, with an eye on how assimilation transforms the picture, Kevin Baker has written a buoyant, double coming-of-age story. "—Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize-winning author

Baseball is “the New York game” because New York is where the diamond was first laid out, where the bunt and the curveball were invented, and where the home run was hit. It’s where the game’s first stars were born, and where everyone came to play or watch the game. With nuance and depth, historian Kevin Baker brings this all vividly back to life: the still-controversial, indelible moments—Did the Babe call his shot? Was Merkle out? Did they fix the 1919 World Series? Here are all the legendary players, managers, and owners, in all their vivid, complicated humanity, on and off the field. 

In Baker’s hands the city and the game emerge from the murk of nineteenth-century American life—driven by visionaries and fixers, heroes and gangsters. He details how New York and its favorite sport came to mirror one another, expanding, bumbling through catastrophe and corruption, and rising out of these trials stronger than ever. 

From the first innings played in vacant lots and tavern yards in the 1820s; to the canny innovations that created the very first sports league; to the superb Hispanic and Black players who invented their own version of the game when white baseball sought to exclude them. And all amidst New York’s own, incredible evolution from a raw, riotous town to a new world city. The New York Game is a riveting, rollicking, brilliant ode to America’s beloved pastime and to its indomitable city of origin.

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Smart Baseball

Keith Law

Predictably Irrational meets Moneyball in ESPN veteran writer and statistical analyst Keith Law’s iconoclastic look at the numbers game of baseball, proving why some of the most trusted stats are surprisingly wrong, explaining what numbers actually work, and exploring what the rise of Big Data means for the future of the sport.

For decades, statistics such as batting average, saves recorded, and pitching won-lost records have been used to measure individual players’ and teams’ potential and success. But in the past fifteen years, a revolutionary new standard of measurement—sabermetrics—has been embraced by front offices in Major League Baseball and among fantasy baseball enthusiasts. But while sabermetrics is recognized as being smarter and more accurate, traditionalists, including journalists, fans, and managers, stubbornly believe that the "old" way—a combination of outdated numbers and "gut" instinct—is still the best way. Baseball, they argue, should be run by people, not by numbers.

In this informative and provocative book, the renowned ESPN analyst and senior baseball writer demolishes a century’s worth of accepted wisdom, making the definitive case against the long-established view. Armed with concrete examples from different eras of baseball history, logic, a little math, and lively commentary, he shows how the allegiance to these numbers—dating back to the beginning of the professional game—is firmly rooted not in accuracy or success, but in baseball’s irrational adherence to tradition.

While Law gores sacred cows, from clutch performers to RBIs to the infamous save rule, he also demystifies sabermetrics, explaining what these "new" numbers really are and why they’re vital. He also considers the game’s future, examining how teams are using Data—from PhDs to sophisticated statistical databases—to build future rosters; changes that will transform baseball and all of professional sports.

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Banana Ball

Jesse Cole

The Savannah Bananas have peeled back the game of baseball and made it fun again.

This is their story.
 
For his entire childhood, Jesse Cole dreamed of pitching in the Majors. Now, he has a life in baseball that he could have only imagined: he met the love of his life in the industry; they shaped Savannah, Georgia’s professional team into the league champion Savannah Bananas; and now the Bananas have restyled baseball itself into something all their own: Banana Ball. 
 
Fast, fun, and outrageously entertaining, Banana Ball brings fans right into the game. The Bananas throw out a first banana rather than a ball. Their first-base coach dances to "Thriller" or Britney between innings. Players run into the crowd to hand out roses. And the rules themselves are bananas: if a fan catches a foul ball it’s an out; and players might go to bat on stilts or wearing a banana costume. And their fans absolutely love it. 
 
But the reason this team is on the forefront of a movement is less about the play on the field and more about the atmosphere that the team culture creates. For the first time in this book, Jesse reveals the ideas and experiences that allowed him to reimagine America’s oldest sport by creating a phenomenon that is helping fans fall in love with the game all over again. 
 
This is a story that’s bigger than baseball and bigger than the yellow tuxedo Jesse wears as the “ringmaster” of every game. And to understand the movement, you have to understand the story at its core. In Jesse’s telling, it takes heart, innovation, and joy (and a bit of tropical fruit) to make something wholly original out of one of America’s great traditions. His story is part Moneyball, part Field of Dreams, part The Greatest Showman. It is a personal story, a creativity story, and the story of a business scrapping for every success. And it has several distinct love stories—love stories like Jesse and his father, Jesse and his wife, the team and the sport of baseball, the team and the fans.
 
This is Jesse calling his dad from the outfield after each Bananas game, and putting unending creativity into a team with the ultimate goal of bringing the Bananas to the professional ballparks he himself never got to play in. This is his story of baseball, love, leadership, and going just a bit bananas for all.

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Why We Love Baseball

Joe Posnanski

NEW YORK TIMES bestseller

Winner of the CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year

National Sports Media Association Sports Book of the Year 

An NPR "Book of the Day"

#1 New York Times bestselling author Joe Posnanski is back with a masterful ode to the game: a countdown of 50 of the most memorable moments in baseball’s history, to make you fall in love with the sport all over again.
 
Posnanski writes of major moments that created legends, and of forgotten moments almost lost to time. It's Willie Mays’s catch, Babe Ruth’s called shot, and Kirk Gibson’s limping home run; the slickest steals; the biggest bombs; and the most triumphant no-hitters. But these are also moments raw with the humanity of the game, the unheralded heroes, the mesmerizing mistakes drenched in pine tar, and every story, from the immortal to the obscure, is told from a unique perspective. Whether of a real fan who witnessed it, or the pitcher who gave up the home run, the umpire, the coach, the opposing player—these are fresh takes on moments so powerful they almost feel like myth.
 
Posnanski’s previous book, The Baseball 100, portrayed the heroes and pioneers of the sport, and now, with his trademark wit, encyclopedic knowledge, and acute observations, he gets at the real heart of the game. From nineteenth-century pitchers’ duels to breaking the sport’s color line in the ’40s, all the way to the greatest trick play of the last decade and the slide home that became a meme, Posnanski’s illuminating take allows us to rediscover the sport we love—and thought we knew.
 
Why We Love Baseball is an epic that ends too soon, a one-of-a-kind love letter to the sport that has us thrilled, torn, inspired, and always wanting more.

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Moneyball

Michael Lewis

"One of the best baseball—and management—books out.... Deserves a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame."—Forbes 

Moneyball is a quest for the secret of success in baseball. Following the low-budget Oakland Athletics, their larger-than-life general manger, Billy Beane, and the strange brotherhood of amateur baseball enthusiasts, Michael Lewis has written not only "the single most influential baseball book ever" (Rob Neyer, Slate) but also what "may be the best book ever written on business" (Weekly Standard).

I wrote this book because I fell in love with a story. The story concerned a small group of undervalued professional baseball players and executives, many of whom had been rejected as unfit for the big leagues, who had turned themselves into one of the most successful franchises in Major League Baseball. But the idea for the book came well before I had good reason to write it—before I had a story to fall in love with. It began, really, with an innocent question: how did one of the poorest teams in baseball, the Oakland Athletics, win so many games?

With these words Michael Lewis launches us into the funniest, smartest, and most contrarian book since, well, since Liar's Poker. Moneyball is a quest for something as elusive as the Holy Grail, something that money apparently can't buy: the secret of success in baseball. The logical places to look would be the front offices of major league teams, and the dugouts, perhaps even in the minds of the players themselves. Lewis mines all these possibilities—his intimate and original portraits of big league ballplayers are alone worth the price of admission—but the real jackpot is a cache of numbers—numbers!—collected over the years by a strange brotherhood of amateur baseball enthusiasts: software engineers, statisticians, Wall Street analysts, lawyers and physics professors.

What these geek numbers show—no, prove—is that the traditional yardsticks of success for players and teams are fatally flawed. Even the box score misleads us by ignoring the crucial importance of the humble base-on-balls. This information has been around for years, and nobody inside Major League Baseball paid it any mind. And then came Billy Beane, General Manager of the Oakland Athletics.

Billy paid attention to those numbers —with the second lowest payroll in baseball at his disposal he had to—and this book records his astonishing experiment in finding and fielding a team that nobody else wanted. Moneyball is a roller coaster ride: before the 2002 season opens, Oakland must relinquish its three most prominent (and expensive) players, is written off by just about everyone, and then comes roaring back to challenge the American League record for consecutive wins.

In a narrative full of fabulous characters and brilliant excursions into the unexpected, Michael Lewis shows us how and why the new baseball knowledge works. He also sets up a sly and hilarious morality tale: Big Money, like Goliath, is always supposed to win... how can we not cheer for David?

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Dogland

Tommy Tomlinson

“Delightful.” —Town & Country • “Extraordinary...Tomlinson’s book is a gem.” —Star Tribune (Minneapolis) • “Moving...Really broke me.” —The Washington Post “This book wants to lick your face. Let it.” —Kirkus Reviews

Pulitzer Prize finalist Tommy Tomlinson explores the bond between dogs and their people in this irresistibly appealing, inside account of the Westminster Dog Show that follows one dog on his quest to become a champion.

Tommy Tomlinson was watching a dog show on television a few years ago when he had a sudden thought: Are those dogs happy? How about pet dogs—are they happy? Those questions sparked a quest to venture inside the dog-show world, in search of a deeper understanding of the longtime relationship between dogs and humans, and here, in Dogland he shares his surprising, entertaining, and moving adventures.

Spending three years on the road, Tomlinson goes behind the scenes at more than one hundred competitions across the country, from Midwestern fairgrounds to Madison Square Garden. Along the way he is licked, sniffed, and rubbed up against by dogs of nearly every size, shape, and breed. Like a real-life version of the classic mockumentary Best in Show, Dogland follows one champion show dog—a Samoyed named Striker—as well as his handler, Laura King, and his devoted entourage of breeders and owners as he competes in the 2022 Westminster Dog Show.

Striker’s whole career has been leading up to this moment. As Tomlinson writes, picking a top show dog is like drafting an NFL quarterback when they’re still in elementary school. Now Striker has made it to the Super Bowl. Tomlinson takes us on the long road to glory, bringing the dog-show circuit to life as teams scramble from town to town in search of championship ribbons. (Striker and his crew travel in a custom-built RV named after Betty White.)

Tomlinson’s limitless curiosity about people and dogs reaches far beyond the show tents and into the ordinary lives of dogs. We hear from experts who have discovered new insights into how dogs and humans formed their bond—and how that bond has changed over the centuries. We discover the fascinating origins of different dog breeds, learn about the elaborate breed standards that determine an ideal show dog, and consider the health issues that can arise in purebred dogs. We also meet dog lovers who applaud every dog, regardless of breed, simply for being themselves, such as WeRateDogs, the social media phenomenon with millions of followers, all for posts celebrating the day-to-day goofiness in most dog owners’ lives.

“A big ol’ slobbering smooch of optimism, laughter, and happiness” (Joe Posnanski) Dogland takes us on a rollicking tour through the rituals, tricks, and wonders of the dog-show world—and reveals what matters most for the happiness of dogs and dog lovers everywhere.

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Lessons From Lucy

Dave Barry

In this “little gem” (Washington Independent Review of Books), Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist and New York Times bestselling author Dave Barry learns how to age happily from his old but joyful dog, Lucy.

As Dave Barry turns seventy—not happily—he realizes that his dog, Lucy, is dealing with old age far better than he is. She has more friends, fewer worries, and way more fun. So Dave decides to figure out how Lucy manages to stay so happy, to see if he can make his own life happier by doing the things she does (except for drinking from the toilet). He reconnects with old friends and tries to make new ones—which turns out to be a struggle, because Lucy likes people a lot more than he does. And he gets back in touch with two ridiculous but fun groups from his past: the Lawn Rangers, a group of guys who march in parades pushing lawnmowers and twirling brooms (alcohol is involved), and the Rock Bottom Remainders, the world’s oldest and least-talented all-author band. With each new lesson, Dave riffs hilariously on dogs, people, and life in general, while also pondering Deep Questions, such as when it’s okay to lie. (Answer: when scallops are involved.)

Lessons from Lucy shows readers a new side to Dave Barry that’s “touching and sentimental, but there’s still a laugh on every page” (Sacramento Bee). The master humorist has written a witty and affable guide to joyous living at any age.

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Barking Up the Right Tree

Dr. Ian Dunbar

When Dr. Ian Dunbar introduced his SIRIUS® Puppy Training in 1982, dog training mostly comprised punishing adult dogs for bad habits and lack of compliance. Dunbar focused on verbally cuing and creatively luring to achieve desirable behavior and using “life rewards” — sniffing, walking, play with dogs, and interactive games — to reinforce speedy compliance and good habits from the outset. His “dog’s point of view” approach revolutionized the field, and today there are few trainers who have not been strongly influenced by it.

While positive reinforcement is now widely adopted, this new book details how other reward-training techniques have strayed from Dunbar’s original, quick and easy, highly effective lure-reward approach for teaching dogs ESL, in which we can verbally cue specific responses, offer heartfelt praise for success, and give guidance when dogs err. With Dunbar’s method, we can teach dogs when and where to eliminate, what to chew, when and for how long to bark, and when and how to appropriately let off steam.

Barking Up the Right Tree offers proof that aversive punishment seldom works to eliminate undesirable behavior or to get the dog back on track. Dunbar presents numerous nonaversive yet highly effective solutions for misbehavior and noncompliance — simply by using the words you teach, and without even raising your voice.

The culmination of fifty-plus years at the vanguard of dog behavioral science, Barking Up the Right Tree is an indispensable guide for anyone who wants harmonious, two-way communication with a calm, confident, well-behaved, happy canine companion.

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The Dog Behavior Answer Book, 2nd Edition

Arden Moore

Since its original publication 15 years ago, The Dog Behavior Answer Book has helped thousands of dog owners understand their canine companions and become more effective, compassionate caretakers. The completely updated 2nd edition, in a new, larger format, features the latest science and recommended techniques for training, caring for, and understanding dogs. Long-time pet expert Arden Moore answers real-life questions, including: How does a dog's sense of smell work? What's the best way to evaluate my dog's intelligence? How can I boost the confidence of a shy dog? Why does my dog pee in the house when I'm away? How can I stop my dog from chasing the neighbor children? Can I train my dog to stop chewing on shoes? How can I learn to "speak dog" better? What's the best way to train a puppy to calm down? What kind of dog should I choose since I live in an apartment? How can I help my arthritic dog move safely? Combining her friendly, entertaining tone with her seasoned, hands-on knowledge of dogs, Moore is the perfect guide to navigating dog ownership with confidence and success.

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Positive Training for Aggressive and Reactive Dogs

Annie Phenix

A comprehensive guide that gives hope to dog owners, this aggressive dog training manual will help you turn your dog's behavior around and solve substantial issues. Featuring cruelty free and positive behavior training methods and exercises with step-by-step instructions and illustrations to rehabilitate unwanted aggression, barking, timidity, fear, reactivity, and other problem behaviors, this must-have guide also includes real-life case studies and interviews with top trainers, behaviorists, and veterinarians. With detailed sections covering an array of topics and how-to instruction - from the five must-have skills your dog needs to learn to the top five ways professional trainers change unwanted behaviors - this resource covers a ton of ground to help your dog develop and live a better life with you. If you're seeking professional guidance to overcome problematic habits present in your rescue dog or learn how to train an aggressive dog, this book is here to help!

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Dog Training 101

Kyra Sundance

Whether you’re welcoming a new puppy into your family or want to help your best friend overcome fears or problem behaviors, internationally renowned dog trainer and best-selling author Kyra Sundance presents your essential reference for positive dog training. 

Using a visually driven, playful presentation, Dog Training 101 offers step-by-step instructions to train your pup to be a happy, attentive, and well-mannered canine. You will use positive training methods—including humane counterconditioning and positive redirection—to build a joyful relationship with your dog, who will become a willing partner in the process.
 
Teach your dog basic commands, such as:

  • Sit
  • Down
  • Stay
  • Come
  • Drop it
  • Leave it

Learn real-world tactics for managing common household problems, such as:

  • Leash pulling
  • Jumping on visitors
  • Begging at the table
  • Getting into the trash can
  • Growling
  • Peeing (submissive, excited, and marking)

Kyra will also help you teach your pup to overcome common fears, among them:

  • Loud sounds
  • Being left alone
  • Certain people
  • Vacuum cleaner
  • The bathtub

This comprehensive guide also includes step-by-step advice for bringing a new dog into your household: preparing for a new dog’s arrival, tips for a smooth transition into the household, introducing him or her to your family, and acclimating your dog to his or her new world.

Fun games you can play with your dog offer both opportunities for bonding and a chance to practice rules and boundaries within a defined structure.

A “Good to Know” chapter offers an array of useful information, including the Heimlich maneuver for dogs, a list of weird things dogs do that are perfectly normal, and a list of common poisons.

Bond with your dog as you strive toward common goals with Dog Training 101.

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The Forever Dog

Rodney Habib

#1 New York Times Bestseller

In this pathbreaking guide, two of the world's most popular and trusted pet care advocates reveal new science to teach us how to delay aging and provide a long, happy, healthy life for our canine companions.



 

Like their human counterparts, dogs have been getting sicker and dying prematurely over the past few decades. Why? Scientists are beginning to understand that the chronic diseases afflicting humans--cancer, obesity, diabetes, organ degeneration, and autoimmune disorders--also beset canines. As a result, our beloved companions are vexed with preventable health problems throughout much of their lives and suffer shorter life spans. Because our pets can't make health and lifestyle decisions for themselves, it's up to pet parents to make smart, science-backed choices for lasting vitality and health.

The Forever Dog gives us the practical, proven tools to protect our loyal four-legged companions. Rodney Habib and Karen Becker, DVM, globetrotted (pre-pandemic) to galvanize the best wisdom from top geneticists, microbiologists, and longevity researchers; they also interviewed people whose dogs have lived into their 20s and even 30s. The result is this unprecedented and comprehensive guide, filled with surprising information, invaluable advice, and inspiring stories about dogs and the people who love them.

The Forever Dog prescriptive plan focuses on diet and nutrition, movement, environmental exposures, and stress reduction, and can be tailored to the genetic predisposition of particular breeds or mixes. The authors discuss various types of food--including what the commercial manufacturers don't want us to know--and offer recipes, easy solutions, and tips for making sure our dogs obtain the nutrients they need. Habib and Dr. Becker also explore how external factors we often don't think about can greatly affect a dog's overall health and wellbeing, from everyday insults to the body and its physiology, to the role our own lifestyles and our vets' choices play. Indeed, the health equation works both ways and can travel "up the leash."

Medical breakthroughs have expanded our choices for canine health--if you know what they are. This definitive dog-care guide empowers us with the knowledge we need to make wise choices, and to keep our dogs healthy and happy for years to come.

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Dog Training For Dummies

Wendy Volhard

Make your buddy a top dog for life, be your Best Friend’s “Friend,” by training together.

Obedience training is one of the most important aspects of raising a dog. In fact, a well-trained dog is a FREE dog! Why? Because a trained dog requires fewer restrictions. The more reliable the dog, the more freedom he is given.

Dog Training for Dummies shows dog owners how to select the right training method for their puppy, adult, or senior dog. Whether you want to teach Buddy to sit or master retrieving, this hands-on guide provides training to ensure a mutually respectful relationship with your four-legged family members.

  • Eliminate unwanted behavior
  • Find step-by-step instruction on basic commands
  • Strengthen your bond with your dog
  • Build communication, understanding, and mutual respect

Based on positive reinforcement, trust, and obedience, the tips and tricks inside will help you bring out the very best in your beloved pet.

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The Forever Dog Life

Rodney Habib



 

In this beautifully illustrated guide, the authors of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Forever Dog show how to create a thriving, sustainable lifestyle and environment to help your dog live a longer, happier, and healthier life

In The Forever Dog, Rodney Habib and Dr. Karen Becker explained that your dog's longevity starts with proper nourishment. In The Forever Dog Life, they offer simple ways you can help your dog live longer and better from the inside-out and outside-in, including easy-to-follow tools, recipes, and tips.

Learn to prepare healthy, homemade meals your dog will love, with more than 120 nutritionally packed recipes for delicious food bowls, fresh food toppers that supercharge any type of pet food, and nourishing broths and stews that entice the pickiest of eaters. And don't forget DIY training treats, cookies, jerkies, and chews. Accompanying the recipes are science-rich tips for the best ingredients, food hacks, and tools to use in the kitchen.

But food is only one aspect of a dog's good health. The Forever Dog Life teaches you how to make your home as healthy as possible, with practical instructions for creating your own non-toxic DIY cleaners, natural disinfectants, and lawn care solutions that can easily replace hazardous chemical-based products that negatively impact our pet's health. Also included are all-natural recipes for body care, including shampoos and conditioners, skin rinses, oral and ear care, and chemical-free flea and tick solutions. Habib and Becker make it easy to incorporate their science-backed tips into your home, so your dog (and cat!) can live a long, happy, and healthy life.

Filled with wonderful stories and fantastic canines, The Forever Dog Life makes the world a safer, healthier, and happier place for animals. Backed by science and filled with photographs and four-color instructions, it is the ultimate handbook to help your dogs and cats live their best life.

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This Dog Will Change Your Life

Elias Weiss Friedman

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A uniquely insightful, uplifting, emotional, and informative book that shows us how dogs make our lives better by making us better people, from the Dogist

The stunning hardcover of This Dog Will Change Your Life features a custom-stamped case, endpapers, and a beautiful jacket.

Elias Weiss Friedman became known as The Dogist when he took thousands of photos of dogs and posted them online along with their unique dog stories. Even before he was The Dogist, though, he was a Dogist—a fervent dog lover, and an evangelist about the relationship between dogs and humans and the joy this bond brings us in the modern world.

Over his decades of studying dogs and their people, Elias has arrived at a deceptively simple realization: Dogs make people’s lives better by making people better. Dogs improve us. They save us. They give our lives greater meaning and fulfillment. They teach us to become the best versions of ourselves. They help us understand our own identities, deepen our relationships, and remind us of patience, purpose, and commitment. We constantly seek those things in our human life, but so many of the answers are already right in front of us, in our dogs.

This book weaves together stories of the many dogs Elias has been lucky enough to know, both in his personal life and while doing his Dogist work. Told in a light tone that does not shy away from more serious issues (Elias is not above the occasional sentimental moment or dog pun), this book charmingly explores the ways that dogs are not just our family and our friends but also irreplaceable beings capable of generating boundless love and restoring balance to our lives.
In an increasingly alienating and divisive world, there is one clear remedy: the one with four legs that rolls over for belly rubs. Dogs can change our lives, and this book might just change yours.

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Bark!

Zazie Todd


The must-have guide to addressing anxious, fearful, or reactive behaviors in your dog through positive reinforcement, from certified dog trainer and animal behaviorist Zazie Todd.

Is your dog showing signs of fear, anxiety, or reactivity, such as biting, food guarding, shyness, or aggressive barking? You're not alone. Close to 75% of dogs struggle with fear-based behaviors, and require our support and understanding to feel safe and secure.

In Bark!, Zazie Todd provides solutions for these behaviors. Decoding the latest canine science, she shows readers how to address the root cause of your dog's fears, with expert advice and practical tips on:
 

  • How to tackle common canine fears, such as loud noises, the vet, separation anxiety, and other dogs.
  • How to manage a dog's natural fear responses through positive reinforcement.
  • How to keep your dog, yourself, and others safe when they are fearful or reactive.
  • How to create safe havens for your dog, and make yourself a secure base for them no matter where they are.

Compassionate, practical, and rooted in science, Bark! helps dog owners understand the many factors that might be causing fear within your dog, and how you can help them lead a safe and happy life.


Praise for WAG by Zazie Todd
"A must-have guide to improving your dog's life."--Modern Dog Magazine

"The author's evidence-based analysis simplifies the science and reduces essential elements into practical, replicable activities geared toward enriching a dog's life."--Library Journal, STARRED Review

"Dog owners and those considering becoming one should appreciate Todd's substantial insight into how dogs and humans relate to one another."--Publishers Weekly

 

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Little Freddie Two Pants

Drew Daywalt

One pair of pants? Two pairs? Three? How many pants should Little Freddie wear? And where should he put them? What about underpants? Where do they go?

In a book with text and art that are sure to induce giggles, Drew Daywalt and Lucy Ruth Cummins settle the age-old question: Do a dog’s front legs deserve pants, too?

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Hot Dog

Doug Salati

WINNER OF THE 2023 CALDECOTT MEDAL

This hot dog has had enough of summer in the city! Enough of sizzling sidewalks, enough of wailing sirens, enough of people's feet right in his face. When he plops down in the middle of a crosswalk, his owner endeavors to get him the breath of fresh air he needs. She hails a taxi, hops a train, and ferries out to the beach.

Here, a pup can run!

With fluid art and lyrical text that have the soothing effect of waves on sand, award-winning author Doug Salati shows us how to find calm and carry it back with us so we can appreciate the small joys in a day.

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Bob, Not Bob!

Audrey Vernick

Little Louie is stuck in bed with a bad cold. His nose is clogged, his ears are crackling, and his brain feels full. All he wants is his mom to take care of him, but whenever he calls out for her, his stuffed-up nose summons slobbery dog Bob instead! As Louie tries and tries to make himself understood in this funny picturebook, kids will love calling out with him, "Bob, not Bob!"

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Toasty

Sarah Hwang

Toasty loves dogs--so much so that he'd like to be one. He knows there are some differences--most dogs have four legs, but Toasty has two arms and two legs. Some dogs sleep in dog houses, but Toasty sleeps in a toaster. All dogs have hair and fur, but Toasty has neither because he's made of bread. In spite of these differences, he decides to go to the park to play with the dogs but runs into trouble when they want to eat him. Lucky for Toasty, he is rescued by a little girl who has always wanted a dog but can't have one because she is allergic. Toasty is the perfect dog for her.

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Dog's Colorful Day

Emma Dodd

Poor Dog. Somehow he always manages to be underfoot when someone makes a mess. Red jam, blue paint, pink ice cream, orange juice -- the history of his day is splattered on his bright, white coat. And by evening, there are ten colorful spots for children to count before the careless canine must have his bath.

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Can I Be Your Dog?

Troy Cummings

A heart-tugging dog adoption story told through letters--deeply sincere and almost desperate pleas for a forever home--from the dog, himself!

This picture book shares the tale of Arfy, a homeless mutt who lives in a box in an alley. Arfy writes to every person on Butternut Street about what a great pet he'd make. His letters to prospective owners share that he's house broken! He has his own squeaky bone! He can learn to live with cats! But, no one wants him. Won't anyone open their heart--and home--to a lonesome dog? Readers will be happily surprised to learn just who steps up to adopt Arfy. 

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Hot Dog, Cold Dog

Frann Preston-Gannon

Simple rhyming text and boldly graphic, funny illustrations show off the comically lovable proportions of the dachshund, with its short legs and long body, spirited nature, and cheerful temperament. Author Frann Preston-Gannon reveals a surprising variety of wiener dog looks and shows kids all the fun these little dogs have as they visit the beach, cavort in the snow, dig in the garden, jump to the ceiling, and even ride a skateboard--all the while giving a lesson in opposites. 

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Bark, George

Jules Feiffer

"Bark, George," says George's mother, and George goes: "Meow," which definitely isn't right, because George is a dog.

And so is his mother, who repeats, "Bark, George." And George goes, "Quack, quack."

What's going on with George? Find out in this hilarious new picture book from Jules Feiffer.

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Go, Dog. Go!

P.D. Eastman

Written for beginning readers using only 75 different words, this beloved Beginner Book by P.D. Eastman—edited by Dr. Seuss—features all kinds of wonderful dogs riding bicycles, scooters, skiis, roller skates, and driving all sorts of vehicles on their way to a party held on top of a tree! This is a perfect gift for P.D. Eastman fans and dog lovers of all ages!
 

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Dog's First Baby

Natalie Nelson

Welcoming a new baby to the family isn’t always easy. When his humans bring home someone new, Dog is determined to sniff out the truth. Is this arrival another dog, or something else? As Dog investigates, he might just find a new friend in this loud, silly creature.

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Stormy

Guojing

In this heartwarming, wordless picture book that's perfect for dog lovers, a woman visits a park and discovers a pup hiding under a bench--scruffy, scared, and alone. With gentle coaxing, the woman tries to befriend the animal, but the dog is too scared to let her near. Day after day, the woman tries--and day after day, the dog runs away. With perseverance and patience--and help from an enticing tennis ball--a tentative friendship begins. But it's not until a raging storm forces the two together that a joyous and satisfying friendship takes hold. Guojing poignantly explores how trust doesn't always come easily, but how, over time, and with kindness and determination, forever love can grow.

 

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Gaston

Kelly DiPucchio

This is the story of four puppies: Fi-Fi, Foo-Foo, Ooh-La-La, and Gaston. Gaston works the hardest at his lessons on how to be a proper pooch. He sips—never slobbers! He yips—never yaps! And he walks with grace—never races! Gaston fits right in with his poodle sisters.

But a chance encounter with a bulldog family in the park—Rocky, Ricky, Bruno, and Antoinette—reveals there’s been a mix-up, and so Gaston and Antoinette switch places. The new families look right…but they don’t feel right. Can these puppies follow their noses—and their hearts—to find where they belong?

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Go Baby! Go Dog!

Anne Vittur Kennedy

The baby likes the dog. The dog likes to be alone. But the baby loves to crawl...and follows the dog wherever he goes! Together they make for a captivating pair in this sweet, simple, and expressive story.

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Laika

Owen Davey

Discover the amazing adventure of the first astronaut dog!

Laika is a stray dog living on the streets of Moscow when she is chosen to be the first ever animal launched into orbit. But her rocket disappears, and everyone thinks Laika is lost forever. In Owen Davey’s imaginative take on a true story, Laika is rescued by new owners and finds the perfect home on a planet far, far away.

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This book just ate my dog!

Richard Byrne

When her dog disappears into the gutter of the book, Bella calls for help. But when the helpers disappear too, Bella realizes it will take more than a tug on the leash to put things right. Cleverly using the physicality of the book, This book just ate my dog! is inventive, ingenious, and just pure kid-friendly fun!

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Stars

Mary Lyn Ray

A star is how you know it’s almost night.
As soon as you see one, there’s another, and another.
And the dark that comes doesn’t feel so dark.
What if you could have a star?

From acclaimed author Mary Lyn Ray and two-time Caldecott Honor winner Marla Frazee comes this tender, evocative—and profound—exploration of stars both near and far.

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Ten Wishing Stars

Treesha Runnells

This countdown to bedtime book follows ten sweet little sheep at bedtime as they gaze up at the night sky, each wishing upon their very own wishing star. Watch as each little sheep's wish comes true until only one wish is left. This adorable book, featuring soft pastel art and glow-in-the-dark stars, teaches counting while stirring children's imaginations and sending them off to a peaceful dreamland.

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Bright Sky, Starry City

Uma Krishnaswami

A little girl and her father have an opportunity to appreciate the wonders of the night sky.

Phoebe helps her dad set up telescopes on the sidewalk outside his store. It's a special night -- Saturn and Mars are going to appear together in the sky. But will Phoebe be able to see them with all the city lights?

Raindrops begin to fall, followed by lightning and thunder. Phoebe is filled with disappointment as she and her father hurry inside to wait out the storm.

But suddenly the power fails and then, amazingly, the rain and clouds disappear. Phoebe and her dad and all kinds of people spill into the street. And there, in the bright night sky, the splendor of the planets and a multitude of stars are revealed for all to see.

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Usha and the Big Digger

Amitha Jagannath Knight

When sisters Usha and Aarti look up at the stars, they see different things. Aarti sees the Big Dipper, but Usha sees the Big DIGGER. And cousin Gloria sees the Big Kite! Could they all be right? A playful introduction to geometry and spatial relationships, featuring Indian American characters and a note about cultures and constellations.

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Star of the Party: The Solar System Celebrates!

Jan Carr

The planets are throwing Sun a birthday party! Mercury wants to thank Sun for how close they are. (Being the closest planet has its perks.) Earth enjoys Sun's warmth. And all the planets want to celebrate Sun's magnetic personality.

But party planning takes work. Do they even have room for all of Jupiter's moon? Don't space out. It's time for this star-studded event!

Blast off with Jan Carr and Pura Belpre Award-winning illustrator Juana Medina's quick-witted and fact-filled picture book about the solar system and all of its (inter)stellar inhabitants.

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Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Jerry Pinkney

Jerry Pinkney's graceful take on the classic lullaby is now available as a board book--a perfect baby gift. As a curious little chipmunk leaves his nest to greet the twilight, he gazes at the glittering sky above him. He can't help but also notice the sparkling dewdrops on a spider's web, the lights of the fireflies, and the shimmers of moonlight on the water. "How I wonder what you are!" marvels the tiny creature, launching a dreamlike quest to reach for the stars.

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Light

Ruth Forman

A young boy’s eyes reflect the light of the universe in this luminous board book from bestselling author Ruth Forman! 

My eyes
carry stars

my eyes
see you
and smile

A boy visits a planetarium with his father and brother for a night of stargazing that opens him to the infinitely bright universe.

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Fancy Nancy: Stellar Stargazer!

Jane O'Connor

Fancy Nancy thinks that everything in the sky is simply stellar, from the sun and the moon to the stars and their constellations (that's a fancy word for the shapes that stars make!). So nothing could make her happier than a special sleepover under the stars with her dad and her little sister, JoJo. Together Nancy and JoJo wish on stars, moon bathe, and even eat astronaut ice cream! But when rain clouds cover up the stars, what's a stellar stargazer to do?

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Little Penguin Stays Awake

Tadgh Bentley

Little Penguin has one wish—he wants to fly just like all the other birds!

All he has to do is wish on a shooting star, but penguins have VERY EARLY BEDTIMES!

Little Penguin has tried everything he can to stay up extra late—but it’s not working.

Can YOU help him stay awake?

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Rocket Says Look Up!

Nathan Bryon

A comet will be visible tonight, and Rocket wants everyone to see it with her--even her big brother, Jamal, whose attention is usually trained on his phone or video games. Rocket's enthusiasm brings neighbors and family together to witness a once-in-a-lifetime sighting. Perfect for fans of Ada Twist, Scientist and Cece Loves Science--Rocket Says Look Up! will inspire readers of all ages to dream big as it models Rocket's passion for science and infectious curiosity.

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Murder the Truth

David Enrich

New York Times Bestseller

"Authoritarian governments abroad have long used legal threats and lawsuits against journalists to cover up their disinformation, corruption, and violence. Now, as master investigative journalist David Enrich reveals, those tactics have arrived in America.” — Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of Strongmen

David Enrich, the New York Times Business Investigations Editor and the #1 bestselling author of Dark Towers, produces his most consequential and far-reaching investigation yet: an in-depth exposé of the broad campaign—orchestrated by elite Americans—to silence dissent and protect the powerful.

It was a quiet way to announce a revolution: In an obscure 2019 case that the Supreme Court refused to even hear, Justice Clarence Thomas raised the prospect of overturning the legendary New York Times v. Sullivan decision. Though hardly a household name, Sullivan is one of the most consequential free speech decisions, ever. Fundamental to the creation of the modern media as we know it, it has enabled journalists and writers all over the country—from top national publications to revered local newspapers to independent bloggers—to pursue the truth aggressively and hold the wealthy, powerful, and corrupt to account.

Thomas’s words were a warning—the public awakening of an idea that had been fomenting on the conservative fringe for years. Now it is going mainstream. From the Florida statehouse to small town New Hampshire to Donald Trump's White House, this movement today consists of some of the world’s richest and most powerful people and companies, who believe they should be above scrutiny and want to silence or delegitimize voices that challenge their supremacy. Indeed, many of the same businessmen, politicians, lawyers, and activists are already weaponizing the legal system to intimidate and punish journalists and others who dare criticize them.

In this masterwork of investigative reporting, David Enrich, New York Times Business Investigations Editor, traces the roots and reach of this growing threat to our modern democracy. With Trump’s emboldened right-wing coalition committed to demonizing and punishing those who attempt to hold them accountable, Murder the Truth sounds the alarm about the looming war over facts, laying bare the stakes of losing our most sacrosanct rights. The result is a story about power in the age of Trump—the way it’s used by those who have it and the lengths to which they will go to avoid it being questioned.

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The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus: A Read with Jenna Pick

Emma Knight

INSTANT #1 BESTSELLER

A witty, warm and brilliantly told debut that is at once a love story, a story of female friendship and motherhood, and an irresistible mystery surrounding an extraordinary British family.

Arriving at the University of Edinburgh for her first term, Pen knows her divorced parents back in Canada are hiding something from her. She believes she’ll find the answer here in Scotland, where an old friend of her father’s—now a famous writer known as Lord Lennox—lives. When she is invited to spend the weekend at Lord Lennox’s centuries-old estate with his enveloping, intriguing family, Pen begins to unravel her parents’ secret and to fall in love for the first time... 

Her best friend, Alice, an aspiring actor, is starring in a university production and making the most of the feminine power she wields—until a tryst with her tutor threatens to spin out of control.

As Pen experiences the sharp shock of adulthood, she uncovers the truth about her own family and comes to rely on herself for the first time in her life. A rich and rewarding novel of campus life, of sexual awakening, and ultimately, of the many ways women can become mothers in this world, The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus asks to what extent we need to look back in order to move forward.

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Abundance

Ezra Klein

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, BEST SUMMER BOOK and MOST-ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2025 FROM THE FINANCIAL TIMES and NEXT BIG IDEA CLUB

'Downing Street's current hot read' Andrew Marr
'Spectacular ... Inspires hope' New York Times
'Forceful, quick-moving ... important' Financial Times
'Ambitious' New Yorker
'Necessary' New Statesman
'Chilling ... Inspirational ... A book that matters' Sunday Times
'One of the most important political books of the past decade' The New European

The threat to liberal democracy isn't just autocrats - it's a lack of effective action by so-called progressives.

We have the means to build an equitable world without hunger, fuelled by clean energy. Instead, we have a politics driven by scarcity, lives defined by unaffordability and public institutions that no longer deliver on big ideas. It's time for change.

Bestselling authors Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson have spent decades analysing the political, economic and cultural forces that have led us here. In this once-in-a-generation intervention, they unpick the barriers to progress and show how we can, and must, shift the political agenda to one that not only protects and preserves, but also builds. From healthcare to housing, infrastructure to innovation, they lay out a path to a future defined not by fear, but by abundance.

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Atmosphere

Taylor Jenkins Reid

***THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER***

'Tipped to be this summer's biggest read' SUNDAY TIMES
'A richly drawn page-turner' OBSERVER
'Quite possibly our favourite TJR novel yet' COSMOPOLITAN
'I absolutely adored this' BRYONY GORDON
'A breathtaking, quietly staggering tale of female empowerment, desire, and our place in the universe' HEAT
'Unputdownable' GRAZIA

READERS ARE SAYING...
'So emotional by the end that I could hardly speak' - Reader Review, 5*****
'Melted my heart by the end' - Reader Review, 5*****
'Taylor Jenkins Reid is the master of a really great love story' - Reader Review, 5*****
'Taylor Jenkins Reid's best book yet' - Reader Review, 5*****

An epic novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s space shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits.

In the summer of 1980, astrophysics professor Joan Goodwin begins training to be an astronaut at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond; mission specialists John Griffin and Lydia Danes; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer. As the new astronauts prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined and begins to question everything she believes about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.

Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, creating complex protagonists, and telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love – this time among the stars.

'Is there a popular fiction writer alive who conveys falling in love better than Taylor Jenkins Reid?' DAILY MAIL

'Packs a hefty emotional punch' MAIL ON SUNDAY

'Thrilling ... heartbreaking ... uplifting. Taylor Jenkins Reid's novel Atmosphere is the fast-paced, emotionally-charged story of one ambitious young woman, finding both her voice and her passion ... I loved it' KRISTIN HANNAH, author of The Women

'NASA? Space missions? The 80s? This is a collection of all the things I love. Great story, excellent research and accuracy, and a thrilling conclusion.' ANDY WEIR, author of Project Hail Mary and The Martian

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There Is No Place for Us

Brian Goldstone

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • Through the “revelatory and gut-wrenching” (Associated Press) stories of five Atlanta families, this landmark work of journalism exposes a new and troubling trend—the dramatic rise of the working homeless in cities across America

“An exceptional feat of reporting, full of an immediacy that calls to mind Adrian Nicole LeBlanc’s Random Family and Matthew Desmond’s Evicted.”—The New York Times Book Review

The working homeless. In a country where hard work and determination are supposed to lead to success, there is something scandalous about this phrase. But skyrocketing rents, low wages, and a lack of tenant rights have produced a startling phenomenon: People with full-time jobs cannot keep a roof over their head, especially in America’s booming cities, where rapid growth is leading to catastrophic displacement. These families are being forced into homelessness not by a failing economy but a thriving one.

In this gripping and deeply reported book, Brian Goldstone plunges readers into the lives of five Atlanta families struggling to remain housed in a gentrifying, increasingly unequal city. Maurice and Natalia make a fresh start in the country’s “Black Mecca” after being priced out of DC. Kara dreams of starting her own cleaning business while mopping floors at a public hospital. Britt scores a coveted housing voucher. Michelle is in school to become a social worker. Celeste toils at her warehouse job while undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer. Each of them aspires to provide a decent life for their children—and each of them, one by one, joins the ranks of the nation’s working homeless.

Through intimate, novelistic portraits, Goldstone reveals the human cost of this crisis, following parents and their kids as they go to sleep in cars, or in squalid extended-stay hotel rooms, and head out to their jobs and schools the next morning. These are the nation’s hidden homeless—omitted from official statistics, and proof that overflowing shelters and street encampments are only the most visible manifestation of a far more pervasive problem.

By turns heartbreaking and urgent, There Is No Place for Us illuminates the true magnitude, causes, and consequences of the new American homelessness—and shows that it won’t be solved until housing is treated as a fundamental human right.

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No New Things

Ashlee Piper

From award-winning sustainability expert Ashlee Piper, a witty, no-nonsense guide to regaining control over your time, consumerist impulses, and financial and mental wellness

For nearly two years, Ashlee Piper challenged herself to buy nothing new. And in the process, she got out of debt, cut clutter, crushed her goals, and became healthier and happier than ever—all the things she’d always wanted to do but “never had time to” (because she was mindlessly scrolling, shopping, spending, and stressing). After a decade of fine-tuning, No New Things guides readers through the same revolutionarily simple challenge that has helped thousands of global participants find freedom and fulfillment in just thirty days.

The book follows the rise of what Piper calls “conditioned consumerism” and how it sneakily hijacks our time, money, and mental bandwidth, as well as harms the planet. From there, readers follow customizable daily action items that bring about the ease and richness of a life less bogged down by spending and stuff, without compromising on style, convenience, or fun.

Whether you’re a bona fide shopaholic or someone who just wants to buy less and live more, No New Things is the antidote to modern overwhelm.

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King of Ashes

S. A. Cosby


"When eldest son Roman Carruthers is summoned home after his father's car accident, he finds his younger brother, Dante, in debt to dangerous criminals and his sister, Neveah, exhausted from holding the family--and the family business--together. Neveah and their father, who run the Carruthers Crematorium in the run-down central Virginia town of Jefferson Run, see death up close every day. But mortality draws even closer when it becomes clear that the crash that landed their father in a coma was no accident and Dante's recklessness has placed them all in real danger. Roman, a financial whiz with a head for numbers and a talent for making his clients rich, has some money to help buy his brother out of trouble. But in his work with wannabe tough guys, he's forgotten that there are real gangsters out there. As his bargaining chips go up in smoke, Roman realizes that he has only one thing left to offer to save his brother: himself, and his own particular set of skills. Roman begins his work for the criminals while Neveah tries to uncover the long-ago mystery of what happened to their mother, who disappeared when they were teenagers. But Roman is far less of a pushover than the gangsters realize. He is willing to do anything to save his family. Anything. Because everything burns."-- Provided by publisher.
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No More Tears

Gardiner Harris

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An explosive, deeply reported exposé of Johnson & Johnson, one of America’s oldest and most trusted pharmaceutical companies—from an award-winning investigative journalist

“A damning portrait.”—Associated Press

“A page-turning drama that raises life-or-death questions about the world’s largest healthcare conglomerate.”—Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of King: A Life

One day in 2004, Gardiner Harris, a pharmaceutical reporter for The New York Times, was early for a flight and sat down at an airport bar. He struck up a conversation with the woman on the barstool next to him, who happened to be a drug sales rep for Johnson & Johnson. Her horrific story about unethical sales practices and the devastating impact they’d had on her family fundamentally changed the nature of how Harris would cover the company—and the entire pharmaceutical industry—for the Times. His subsequent investigations and ongoing research since that very first conversation led to this book—a blistering exposé of a trusted American institution and the largest healthcare conglomerate in the world.

Harris takes us light-years away from the company’s image as the child-friendly “baby company” as he uncovers reams of evidence showing decades of deceitful and dangerous corporate practices that have threatened the lives of millions. He covers multiple disasters: lies and cover-ups regarding the link of Johnson’s Baby Powder to cancer, the surprising dangers of Tylenol, a criminal campaign to sell antipsychotics that have cost countless lives, a popular drug used to support cancer patients that actually increases the risk that cancer tumors will grow, and deceptive marketing that accelerated opioid addictions through their product Duragesic (fentanyl) that rival even those of the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma.

Filled with shocking and infuriating but utterly necessary revelations, No More Tears is a landmark work of investigative journalism that lays bare the deeply rooted corruption behind the image of babies bathing with a smile.

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Never Flinch

Stephen King

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2025 by The New York Times Book Review, AV Club, Variety, The Boston Globe, The Minnesota Star Tribune, Vulture, Men’s Health, Book Riot, New York Post, Goodreads, AARP, Paste, and more!

From master storyteller Stephen King comes an extraordinary new novel with intertwining storylines—one about a killer on a diabolical revenge mission, and another about a vigilante targeting a feminist celebrity speaker—featuring the beloved Holly Gibney and a dynamic new cast of characters.

When the Buckeye City Police Department receives a disturbing letter from a person threatening to “kill thirteen innocents and one guilty” in “an act of atonement for the needless death of an innocent man,” Detective Izzy Jaynes has no idea what to think. Are fourteen citizens about to be slaughtered in an unhinged act of retribution? As the investigation unfolds, Izzy realizes that the letter writer is deadly serious, and she turns to her friend Holly Gibney for help.

Meanwhile, controversial and outspoken women’s rights activist Kate McKay is embarking on a multi-state lecture tour, drawing packed venues of both fans and detractors. Someone who vehemently opposes Kate’s message of female empowerment is targeting her and disrupting her events. At first, no one is hurt, but the stalker is growing bolder, and Holly is hired to be Kate’s bodyguard—a challenging task with a headstrong employer and a determined adversary driven by wrath and his belief in his own righteousness.

Featuring a riveting cast of characters both old and new, including world-famous gospel singer Sista Bessie and an unforgettable villain addicted to murder, these twinned narratives converge in a chilling and spectacular conclusion—a feat of storytelling only Stephen King could pull off.

Thrilling, wildly fun, and outrageously engrossing, Never Flinch is one of King’s richest and most propulsive novels.

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Baller Ina

Liz Casal

Swish! Sure to be a slam-dunk at storytime, this rhyming picture book introduces readers to Ina, a graceful ballerina...who also loves to get competitive on the basketball court!

Doesn’t matter what you call her.
Ballerina, basketballer. 
On the court or at the barre,
Ina is a superstar!

Ina loves to dance ballet: tendu, passé, and grand jeté. But there’s more she can do in her pink tutu!

Cheer from the sidelines as Ina--with her signature ballet moves--helps lead her basketball team to victory in this picture book that celebrates the marvelously multifaceted nature of kids.

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Yasmin the Soccer Star

Saadia Faruqi

Everyone in Yasmin's gym class is excited to play soccer, except for Yasmin. She's seen the pros play, and it looks scary! When Yasmin is chosen as goalie, will she step up or back out? Courage, Yasmin!

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Pug the Sports Star: a Branches Book (Diary of a Pug #11)

Kyla May

The eleventh Branches early chapter book featuring everyone's favorite pug, Bub, and his human, Bella!

Bub has a new hobby: BASKETBALL! He's so good, Bella convinces him to become a doggie basketball coach. Bub loves playing, but he isn't sure how he feels about being in the spotlight. Can Bub's friends help him balance being a SPORTS STAR with staying true to himself?

With full-color artwork throughout, this funny and charming diary-format early chapter book is perfect for anyone who believes a furry pal is the best kind of friend.

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Gymnastica Fantastica!

Briony Stewart

"Quick! Come and see! Somthing fabulous, it's...me!"

Meet Gymnastica, a small person with big energy, as they bend and balance, bounce and roll, attempt a cartwheel and a spectacular trapeze flip-out finale. Written in playful rhyming text and with bright and energetic illustrations, this high-spirited picture book is sure to be an irresistible read aloud that inspires kids to embrace the tumbles that come with putting on a perfectly imperfect show.

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Squad Goals

Laurie Calkhoven

Read about some amazing and unstoppable women who changed soccer in America like Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Briana Scurry, Trinity Rodman, and Mia Hamm. This book also includes a history of women’s soccer in America and a summary of all four historic World Cup wins.

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Pigskins to Paintbrushes

Don Tate

Young Ernie Barnes wasn't like other boys his age. Bullied for being shy, overweight, and uninterested in sports like boys were "supposed" to be, he instead took refuge in his sketchbook, in vibrant colors, bold brushstrokes, and flowing lines. But growing up in a poor, Black neighborhood during the 1930s, opportunities to learn about art were rare, and art museums were off-limits because of segregation laws. Discouraged and tired of being teased, Ernie joined the school football team. Although reluctant at first, he would soon become a star. But art remained in Ernie's heart and followed him through high school, college, and into the NFL. Ernie saw art all around him: in the dynamic energy of the game, the precision of plays, and the nimble movement of his teammates. He poured his passion into his game and his craft, and became famous as both a professional athlete and as an artist whose paintings reflected his love of the sport and celebrated Black bodies as graceful and beautiful.

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Take Me Out to the Yakyu

Aaron Meshon

You may know that baseball is the Great American Pastime, but did you know that it is also a beloved sport in Japan? Come along with one little boy and his grandfathers, one in America and one in Japan, as he learns about baseball and its rich, varying cultural traditions. This debut picture book from Aaron Meshon is a home run—don’t be surprised if the vivid illustrations and energetic text leave you shouting, “LET’S PLAY YAKYU!”

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Tae Kwon Do Test

Cristina Oxtra

Mina has all the skills it takes to pass her upcoming yellow belt test in Tae Kwon Do with flying colors. However, a fellow student's struggle shakes her confidence and tempts her to quit.

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Dream Big

Deloris Jordan

Long before he became a professional All-Star basketball player, Michael Jordan had dreams of winning an Olympic gold medal—and with dedication and perseverance, that’s exactly what he did. This heartwarming picture book, written by Michael’s mother and illustrated by Barry Root, gives a rare glimpse into a sports hero’s childhood and emphasizes the role that good values play in success. An ideal companion to the New York Times bestselling Salt in His Shoes, this is an inspirational story for sports fans, go-getters, and anyone with big dreams!

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