Friends work together to help each other out in this Christmas-centered middle grade story. In C. A. Hartnell’s chapter book "Wild Winter", a rambunctious duo solves a mystery and prepares for a holiday pageant. Carol Ann and her best... Read More

Childhood adventures capture the culture of the 1950s in "Sinister Summer". Lighthearted summer fun mixes with worry and fear in C. A. Hartnell’s "Sinister Summer", a chapter book about faith, family, and friends. In the 1950s, Carol... Read More

A historical tale about polio for middle graders, "Scary Spring" stays true to lighthearted aspects of its era. In the spring of 1955, polio ravaged the United States, and Carol Ann, in C. A. Hartnell’s middle grade novel Scary Spring... Read More

In "Extraordinary Birds", a troubled young foster girl who is obsessed with birds and the possibility that she may one day fly comes to terms with her past and learns what it means to find a place to call home. Eleven-year-old December... Read More

In Michelle Kadarusman’s hopeful "Girl of the Southern Sea", an impoverished girl living in Indonesia dreams of a better life. Nia longs to go to high school. Her mother died giving birth to her brother, Rudi. Her father drinks,... Read More