Books with author Reilly Giff

Bright lights, big city--Ms. Rooney's class is heading for NYC! They'll see dinosaurs at the American Museum of Natural History and they'll visit the Bronx Zoo, the Statue of Liberty, and many more sights. They'll even be in a Flag Day parade. Ms. Rooney's named Emily their "New York City expert." But Emily doesn't know a thing about The Big Apple. And it's Pizzazz Week at the Polk Street School--not only does Emily not have pizzazz, but she did something that let her class down. What will she do when they find out? Not to worry! Emily finds the answers in The Big Apple, which is full of fun and big surprises for everyone.

What's worse than a blue Monday? For Richard "Beast" Best, it's a purple Monday spent climbing a fat brown rope with fat brown knots.Beast wishes he could climb up that rope like Emily Arrow and Matthew Jackson. Just looking at it hanging down from the gym ceiling makes him dizzyBeast is afraid and hopes his friends won't find out. But Mrs. Miller, the meanest substitute teacher in the whole school, finds out his secret and tells him to meet her in the gym after school. Miller the Killer. What will she do to him?

A story of the American Revolution from two-time Newbery Honor–winning author Patricia Reilly Giff. While staying with her aunt, Elizabeth finds something remarkable: a drawing. It hangs on the wall, a portrait of her ancestor, Eliza, known as Zee. She looks like Elizabeth.The girls’ lives intertwine as Elizabeth’s present-day story alternates with Zee’s, which takes place during the American Revolution. Zee is dreamy, and hopeful for the future—until the Revolution tears apart her family and her community in upstate New York. Left on her own, she struggles to survive and to follow her father and brother into battle. Zee’s story has been waiting to be rediscovered by the right person. As Elizabeth learns about Zee, and walks where Zee once walked and battles raged, the past becomes as vivid and real as the present. In this beautifully crafted, affecting novel from beloved author Patricia Reilly Giff, the lives of two girls reflect one another as each finds her own inner strengths.

Nory Ryan's family has lived on Maidin Bay on the west coast of Ireland for generations, raising a pig and a few chickens, planting potatoes, getting by. Every year Nory's father goes away on a fishing boat and returns with the rent money for the English lord who owns their cottage and fields, the English lord bent upon forcing the Irish from their land so he can tumble the cottages and clear the fields for grazing. Times are never easy on Maidin Bay, but this year, a terrible blight attacks the potatoes. No crop means starvation. Twelve-year-old Nory must summon the courage and ingenuity to find food, to find hope, to find a way to help her family survive.

It's August, and Emily has big plans at the library. She's going to read lots of books and tack a paper fish next to her name for each one. Then Dawn Bosco says she can read more books than Emily. Not only that, both Emily and Dawn want to keep Pickle Puss, a stray cat thay found. They decide that whoever reads the most books can keep cat.When Emily adds a fish for a book she read along time ago, she has one more fish than Dawn. She knows she's cheating, but she wants to keep the cat. What a pickle she's in.

Rachel, Cassie, and Joey live in the city with their Pop, until Pop's search for work lands the family on a run down farm. Dreamy Rachel loves to read, and doesn't know much about the country. Times are hard there, too—the school and library are closed. When Pop gets work near Canada, he has to leave the children on the farm alone. For two months! But Rachel's the oldest, and she'll make sure they're all right. Somehow.

April is invention month. "We're going to  make our own inventions," says Ms. Rooney, "and  work together in  groups."Though Emily Arrow knows it's important for each  group to think, listen, and share, she still wishes  she were the leader of her invention group. Linda  Lorca, the bossy leader, can't get anyone to  cooperate. "Snaggle doodles," Emily says. If  the group doesn't come up with an idea soon,  they'll be the worst group in the  class.Meanwhile, Emily is also busy thinking of a  wedding present for Ms. Vincent, the student teacher.  The wedding is only a few days away. Emily has a lot  to do. Can she and her group learn to work  together in time?

Halloween should be fun, but Beast is in big trouble. He was working really hard on his spelling homework when Ms. Rooney read The Halloween Horror to the class. Then she told the students to write to the author."Say anything," Matthew suggests, and Beast does. He tells the author he loved the dog in the book. And he even invites the author to come to school's Halloween parade, never dreaming he might accept. Then Beast finds out therewas no dog in the book.And now, to make Beast's Halloween really horrible, guess who's coming to the Polk Street Halloween parade? And guess who's been assigned to be his helper?

From the two-time Newbery Honor-winning author of Lily's Crossing and Pictures of Hollis Woods comes the biography of one of the most important figures in the history of children’s literature: Laura Ingalls Wilder! Laura Ingalls Wilder grew up during the pioneer days of America. To the delight of millions of readers, she spent her adulthood recounting her girlhood memories in the form of her the Little House series, including The Little House on the Prairie. This is the true story of her life, and how she came to be known as one of the most important children’s book authors of all time. About the Women of Our Time series:International in scope, the Women of Our Time series of biographies cover a wide range of personalities in a variety fields. More than a history lesson, these books offer carefully documented life stories that will inform, inspire, and engage.

SEWING! NO ONE could hate it more than Dina Kirk. Endless tiny stitches, button holes, darts. Since she was tiny, she’s worked in her family’s dressmaking business, where the sewing machine is a cranky member of the family.When 13-year-old Dina leaves her small town in Germany to join her uncle’s family in Brooklyn, she turns her back on sewing. Never again! But looking for a job leads her right back to the sewing machine. Why did she ever leave home? Here she is, still with a needle and thread—and homesick to boot. She didn’t know she could be this homesick, but she didn’t know she could be so brave either, as she is standing up to an epidemic or a fire. She didn’t know she could grow so close to her new family or to Johann, the young man from the tailor’s shop. And she didn’t know that sewing would reveal her own wonderful talent—and her future. In Dina, the beloved writer Patricia Reilly Giff has created one of her most engaging and vital heroines. Readers will enjoy seeing 1870s Brooklyn through Dina’s eyes, and share her excitement as she discovers a new world.

It’s August 1941, and Brick and Mariel both love the Brooklyn Dodgers. Brick listens to their games on the radio in Windy Hill, in upstate New York, where his family has an apple orchard; Mariel, once a polio patient in the hospital in Windy Hill, lives in Brooklyn near the Dodgers’ home, Ebbets Field. She was adopted by Loretta, a nurse at the hospital, and has never known what happened to her own mother. Someday, somehow, she plans to return to Windy Hill and find out. When a fire destroys their orchard, Brick’s parents must leave the farm to find work. They send him to live in Brooklyn with their friend Loretta, even though Brick knows that their elderly neighbors need his help to pick what’s left of the apples. The only good thing about Brooklyn is seeing the Dodgers play–that, and his friendship with Mariel. Maybe, together, they’ll find a way to return to Windy Hill, save the harvest, and learn the truth about Mariel’s past.

Mitchell really doesn't want to go camping with the other kids at the Zigzag Afternoon Center. Sleeping in the woods with creepy crawly things, coyotes, and bears? Yikes! But his best friend Habib is going, and it's Mitchell's birthday that weekend. He's just got to find a way to be brave, and scare the bears away!As the fifth book in the Zigzag Kids series—which also includes Number One Kid, Big Whopper, Flying Feet, and Star Time—Bears Beware continues to delight readers with award-winning author Patricia Reilly Giff's quirky, lovable group of kids, capturing all the excitement and surprises of new friends and after-school fun.