Books published by publisher Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books

Minnie's good friend Charles names his mealworm Minnie. So why doesn't he invite her to the party at his house this coming Saturday? Hopeful at first, Minnie, by week's end, is a wreck. "No invitation, no party, no nothing," she moans, feeling as everyone feels at one time or another: unhappily left out. Diana Cain Bluthenthal knows how to be a comfort -- to Minnie or anybody -- with a story and pictures that are funny as well as true to life. Minnie, by week's end, is a wreck. "No invitation, no party, no nothing," she moans, feeling as everyone feels at one time or another: unhappily left out.

From Newbery Honor author Janet Taylor Lisle comes a lyrical story about one girl’s discovery of her startling past—and her search to understand her complicated present.Joelle’s height and dark skin set her apart from everyone in Marshfield. It’s no secret that she’s adopted, but where is she from? Aunt Mary Louise says she came from Chicago on a freight train, but the story doesn’t sit right with Joelle. There’s something more. She feels it. Carlos, the quiet boy in Joelle’s Spanish class, sees it. When he tells her that she looks like a girl in the town library’s old mural of Narragansett Indians, Joelle can’t help sneaking a look. She’s surprised by a flicker of recognition. And when Carlos tells her about the Crying Rocks, where the ghosts of Narragansett children are said to cry for their lost mothers, Joelle knows she must visit them. When they finally set out through the forest, neither she nor Carlos anticipates the power of the ancient place, or the revelations to be found there—about the pasts they’ve both buried, and the discovery of a rare kind of courage that runs deep in Joelle’s family.

Nola wants nothing more than a summer on her own--and a job at an upscale Maine coast resort sounds ideal. Waitressing three meals a day, but lots of beach time in between, some freedom from her big-sister role to Song, who is undergoing chemo back home in Massachusetts, the chance to make some friends. Enter Carly, the perfect pal, full of jokes, ideas, energy—and experienced at being away from her mysterious family. But Carly is much more complicated than the usual summer buddy—a border-line personality who can turn on Nola in a flash, who can make “love” a rivalry, something that, even at a distance, Song becomes ensnared in. Here is a dramatic look at a girl/girl teen dynamic. To say nothing of boys.

John Huffam is sure the tall man's beard is false. He's sure of little else in November 1849, the year he is fourteen, the year his father is sentenced to London's Whitecross Street Prison. Maybe the man following John -- who claims to be one Inspector Copperfield -- can explain why. Surely, Pa isn't prepared to reveal the truth, any more than the jovial bailiff, Mr. Tuckum, who knows something, but remains mum. Or the little Frenchman, Mr. Farquatt, who courts John's sister but seems most keen on Pa's work at the Naval Ordinance Office. Or Mr. O'Doul, the Irishman who insists Pa owes him the unimaginable sum of three hundred pounds. Or what of the one-legged, single-mindedly fierce Sergeant Muldspoon, John's teacher? What about the boy's great-great-aunt, Lady Euphemia Huffam, who could pay the debt but won't for reasons of her own? What about the secretive Mr. Snugsbe of All Hallows Church, who hides himself away in the City's most voluminous coat? Then there's Chief Inspector Ratchet of Scotland Yard, who is after somebody for some crime or other. True, John has a new friend and ally in Sary the Sneak...but what has even she got up her sleeve? What John learns on his own is that there's a traitor on the loose, somewhere. And he must uncover the villain -- no matter who it might be.

We’ve already learned that trucks roll, planes fly, and boats float. Now, all aboard for the fourth book in George Ella Lyon’s transportation series, and this time learn all about trains! Train travels down the track— all day gone all night back. Trains run! From steam engines to subways, from the locomotive to the caboose, this story stays right on track, exploring all different kinds of trains and what they do in a day.

"Ned believes that, with a forbidden gun, he has shot out the eye of a wild cat, and his guilt poisons his life. An outstanding growing-up story for all ages about the painful secrets and the struggle to be good . . . This riveting story is spun with an eloquent simplicity that belies the skill of its telling . . . Adults and children alike will come effortlessly under the spell of this peerless storyteller . . ."--Booklist, starred review. Newbery Honor book; ALA Notable Children's Book; ALA Best Book for Young Adults; Booklist Editors' Choice; New York Times Book Review Oustanding Children's Book of the Year.