Books published by publisher Front Street Press

To Emily's surprise, the orange raincoat that her mother bought her is even better than the yellow one Emily wanted—this raincoat is magical! "I wish you were a dog," Emily said to her brother, and, just then, he turns into a dog. "I wish I had a million dollars," Emily says, and, just then, two men show up at her door with a bulging briefcase. After Emily learns that she should use her new raincoat only for good causes, the raincoat disappears. "You wanted a yellow one and our neighbors' girl, Mei, wanted an orange one, so I traded with Mei's mother last night," Emily's mother explains. Through spirited prose and detailed ink-and-collage illustrations, readers will enjoy following Emily as she gains, loses, and tries to recover her raincoat.

There he was, Gus Oliver, searching for a stray dog in a snowstorm at four o'clock in the morning. If it hadn't been for his sister, Serena, who could get Gus to do anything, he'd be at home and warm under the army blanket in the blue room...But which, Gus wondered, was worse? The lonely darkness and the howls of that unlikable dog, or the blue room itself, crowded with nightmares, where he was supposed to sleep until Great-Aunt Hattie's mysterious visit was over? And there he was, stuck in the middle of his large family, feeling locked behind a face that didn't smile and didn't frown, and hadn't for a long time before Serena and his great-aunt got him into this mess.

The echo of the spinning tire beneath her car seemed to ring louder than the music she attempted to drown her thoughts in. Watching the world pass by in a haze, America sped down the freeway and out of the city while flashbacks of her long-forgotten childhood consumed her. Her parents failed her, the foster care system failed her, social workers, probation officers, teachers and everyone who was supposed to protect her, tossed her aside. Now, years after emancipating and finding her husband in another woman's arms, America ran from her past yet again. Feeling weak and defeated, she sped into the distance leaving everyone, and everything she's ever known behind. Realizing that she was exactly what everyone always told her she would become - a statistic, her world shatters. Alone and suffering, she found herself spiraling into a dark hole as memories flood in. She's finally had enough.

Beautiful illustrations and lyrical rhyme describe California's fertile valley and the changes as settlers come, plant orchards, enjoy and sell the produce. Years pass; more people come. New communities are planned and need more land. Trees are chopped down; orchards are fewer. But, thankfully, some remain, and we can be grateful each time that we eat a delicious juicy red cherry so sweet.

Young Trib is a fighter. Her people, a settlement of female warriors, battle for domination in pre-colonial forests occupied by religious zealots and unfriendly natives. Trib relies solely on her sword and the magical strength of her Rage, until one day she is saved by an unlikely duo--a handsome tribal storyteller and a young boy who has visions of spirits and gods. When the natives come under attack by Trib’s mortal enemies, she pledges to help them against the wishes of her leaders, and exposes a web of lies and senseless destruction that shatter her reality forever. Her only hope, and the survival of an entire people, lies in an unexpected love and the guidance of a spirit world she never knew existed.

Mysterious goings-on transpire in the classroom at the end of the hall. One of the four rules posted above the blackboard in the tall teacher's classroom is "Raise your hand to talk," but Paul can't seem to stop himself from just blurting out whatever he has to say—that is, until confetti-like moths begin fluttering around his face every time he opens his mouth. Not surprisingly—given the way things work at W. T. Melon Elementary School—there is a solution that Paul soon comes to learn. And so it goes with Kimberly, who has a bad habit of cutting in line, and Zachary, who can't seem to stay put in his chair.

This visceral survival story pits Willa against both arctic temperatures and her own self-doubt. She'll need more than snow boots and her pilot's training to live through this experience. Seventeen-year-old Willa looks at a knight's helmet that she's made in shop class. After thinking for a moment, she looks for a sledgehammer and smashes it. Since her brother, Ray, died, her mother is never around and her father ignores her. She needs to prove herself to them--and to Ray. So when Uncle Jordy's drinking threatens to ruin her mother's research, Willa jumps in his plane and flies the cold Canadian route alone to pick up her mother.

A stunning, sophisticated story about a boy's love for his older brother. Bing wants more than anything to become a soccer player like his big brother Mone. That's no easy matter for a Belgian boy of eleven or twelve, especially for a boy like Bing. It's the late 1930s, and Mone has been conscripted into the army, leaving Bing's mother more or less dysfunctional. With the clear understanding that if he wants to get anything he's going to have to do it by dint of brains, cunning, and perhaps a bit of chicanery, Bing asks the local soccer hero, Dani Bennoni, for help. Dani Bennoni kindly but firmly refuses to train him. Bing hatches a plan to get Dani's help, but the plan backfires, and the misunderstandings multiply. Dani decides to teach Bing a lesson. What follows—and the action all occurs in a twenty-four-hour period—involves deception, confrontation, panic, humiliation amid a bit of homosexual activity, and Bing's unsuccessful attempt to hide Dani's call-up notice. The motivating force behind all Bing's decisions and activities is his love for his brother, unencumbered by sentimentality, making it all the more profound. I have Mone's shoes on. In the toes there are wads of paper. The rubber bands around my kneesocks stretch tight. They're cutting off my lower legs. My toes hurt, my feet are half asleep, but I don't let on. I walk straight across the soccer field. … I keep walking. In the corner of the field stands Dani Bennoni. He is finished with his training session. He trains every day. … I put the ball under my arm down, and place my foot on top of it. "Dani Bennoni," I say. "I want to learn how to play soccer." —FROM THE BOOK