Books published by publisher Bancroft Pr

Meet Hank Collins, an astute, gutsy, and funny 13-year-old who’s just finished the seventh grade at a public school in Baltimore’s affluent suburbs. But all is not trouble-free for Hank. He must contend with a troubled family, an alien school, and a world otherwise booby-trapped with alluring but perilous possibilities. Hank is the page-turning, contemporary, coming-of-age story he tells of growing up amidst this wreckage during a dangerous and suspenseful summer. From him, we hear the events of his life. We stand by him on the baseball field and at the dinner tables of his remarried parents. We walk with him into an epic, appalling, yet believable teenage party. We share with him an astounding encounter with adult weekend warriors. We see not just his confusions and dismays, but his grit, his honesty, and his vulnerability. We like him, and root for him, and care about him. Through a raw, real, and rewarding storyline, recounted with an understated elegance, and dialogue that is witty and captivating, we watch as he manages to evolve into a courageous, undaunted human being. As the Harvard Crimson observes, “Hank is so authentic that one sometimes feels the need to check for that standard disclaimer reminding us that these characters are only fictitious. Hank bursts from the pages, vibrant and flawed. We feel his pain, share his sorrows, and rejoice in his triumphs.” “There is no holding back here,” notes Pulitzer-Prize-winning writer Buzz Bissinger. “There is no political correctness. The world that Hank sees and tells us about -- a world fraught with pitfalls, potholes, protagonists, antagonists, decency, and deceit -- is the world of the American pre-adolescent.” “Author Arch Montgomery never shies away from important issues,” adds the Harvard Crimson, “and never takes the easy way out in dealing with them. With a few deft strokes, he manages to compress every in-between shade of gray into the dialogue and actions of his characters. Like the state of the world it reflects, good and evil are not always so clear-cut. Part of Hank’s journey of growth entails understanding and dealing with that realization.” No wonder the Harvard Crimson concludes: “Few novels have succeeded in capturing the essence of adolescence, but the likes of Tom Sawyer and Holden Caulfield are about to welcome the newest member to their ranks—a 13-year-old boy named Hank… Arch Montgomery, impressive in an incandescent debut, shows a mastery of his craft and an unusually perceptive insight into the human heart.” Arch Montgomery lives with his wife, Phyllis, and sons, Greg and Tyler, in Asheville, North Carolina, where he is the Head of Asheville School. His background includes a stint in the United States Army in Alaska, a brief career practicing law in Baltimore, Maryland, and extensive experience as a teacher, coach and administrator -- from St. George's School in Newport, Rhode Island to Gilman School in Baltimore, Maryland, to Asheville School in Asheville, North Carolina.

"Orphaned and penniless in 1922 Baltimore, Maryland, 15-year-old Carl and 17-year-old Adam Matuski are forced to move across the continent to live with their Uncle Pete in Portland, Oregon.Almost from the beginning, homesick Carl desperately wants to return east with his brother, but his plans fall apart when Adam is sought by police for the theft of expensive jewels from his girlfriend’s wealthy home.Carl is convinced that Adam is being fingered unfairly. He and his brother are Polish Catholics, and Portland is awash in anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant sentiment. Voters, in fact, are being asked to decide whether Catholic schools, indeed all non-public schools, should be outlawed entirely. Carl works at one such Catholic school. Fueled by the Ku Klux Klan and other unsavory groups, the campaign touches Carl personally as he strives to clear his brother’s name and solve the mystery: Who really took the family jewels, and why?"

"Meet Hank Collins, an astute, gutsy, and funny 13-year-old who’s just finished the seventh grade at a public school in Baltimore’s affluent suburbs. But all is not trouble-free for Hank. He must contend with a troubled family, an alien school, and a world otherwise booby-trapped with alluring but perilous possibilities.Hank is a page-turning, contemporary, coming-of-age story of growing up amidst this wreckage of a dangerous and suspenseful summer. From him, we hear the events of his life. We stand by him on the baseball field and at the dinner tables of his remarried parents. We walk with him into an epic, appalling, yet believable teenage party. We share with him an astounding encounter with adult weekend warriors. We see not just his confusions and dismays, but his grit, his honesty, and his vulnerability. We like him, and root for him, and care about him.Through a raw, real, and rewarding storyline, recounted with an understated elegance, and dialogue that is witty and captivating, we watch as he manages to evolve into a courageous, undaunted human being.As The Harvard Crimson observes, Hank is so authentic that one sometimes feels the need to check for that standard disclaimer reminding us that these characters are only fictitious. Hank bursts from the pages, vibrant and flawed. We feel his pain, share his sorrows, and rejoice in his triumphs.There is no holding back here, notes Pulitzer-Prize-winning writer Buzz Bissinger. There is no political correctness. The world that Hank sees and tells us about―a world fraught with pitfalls, potholes, protagonists, antagonists, decency, and deceit―is the world of the American pre-adolescent.Author Arch Montgomery never shies away from important issues, adds The Harvard Crimson, and never takes the easy way out in dealing with them. With a few deft strokes, he manages to compress every in-between shade of gray into the dialogue and actions of his characters. Like the state of the world it reflects, good and evil are not always so clear-cut. Part of Hank’s journey of growth entails understanding and dealing with that realization.No wonder The Harvard Crimson concludes: ""Few novels have succeeded in capturing the essence of adolescence, but the likes of Tom Sawyer and Holden Caulfield are about to welcome the newest member to their ranks a 13-year-old boy named Hank… Arch Montgomery, impressive in an incandescent debut, shows a mastery of his craft and an unusually perceptive insight into the human heart."""

There was a time when all was right in Taylor Dresden's world―that is, as long as she was on the baseball diamond, pitching with all her heart. But that was years ago. Now, there's no competition in her New Jersey high school, and summer league is not much better. With the scouts losing interest due to her poor grades, and with the challenge of the game gone, Taylor has made a difficult decision: she won't be playing her senior year. Everything changes when a local, elite, all-boys prep school recruits Taylor for its own baseball team. But the Hazelton School is a rich boy's world, its student body run by the Statesmen, an organization determined to force Taylor and the other girls out of their school. Taylor knows she's a great pitcher, but can she be a great student? Can she succeed in the face of devious boys who will stop at nothing to get rid of her? Will she rise above them, sink to their level, or will she be gone before she can do either? Singled Out, the exciting sequel to Thrown a Curve, will answer these questions as Taylor struggles to find her place beyond the pitcher's mound.

Mia Fullerton has entered her freshman year at St. Hilary’s with a goal: to lose her nickname, "Mia the Meek," and soar into a confident high school career. Unfortunately, her transformation is made harder by her English-teacher mom, bratty little brother, already popular nemesis, and new neighbor. Although she’s prepared herself for the battle by reading Excruciatingly Shy: How to Defeat Public Fear and Become Popular, her freshman year remains a series of uphill battles. The week before school starts, Mia first encounters Tim―the handsome yet seemingly arrogant oldest son of the new family next door. Their relationship develops based on competition―from literature to the basketball court―and Mia’s got her work cut out for her. In Mia, author Eileen Boggess has created the best kind of modern female role model―the kind who sees most of her flaws and wants to change them; one who’s not only intelligent but athletic; and one who’s trying to find her way through a very awkward time in life. In telling her story, Mia proves to be a witty, quick, candid, and interesting fourteen-year-old.

It has been mere days since the brilliant children of the Young Inventors Guild escaped from the clutches of the horrible Komar Romak. They've escaped with their lovely and caring schoolteacher, Miss Brett; with their long-absent parents; and with their bizarre captors, protectors, or both--the mysterious men in black. And now they travel by train, destined for parts unknown. But a note torn from the hand of a dead man in a New York tunnel guarantees that safety is an illusion. When the children's world is blown apart, life will never be the same again. Soon, the children--Jasper and little Lucy Modest, from London, England; Wallace Banneker, from New York, United States; Noah Canto-Sagas, from Toronto, Canada; and Faye Vigyanveta, from Delhi, India--find themselves in the ancient Italian village of Solemano, deep in a mystery that spans centuries. As they inch toward the truth of the men in black and the secrets they keep, one terrible fact remains: Komar Romak is still out there. He's still after them, for reasons they can't even begin to imagine. And he knows exactly where they are . . . From the rolling plains of America to the wide-open waters of the Atlantic, through the Strait of Gibraltar to a remarkable village in the hills of Abruzzo, Italy, The Ravens of Solemano or The Order of the Mysterious Men in Black, the second book of Eden Unger Bowditch's Young Inventors Guild trilogy, is an adventure like no other, as the children draw ever closer to the answers to the mysteries that surround them.

In 1903, five truly brilliant young inventors, the children of the world’s most important scientists, went about their lives and their work as they always had. But all that changed the day the men in black arrived. They arrived to take twelve-year-old Jasper Modest and his six-year-old sister, Lucy―he with his remarkable creations and she with her perfect memory―from their London, England home to a place across the ocean they'd never seen before. They arrived to take nine-year-old Wallace Banneker, last in a long line of Africa-descended scientists, from his chemistry, his father, and his New York home to a life he'd never imagined. Twelve-year-old Noah Canto-Sagas, already missing his world-famous and beloved mother, was taken from Toronto, Canada, carrying only his clothes, his violin, and his remarkable mind. And thirteen-year-old Faye Vigyanveta, the genius daughter of India’s wealthiest and most accomplished scientists, was removed by force from her life of luxury.From all across the world, they've been taken to mysterious Sole Manner Farm, and a beautiful but isolated schoolhouse in Dayton, Ohio, without a word from their parents as to why. Not even the wonderful schoolteacher they find there, Miss Brett, can explain it. She can give them love and care, but she can't give them answers.Things only get stranger from there. What is the book with no pages Jasper and Lucy find in their mother’s underwear drawer, and why do the men in black want it so badly? How is it all the children have been taught the same bizarre poem―and yet no other rhymes or stories their entire lives? And why haven't their parents tried to contact them? Whatever the reasons, to brash, impetuous Faye, the situation is clear: They and their parents have been kidnapped by these terrible men in black, and the only way they're going to escape and rescue their parents is by completing the invention they didn't even know they were all working on―an invention that will change the world forever.But what if the men in black aren't trying to harm the children? What if they're trying to protect them?And if they're trying to protect them―from what? An amazing story about the wonders of science and the still greater wonders of friendship, The Atomic Weight of Secrets or the Arrival of the Mysterious Men in Black, the first book of the Young Inventors Guild trilogy, is a truly original novel. Young readers will forever treasure Eden Unger Bowditch’s funny, inventive, poignant, and wonderfully fun fiction debut."

"Jake takes place during one of the single most powerfully shaping times in a person’s life―secondary education. Through the metaphor of the utopian and fictitious St. Stephen’s Episcopal School, author Arch Montgomery shows us how our humanity can only be fully realized through other humans. The book depicts three deaths and one near-fatal disease while simultaneously tracking the rebirth of Jake, the titular and main character. He moves from a transparent ""only-good-as-I-have-to-be"" mentality to a lifestyle of excellence and three-dimensionality with the help of his school, which is personified through the characters of Mary White, rector; George Meader, teacher; and Joel Kohn, student.Jake presents both Montgomery’s view of public school systems (which Jake, without a drop of nostalgia, refers to as ""out in the county"") and his view of an ideal school, which, in this case, comes in the form of an independent school, though the tenets that make it so admirable could be applied to almost any school―public, independent, parochial, or otherwise. Mixing real-world models with an informed idealism, Montgomery creates St. Stephen’s in order to demonstrate the most positive influence a school can have on one person.On the flipside of that coin, however, remain numerous questions about what kind of negative effects sub-par schools can have on their students. While St. Stephen’s gives its students a three-dimensional education―mind (academics), body (athletics), and spirit (chapel and community service)―do public schools scratch the surface of even just one dimension? While Mary White, the head of St. Stephen’s, plays roles as varied as disciplinarian, spiritual leader, and friend, in what light do most public school students view their own principals? While the educational events of the highest consequence happen to Jake outside the classroom, how many public school students interact with their classmates, teachers, or administration beyond a school setting?On a continuum of education quality―satisfactory, good, great, excellent, ideal―where does St. Stephen’s fall? Where does the school you went to, or your children go to, fall? These and many other questions arise in Jake, and beg to be discussed, because once problems are recognized, they can begin to get solved."

Summer has finally arrived, but Mia Fullerton does not have much to celebrate. Her best friend, Lisa, is spending the summer at a Mensa camp, and her boyfriend, Tim, will be at his grandparents house in Maine. So, stuck with a choice of spending the next two months hanging out with her younger brother, Chris who has declared a prank war on her or taking a job on the stage crew at a local children s theater group, Mia chooses the lesser of two evils and begins working at Little Tyke. The moment she meets the other student members of the stage crew, Mia realizes she is not at St. Hilary s anymore. There is Zoë, a Goth punk rock singer with fifteen facial piercings; Henry, a caffeine addict with the self-declared ability to predict people s coffee preferences; and Eric, a former childhood friend who has definitely outgrown his shy ways and geeky appearance. In this sequel to the much-loved Mia the Meek, readers will again enjoy spending time with Mia Fullerton, watching as she navigates the next stage of adolescence, one humorous and memorable fiasco at a time.