Books published by publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 2009

*A fun activity included in every book!* The second heartfelt story of friendship and sisterhood in this charming new chapter book series, starring a Japanese-American girl!It's a big weekend for Jasmine Toguchi! She's excited to celebrate Girl's Day―a Japanese holiday honoring women and girls―with her sister, mother, and best friend, Linnie. On Friday after school, Linnie comes over to plan their outfits for the Girl's Day celebrations. And Jasmine's neighbor, Mrs. Reese, lets them search through her old clothes for the perfect accessories. But the clothes are in her dark garage, which is kind of scary. And Linnie decides to go home early, which is kind of weird. And Jasmine's big sister, Sophie, doesn't seem to want to join in the Girl's Day fun this year, which is kind of confusing. WHAT is going on?As her big weekend plans start to unravel, Jasmine must use her sleuthing skills to spot the clues around her―and within herself. Then maybe, just maybe, she can put everything back in order before Girl's Day is over!

It was to Lucania, a desolate land in southern Italy, that Carlo Levi―a doctor, painter, philosopher, and man of letters―was confined as a political prisoner because of his opposition to Italy's Fascist government at the start of the Ethiopian war in 1935. While there, Levi reflected on the harsh landscape and its inhabitants, peasants who lived the same lives their ancestors had, constantly fearing black magic and the near presence of death. In so doing, Levi offered a starkly beautiful and moving account of a place and a people living outside the boundaries of progress and time.

The pigs, Pete and Paul, are eager to help Farmer Bill grow the best and biggest watermelons so he'll win at the annual Fruit and Vegetable Show, but their overzealous efforts to help the melons grow faster end up destroying the entire melon patch. Tractor Mac and friends teach Pete and Paul that with patience and care, they too can grow a prize melon.

Download the first five chapters of CREWEL by Gennifer Albin! For generations, girls known as Spinsters have been called by Arras's Manipulation Services to work the looms and control what people eat, where they live, how many children they have, and even when they die. Gifted with the unusual ability to weave time with matter, sixteen-year-old Adelice Lewys is exactly what the Guild is looking for, and in the world of Arras, being chosen as a Spinster is everything a girl could want. It means privilege, eternal beauty, and being something other than a secretary. It also mean the power to embroider the fabric of life. But Adelice isn't interested. Because once you become a Spinster, there's no turning back.Buy CREWEL by Gennifer Albin October 16!

2010 FSG hardcover, 2nd printing. Deborah Diesen (The Pout-Pout Fish). Mr. Fish wants to help his friend Ms. Clam when she loses her pearl, but though he's fast as a sailfish, as smart as dolphin, and as strong as a shark, Mr. Fish has a secret: he's scared of the dark! Very young children will swim along with Mr. Fish as he journeys deep into the ocean to new and mysterious places. They will discover, as Mr. Fish does, the power of friendship to light the way through the big-big dark. - Amazon

Mr. Fish and his friends have noticed something strange in their ocean―a big, big MESS! How did it get there? What can they do about it? The closer they look, the more they see where the mess came from . . . and they'll have to work together to get rid of it. This jacketed hardcover in the New York Times–bestselling Pout-Pout Fish series from Deborah Diesen and illustrator Dan Hanna, The Pout-Pout Fish Cleans Up the Ocean, will teach little guppies how to take responsibility for their actions and for the environment.

Beleaguered parents will breath sighs of relief and gratitude over this bestselling guide to raising teenagersIn this revised edition, Dr. Anthony E. Wolf tackles the changes in recent years with the same wit and compassion as the original edition. Dr. Wolf points out that while the basic issues of adolescence and the relationships between parents and their children remain much the same, today's teenagers navigate a faster, less clearly anchored world. Wolf's revisions include a new chapter on the Internet, a significantly modified section on drugs and drinking, and an added piece on gay teenagers. Although the rocky and ever-changing terrain of contemporary adolescence may bewilder parents, Get Out of My Life gives them a great road map.

A 2020 Bank Street Best Children's Book of the YearA 2020 Children's Book Council Notable Social Studies Book for Young PeopleOver a quarter million underage British boys fought on the Allied front lines of the Great War, but not all of them fought on the battlefield―some fought beneath it, as revealed in this middle-grade historical adventure about a deadly underground mission.Secret Soldiers follows the journey of Thomas, a thirteen-year-old coal miner, who lies about his age to join the Claykickers, a specialized crew of soldiers known as “tunnelers,” in hopes of finding his missing older brother. Thomas works in the tunnels of the Western Front alongside three other soldier boys whose constant bickering and inexperience in mining may prove more lethal than the enemy digging toward them. But as they burrow deeper beneath the battlefield, the boys discover the men they hope to become and forge a bond of brotherhood. Secret Soldiers is another stunning story of strength, perseverance, and love from Keely Hutton.This title has common core connections.

The second volume of the bestselling landmark work on the history of the modern stateWriting in The Wall Street Journal, David Gress called Francis Fukuyama's Origins of Political Order "magisterial in its learning and admirably immodest in its ambition." In The New York Times Book Review, Michael Lind described the book as "a major achievement by one of the leading public intellectuals of our time." And in The Washington Post, Gerard DeGrott exclaimed "this is a book that will be remembered. Bring on volume two." Volume two is finally here, completing the most important work of political thought in at least a generation. Taking up the essential question of how societies develop strong, impersonal, and accountable political institutions, Fukuyama follows the story from the French Revolution to the so-called Arab Spring and the deep dysfunctions of contemporary American politics. He examines the effects of corruption on governance, and why some societies have been successful at rooting it out. He explores the different legacies of colonialism in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, and offers a clear-eyed account of why some regions have thrived and developed more quickly than others. And he boldly reckons with the future of democracy in the face of a rising global middle class and entrenched political paralysis in the West. A sweeping, masterful account of the struggle to create a well-functioning modern state, Political Order and Political Decay is destined to be a classic.

*A fun activity included in every book!* A Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2018A CYBILS Easy Reader and Early Chapter Book Award WinnerIt’s talent show time at school, and eight-year-old Jasmine Toguchi is excited to show her stuff. But as she thinks about her strengths―tree-climbing, mochi making, collage―none of them feel quite right to perform on-stage. Jasmine’s friends already have a talent: Tommy yo-yo’s, Daisy dances, and Linnie plays piano. Plus, Maggie Milsap (aka Miss Perfect) is saying she'll have the best talent. When Jasmine’s mom introduces her to the taiko, a traditional Japanese drum, Jasmine finally finds an activity that feels just right. But will she be good enough at taiko in time to beat Maggie Milsap? Join Jasmine as she discovers her talent―and the difference between being the best and trying your best.

Winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for General NonfictionIn Amity and Prosperity, the prizewinning poet and journalist Eliza Griswold tells the story of the energy boom’s impact on a small town at the edge of Appalachia and one woman’s transformation from a struggling single parent to an unlikely activist.Stacey Haney is a local nurse working hard to raise two kids and keep up her small farm when the fracking boom comes to her hometown of Amity, Pennsylvania. Intrigued by reports of lucrative natural gas leases in her neighbors’ mailboxes, she strikes a deal with a Texas-based energy company. Soon trucks begin rumbling past her small farm, a fenced-off drill site rises on an adjacent hilltop, and domestic animals and pets start to die. When mysterious sicknesses begin to afflict her children, she appeals to the company for help. Its representatives insist that nothing is wrong.Alarmed by her children’s illnesses, Haney joins with neighbors and a committed husband-and-wife legal team to investigate what’s really in the water and air. Against local opposition, Haney and her allies doggedly pursue their case in court and begin to expose the damage that’s being done to the land her family has lived on for centuries. Soon a community that has long been suspicious of outsiders faces wrenching new questions about who is responsible for their fate, and for redressing it: The faceless corporations that are poisoning the land? The environmentalists who fail to see their economic distress? A federal government that is mandated to protect but fails on the job? Drawing on seven years of immersive reporting, Griswold reveals what happens when an imperiled town faces a crisis of values, and a family wagers everything on an improbable quest for justice.