Books published by publisher Front Street

All she thought of was the boy with the skateboard ... Sheep and shepherds, little new lambs ... Why? Neema and her best friend, Kate, are freshmen at Wentworth High. In English class they have the notorious Ms. "Bride of Dracula" Dallimore for a teacher. "Learn to fly!" she urges her students. But what are they supposed to write for their essay, "Who Am I?" At home, Neema's great-grandmother, Kalpana, has come for an extended visit all the way to Australia from India. At night she dreams of flying; during the day she cooks Indian food and watches the same Indian video again and again. It should be great having her there, but Neema doesn't speak Hindi, Kalpana doesn't speak English, and Neema's mother can't always be there to translate. Meanwhile, Gull Oliver, the good-looking new boy at school, seems familiar to Neema. At night he flies past her house on his skateboard. Both Neema and Kalpana watch him, drawn to him for different reasons. This rich story weaves realism and fantasy into an unusual portrayal of coming together and finding the essence of who you are.

The adoption of a little brother sets off a series of fantastical adventures. When Mom and Dad bring home little Simón, their older son resists the idea of a new brother and retreats to a fantasy world. He builds a raft and sails to his own island of Bongadongo, creates an entire fleet of model ships, and, using chewing gum, tries to patch up a real boat that he finds along the shore. Simón is persistent and longs to join his new older brother in the fun. But the boy can take it no longer and runs away to find a ship that will take him far from home. A damaging windstorm, and its aftermath, changes their relationship forever. Tim Wynne-Jones creates a fanciful story of sibling rivalry. John Shelley's illustrations reveal how imagination bridges even the widest gap.

Seventeen-year-old Jonatan ends up in the emergency room, where many secrets are revealed. His dad, sitting with him, starts relating all the things he should have told Jonatan a long time ago: about his own time as a seventeen-year-old hippie in the early 1970s, about how he met the rebellious girl who would become Jonatan's mother, and about the catastrophe that prevented Jonatan from seeing his dad for eleven years. Several other people also have their say, with completely different stories. It all seems to be about Jonatan, about who he is and how he became the person he is. But has he heared anything that has been said, and why is he lying here?

This colorful tale of love and loss is set in France at the end of the 12th century. It is the time of the troubadours and of the Sixth Crusade. Young Eloise is given in marriage to a loyal vassal and has gone to live in his castle. Her uncle, John, just back from the fifth crusade, seeks penance in an abbey where he illuminates manuscripts and longs to fresco the altars. Thomas, the troubadour, and his companion, Babel, the juggler, make their way from village to village, from tavern to castle, singing and entertaining. While peasants work the fields, knights hunt and fight and joust, monks pray the hours of the day, and the seasons turn, Lady Eloise and Thomas, devoted friends separated as children, reunite across an inseparable divide. Song for Eloise conveys all the pageantry of medieval life, evoking the mystery and wonder of that long ago time, imbuing it with the passion of timeless romance.

After Mama's battle with breast cancer, Isabel must forge a new relationship with her family. Isabel's baby sister Rebekah is getting all of the attention lately, and Isabel is tired of it. She's acting out, talking back, and disobeying Mama. If she could see more of her friend Tara next door, or if Daddy didn't have to work so much, maybe things wouldn't be so bad—but Mama thinks Tara is a bad influence, and Daddy's job takes him out of town for days at a time. Mama has no idea how hard it is for Isabel to make new friends at school. Every day Isabel has to walk past Alicia and the other pink-and-purple girls with their lavender pencils and matching barrettes, and she just knows they're talking about her the moment her back is turned. To top it all off, Ben, the wimpy, awkward son of one of the sick ladies from Mama's cancer support group, has transferred to Isabel's school—and he's in her class. When the teacher asks her to show him around, Isabel ends up in a fight with Alicia. What hope does Isabel have for being accepted into the pink-and-purple girls' group now? When Mama trusts Isabel to look after the baby for a few minutes, Isabel tells her little sister just what she's thinking. And soon she finds the courage to tell her mother what she's been feeling.