Books published by publisher Peachtree Publishers

This poignant coming-of-age story is set against the verdant landscape and sultry atmosphere of the Florida Keys Ben Floyd has a lot on his mind. In only eighteen months he will be old enough to get a learner’s permit to drive, but that seems a lifetime away. Ben enjoys the close-knit group of friends in his small neighborhood, but lately he has been longing for a taste of adventure. Keeping an eye on his younger brother Cody is getting to be a big responsibility. And he is confused by complicated feelings he has for his lifelong friend, Cass. An unexpected turn of events finds the Floyd family in the Florida Keys over Christmas vacation and offers Ben a welcome opportunity to escape the neighborhood routine. Here he meets Mica, an independent, strong-willed girl who lives a nomadic life aboard a boat with her marine biologist father. Mica teaches Ben and Cody to fish, sail, and snorkel, and together they explore the interior canals and coastal waterways. But Ben soon realizes that adventure sometimes brings danger, and that at the center of Mica’s seemingly charmed life lies a mysterious loneliness. Young readers will relate to Ben’s conflicting feelings and growing restlessness as they experience this realistic, thoughtful, and sometimes humorous portrait of adolescence by award-winning author Adrian Fogelin.

SO BEGINS AUTHOR Lester Laminack's poetic memory of the adult who made him feel incredibly special--his grandmother. Every Saturday, the narrator, a young boy, rides his bicycle up and down country roads past farms, a graveyard, and a filling station, until he reaches his beloved Mammaw's house. She is waiting for him. While she picks tomatoes, he pushes the lawnmower through the dew-wet grass. Afterwards, he always helps her make teacakes from scratch, breaking the eggs and stirring the batter. But the best part, he remembers, is eating the hot, sweet cakes fresh from the oven.Children will understand the special relationship of the narrator and his grandmother. Set in a small town in the Leave It to Beaver days of the mid-sixties, the story evokes a gentler and more innocent time and place. Young readers will almost hear the sounds of bicycle wheels on gravel and the criiick-craaack-criiick of a metal glider in Laminack's richly detailed prose. Award-winning illustrator Chris Soentpiet's images beautifully capture the relationship and the place, perfectly depicting the simplicity of an earlier time.

More than anything, T. J. wants to be a pitcher. But he’s smaller than his teammates, and his pitches just don’t pack the power they need to strike out the batters.When T. J. learns about one of baseball’s early heroes, Pittsburgh Pirate Rip Sewell, he decides to try Sewell’s secret weapon.But will his teammates give T. J. the chance to prove that he can be a pitcher? And will T. J.’s secret pitch help lead his team to victory?

The narrator recalls a remarkable moment from a previous summerhow she waited patiently through a long, hot afternoon for night to fall so she and her family could make a nocturnal journey to the top of a hill to see an amazing sighta multitude of blinking, winking, twinkling fireflies lighting up a nearby mountain. Readers will be able to hear the whistles of the bobwhites and smell the sweet-dry clover hay in Thomass richly detailed prose. Illustrator Peter Sylvadas stunning illustrations beautifully capture the wondrous tone of the story and the expectant childs sense of awe as she looks at the fireflies dance among the stars up on top of Firefly Mountain.

The Franklin High Panthers need a new quarterback. Freshman Jesse Wagner knows the plays, but he feels he is too small to be QB material. Jesse’s brother Jay has a problem of his own: his college coach wants him to switch from quarterback to safety. The brothers agree on a deal: Jesse will try out for quarterback, and Jay will try playing safety. Meanwhile, Jesse and his teammates recruit an unlikely kicker for their team—a girl named Savannah.

It seems like Ryan, Zeke, Miles, and Eli have been friends forever. They spend practically every afternoon together playing basketball or just hanging out. But this year is different. All four friends are trying out for the basketball team.With so many good players in the running, Ryan is concerned that he won’t make the team. But he’s even more worried about what will happen to his group of friends if all of them don’t make the final cut.

Award-winning author Adrian Fogelin’s latest book for middle readers follows an unlikely but enduring friendship that is forged between two adolescent girls. Anna Casey likes living in North Florida with biology teacher Miss Johnette, her latest foster mother. Best of all, Miss J wants to adopt Anna. Still, it is hard to grow into a new family, a new life, and a new school all at once, especially when you’ve been rootless nearly all of your life. Mica Delano likes living aboard her sailboat, the Martina, which is docked at a marina in the Florida Keys. Best of all, the marina’s owners, whom she calls Aunt Emma and Uncle Bert, try hard to make up for the sometimes inattentive parenting she gets from her marine biologist father. But Mica fears that her restless father will soon pull anchor, taking them away from the safety of Bert’s Marina. A chance correspondence between these two girls separated by the length of the state of Florida becomes a flourishing friendship. As they share their love of nature, each helps the other cope with uncertainty and loneliness and profound change. Mica enrolls in public school for the first time since first grade and suffers the agony of trying to fit in. Anna must make room in her heart for a possible rival when her beloved foster mother becomes serious about a suitor. In the end, Anna and Mica save each other and themselves with hope, humor, and a shared love of the natural world.

An eighth-grade basketball player has amazing shooting talent but could use a little team spirit in this novel “bound to engage and entertain young readers” (School Library Journal). Richie Mallon is known as “the shooter”—the one on the team who scores most of the baskets. Every day he practices at his driveway hoop, perfecting his technique. Richie never plays any other roles on the court, leaving it to his teammates to do the assisting and rebounding. Under a new coach, Richie makes the team, but isn’t given a starting position. Then, when his shooting skills fall into a slump, he must find a way to become a more well-rounded player. With over 440,000 copies sold, Fred Bowen’s Sports Story Series continues to deliver play-by-play action that’s sure to keep readers on the edge of their seats.

Jake Daley loves baseball. He loves playing for the Red Sox in the Woodside Baseball League. He loves playing short stop. Most of all, he loves to win.So Jake is excited when new kid Adam Hull joins the team. Adam can do it all—pitch, hit and field. But soon Jake’s excitement beings to fade. As the Red Sox rack up win after win, Adam’s talents dominate every game. Jake can’t help but wonder:Do he and the other players even matter?