Books published by publisher Peachtree Publishers

What happens when everything you thought was true about your life turns out to be a lie?Thirteen-year-old T.J. always believed that her twin sister and her mother were dead—because that’s what her father had told her. But Mom and Sam are very much alive. And now they want T.J. to be part of their family.Life with Joe, her troubled but well-intentioned father, is all T.J. has ever known. Joe’s erratic lifestyle has meant lying to social workers and searching through garbage cans for food. But T.J. loves him and the grandmother who has provided stability in her life.When T.J. reluctantly visits her mom and Sam for the first time, she is stunned by how similar she is to her twin sister in many ways, even though their lives have been very different. But while she is drawn to her new family, she is also wary of becoming attached to them and hurting her father’s feelings. When Joe suffers a debilitating accident and tries to ensnare T.J. in another web of lies, however, her loyalties are finally tested. Now she must confront the truth about her family, even if it hurts the people she loves.In this thought-provoking companion to the popular Do You Know the Monkey Man?, author Dori Hillestad Butler has created a highly readable, complex portrait of a family in crisis. Her skillful portrayal of T.J., a conflicted adolescent struggling with her identity and reacting to family pressures, will resonate with readers.

Angela Throgmorton lives with her mangy cat, the troublesome but lovable Old Tom.One morning, an overworked Angela decides that it’s time for Old Tom to help out a bit around the house. Ut Old Tom has other ideas. So while Angela is busy dusting and scrubbing, Old Tom gets busy too changing into the Man of Mystery! Angela bakes some cakes and notices fur on her freshly scrubbed floor. Later she finds crumbs on the carpet that has just been swept. So when Angela is awakened by strange footsteps, she decides it is time to investigate. Soon she is off on her own adventure, shadowing the Man of Mystery!Leigh Hobbs’s colorful, zany illustrations capture the humor and warmth of a special friendship between two memorable characters.

Samantha’s quest to answer her questions about her past sets in motion a chain of events that will change her life foreverFor thirteen-year-old Samantha, life consists of too many unanswered questions. Why has her father not tried to contact her all these years? How could he have allowed her twin sister to drown in Clearwater Quarry when they were only toddlers? And how can Samantha’s mother expect her to accept some man she hardly knows as her new father? Samantha already has a father out there. Somewhere.A fateful decision sets into motion a chain of events and confrontations that will change Samantha’s and her family’s lives forever. As she sets out to find her father and discover what really happened the day her sister was presumed drowned, she uncovers painful secrets that threaten to destroy her family all over again.Readers will be drawn into Dori Butler’s dramatic, suspenseful, and sensitive story of one family’s crisis unwittingly brought on by an adolescent girl’s search for the truth.

Jamie has the perfect glove. No matter the play, he can make the catch. He’s oiled the glove all winter and, as the season approaches, he—and his glove—are in top form.But when the golden glove mysteriously disappears, so do Jamie’s confidence and his baseball skills.Will Jamie find his glove in time for the big game? Was the golden glove really the secret of his success?

The Reds and the Cubs are battling for the first place in the Rising Stars League. The Reds need a victory in today’s game to push ahead in the standings.Kyle, the Reds center fielder, wants to win so much that he secretly cheats—just a little—to clinch the game for his team. His teammates go wild with victory. His parents beam with pride.Suddenly Kyle feels uneasy. But what can he do? He’s a winner—and he can’t turn back now . . .

Brett Carter is a hotshot on his basketball team, the Wildcats—or at least he was. After missing an easy layup shot at the buzzer in an important game, he feels like a total loser.But things get worse. At his best friend’s birthday party at a rock climbing center, Brett freezes on the wall. Then he blows an easy question in the American history bee at school. He is losing his confidence fast, both on and off the court—and the championship game is coming up.Can Brett overcome his fears and play like a “winner” again?

Can street ball and technical play mix it up on the court and score wins for the team? Can Ben convince Hud to leave his hotshot style back on the pickup court?Ben and Logan are looking forward to basketball season playing on the Roosevelt High School freshman team. Ben figures he’s a shoo-in to play shooting guard and Logan will be the team’s center. But their perfect team still needs a perfect point guard.The two boys discover Antonio “Hud” Hudson at the local rec center, where fast-paced pickup games are the rule. Hud looks like just what the team needs—an instinctive passer with fancy moves. Even better, Hud is coming to Roosevelt!Roosevelt’s tough coach has one rule for the boys: no pickup basketball. Later, when Ben finds Hud playing at the rec center—in violation of the rules—he has to make a decision. Does he turn Hud in, or does he keep his mouth shut? As captain, can Ben somehow help Hud balance his passion for the game and his dedication to the team?

Sam loves football. There’s nothing better than the rush he gets when his team, the Cowboys, are working together—moving closer and closer to the end zone.In a key game, the Cowboys beat their arch rivals to remain undefeated, thanks to a major play by Sam. But the celebration ends when he and his teammates make an unwelcome discovery.Is the Cowboys’ perfect season in jeopardy?

Josh and his talented travel league soccer teammates are having trouble coming together as a successful team—until he convinces them to try team-building exercises.Thirteen-year-old Josh tries out for the United, an elite travel league soccer team, and is thrilled when he makes the cut. But once the season is underway, he discovers that the practices are grueling and the other team members are prone to hogging the ball. All the other players are talented, but they each seem to be playing for themselves and not for the team. They can’t seem to pull together enough to win a single game. Tired of always being in the losers bracket, Josh begins to wonder if he made a mistake by leaving his old team and his buddies. Should he quit the United?But just when Josh is about to give up on his new team, he makes a discovery: While doing a homework assignment about the World Cup soccer championships, he learns that the 1999 United States Women’s World Cup team faced similar difficulties. Individually they were excellent athletes, but they just couldn’t work together. How did the 1999 team win it all that year? By using team-building exercises. Fired up by this idea, Josh convinces his coach to try the same approach. At first his teammates are skeptical, but with time they turn the United into a real team!

Another exciting, fast-paced sports story from Fred Bowen featuring lots of play-by-play actionMatt Monroe is a shoo-in for starting quarterback for the Parkside Middle School football team this year.Or is he?Devro, a new seventh grader, looks pretty impressive. He’s consistent and can run the plays almost as well as Matt. And he’s got speed.As the fall football season unfolds, the team has more than its share of surprises and unexpected challenges, as well as plenty of victories and upsets on and off the field—all of which Matt records and analyzes in a journal he keeps for his English class. By the last kickoff of the season, Matt has learned that a team is only as good as the sum of its parts and that playing together is the only way to win.