Central Kansas Library System

All the fruits gather together and enjoy a rhyming party, but poor Orange feels left out because he does not rhyme with anything--until Apple invents a new word.

With insight and a light touch, best-selling, Newbery Honor-winning author Gary D. Schmidt tells two poignant, linked stories: that of a grieving girl and a boy trying to escape his violent past. Following the death of her closest friend in summer 1968, Meryl Lee Kowalski goes off to St. Elene's Preparatory Academy for Girls, where she struggles to navigate the venerable boarding school's traditions and a social structure heavily weighted toward students...

When her classmates make fun of her for still liking the color pink, a little girl feels all alone, but then a friend shows her the power of her favorite color.

"Dragon is lonely so he goes looking for a friend and when an apple falls on his head he is convinced that he has found one; but at home Apple is quiet and unresponsive, and when a visit to the doctor only makes things worse, Dragon mourns the loss of his friend--until an apple tree grows where Apple is buried." --

On that night before Christmas, dear reader, you see, there was one little mouse as awake as could be.

Eleven-year-old Raymond devises a plan to spend his summer proving to everyone how brave and confident he is, but will he really be able to change, or is it another lie he tells himself?

"Bix lives with her family in a city where people rarely talk or play together, and no longer read books. Instead, they stare at small portable screens, monitored by giant eyeballs. The Eyes are here to help! With everything. But Bix would like to do things for herself. Running from an Eye, she discovers another world: the City Under the City. There, she befriends a rat who leads her to a library and its treasure trove of books and knowledge. As she...