Fiction

Kaline Klattermaster LOVES his mom. ADORES his mom. But his mom can be, well, a bit forgetful sometimes. A bit lax. A bit…CRAZY. For instance, she’s a bit crazy when she leaves him in the tub for THREE HOURS. Or gives him a chicken leg for breakfast…or forgets that he needs to go to school. AND he’s not completely sure his mother understands how time works.
She’s been even a bit MORE CRAZY since his dad left. So it’s a very good thing that the folks in Kaline’s tree house are not so crazy. They understand him. They don’t mind that he sometimes HAS to play his pretend bugle, and, of course, they are FULL of good advice on how to handle bullies. His mom hints that the tree house is imaginary. Kaline is UNCONVINCED.

Trixie can’t wait to bring her one-of-a-kind Knuffle Bunny to school and show him off to everyone. But when she gets there, she sees something awful: Sonja has the same bunny. Suddenly, Knuffle Bunny doesn’t seem so one-of-a-kind anymore. Chaos ensues until the bunnies are taken away by Ms. Greengrove. After school, Trixie finally gets her beloved bunny back. But in the middle of the night, Trixie realizes something. She has the wrong bunny!
Daddy comes to the rescue again as a midnight swap is arranged with the other bunny, the other little girl, and the other daddy. Needless to say, the daddies are not very happy. By the end of the story Trixie has her beloved bunny back, but she has also gained something new: her very first best friend. In the tradition of the Caldecott Honor-winner KNUFFLE BUNNY: A CAUTIONARY TALE, this is another heartfelt, hilarious picture book that children and their parents will love.

One day I was 12 years old and broke. Then Grandma gave me Grandpa’s old riding lawnmower. I set out to mow some lawns. More people wanted me to mow their lawns. And more and more. . . . One client was Arnold the stockbroker, who offered to teach me about “the beauty of capitalism. Supply and Demand. Diversify labor. Distribute the wealth.” “Wealth?” I said. “It’s groovy, man,” said Arnold. If I’d known what was coming, I might have climbed on my mower and putted all the way home to hide in my room. But the lawn business grew and grew. So did my profits, which Arnold invested in many things. And one of them was Joey Pow the prizefighter. That’s when my 12th summer got really interesting.

In this infectious rhyming read-aloud, Baby Llama turns bedtime into an all-out llama drama! Tucked into bed by his mama, Baby Llama immediately starts worrying when she goes downstairs, and his soft whimpers turn to hollers when she doesn’t come right back. But just in time, Mama returns to set things right. Children will relate to Baby Llama’s need for comfort, as much as parents will appreciate Mama Llama’s reassuring message.

“I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, As long as I’m living, My baby you’ll be.” Since Love You Forever was first published in 1986, millions of parents have lulled their children to sleep with these affectionate words. This picture book will widen the influence of this soothing message.

Madlenka, based on Sís’s own daughter, is a pure delight. Madlenka has discovered that her tooth is loose and wants the whole neighborhood to know. Once down the stairs of her apartment building, Madlenka shares her news with everyone on her colorful and diverse New York City block. She takes a turn around the world as she visits Mr. Gaston at his patisserie, Mr. Singh at his newspaper stand, and various other neighbors. Sís’s art delights as you peek through die-cut windows and find surprises.

Another character who doesn’t seem to fit in is Max. The son of legendary heroes Captain Lightning and Madam Thunderbolt, he is expected to become a superhero. But unlike his parents, Max doesn’t quickly learn to fly. Prodding and teasing do not speed up the process. It’s only when flying is required to save a helpless creature that Max takes to the air. This brightly colored book offers hope to other late bloomers.

There’s one last chance to save the world in MAXIMUM RIDE: SAVING THE WORLD AND OTHER EXTREME SPORTS, the closing chapter of James Patterson’s thrilling trilogy. The time has arrived for Max and her winged “flock” to face their ultimate enemy and discover their original purpose: to defeat the takeover of “Re-evolution”–a sinister experiment to re-engineer a select population into a scientifically superior master race…and to terminate the rest. Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman, and Angel have always worked together to defeat the forces working against them–but can they save the world when they are torn apart, living in hiding and captivity, halfway across the globe from one another?