Boogie Bass feels like he can't do anything right, but when he joins an after-school American Sign Language club, he turns out to be a natural!The After-School Superstars—Nixie Ness, Vera Vance, Nolan Nada, and Boogie Bass—are back in a new after-school adventure starring Boogie. He is clumsy and goofy, but now that he is at the American Sign Language camp at his school, he finds his hidden talent. He may not believe in himself, but the rest of his class does, especially when they visit a school for the Deaf and Boogie leads the way with his exuberant personality helping students to learn about each other and make new friends. Vetted by an expert from Gallaudet University and complete with additional material full of facts about American Sign Language, Boogie Bass is an excellent addition to The After-School Superstar series. Each book features recurring characters and highlights one activity they do at their after-school program, along with illustrations...

Maggie McIntosh is crazy about her biology teacher and loves to impress him with her academic excellence. But when the dreaded day of the first class dissection arrives, Maggie has to disappoint Mr. O. There's no way she can cut up a worm.Maggie's best friend, Alycia, understands. Alycia is squeamish, too, and shares Maggie's moral outrage. However, she's willing to keep quiet and let her lab partner do the dirty work. Maggies' own lab partner, Matt, completely disagrees. Then, after Maggie walks out on the dissection, he seems to respect her. And classmate Jake, who follows Maggie out the door, appears positively smitten.As she struggles to clarify her position about dissections, Maggie discovers that people and relationships are not always what they seem, and just as there are no perfect fathers (hers left years before), there are no perfect father figures - or even friends.

Talented Lucy Lopez finds her passion when she joins an after-school coding camp, but can her older sister come to terms with their shared hobby?Third-grader Lucy Lopez and her older sister Elena created the Let's Have Fun Club, where they designed their own badges to put in a handbook and make up lists of things they have to do to earn each one. But now Elena is spending most of her time coding on the computer and Lucy feels left out. She decides to join the after-school coding camp in the hopes that Elena will want to add it to their Let's Have Fun Club activities and it can be something they can do together. But when Lucy proves to be a natural, Elena is none too happy—why does Lucy have to do everything she does?Parents and kids on the hunt for a fun and informative book about coding need look no further. The series includes Lucy Lopez: Coding Star, Nixie Ness: Cooking Star, and Vera Vance: Comic Book Star in the...

Dinah Seabrooke is in seventh grade and distraught at learning that the sun will vaporize the earth in about 5 billion years. Nothing matters anymore-not class elections, the school play, even her relationship with Nick. Then Dinah suffers her first loss and discovers the reasons to live fully even though nothing lasts forever. "Sensitively told and a pleasure to read."-Kirkus Reviews

Third grader Vera Vance has signed up for the comics camp after-school program, but her mother would much rather she focus on academics, athletics, music. . . anything but comics!Vera loves all things comic books, so she can't wait for the comics after-school class to start—even though her mother wonders whether it's educational enough. But Vera is determined to participate, and starts developing her own comic about Big Spoon and Little Spoon with the encouragement of her enthusiastic friend Nixie and instruction from teachers who are accomplished cartoonists themselves. As the weels go by, the after-school teachers announce that for the final class, students will go on a field trip to a local comic-con—and they can even enter a page from their comics in a contest that will be judged there! Vera isn't surprised when her mother says she can't go. But maybe Big Spoon and Little Spoon can convince her mother to accept her...

Best friends Nixie and Grace spend every afternoon together . . . until Nixie's mom gets a new job and Nixie must attend the after-school program, without Grace.Third graders Nixie Ness and Grace Kenny have been best friends since they were two-years-old. They have always spent every afternoon after school at Nixie's house until Nixie's mom announces that she has a job, which means she won't be there to watch the girls after school, which means Nixie will have to go to the after-school program and Grace will be spending her afternoons at their classmate, Elyse's, house.Nixie begrudgingly starts the after-school program, joining the cooking camp. And it turns out that the other children at cooking camp are nice, and the recipes they make are delicious. But Nixie can't really enjoy being an after-school superstar until she finds a way to overcome her jealousy about Grace and Elyse's budding friendship.Perfect for fans of Judy Moody, Ivy and Bean,...

Izzy Barr is the star athlete of the third grade: she hits homeruns on her softball team and is one of the fastest runners in her class. But at home, her half-brother, Dustin, seems to be her father's favorite athlete—why else would her dad go to all of his games and miss so many of hers? Izzy pretends that she doesn't care, but as she, her friends Annika Riz and Kelsey Green, and the rest of their class are gearing up for class field day, she can't help but hope her dad will be there to cheer her on in the big race against her rival, Skipper Tipton. Dad doesn't make it to field day, but when he realizes how important it is to Izzy, he and all of her friends and family are there to watch her participate in the citywide 10K run.

The sequel to Losers, Inc. Twelve-year-old Julius Zimmerman is the former vice president of the defunct organization Losers, Inc. Ethan Winfield, the former president, no longer feels like a loser. But Julius still does, maybe because his mother thinks of him that way. To "improve" him, Mrs. Zimmerman signs Julius up for a summer course in intensive French and for a part-time job baby-sitting three-year-old Edison Blue. She also sets a summer reading goal for him. Julius doesn't ace the French class and doesn't do the required reading, but he does turn out to have a winning way with kids — and adults — and in the end proves to his mother that her criteria for success aren't the only ones.

Amanda MacLeish might be the only student in Mr. Abrams's fifth-grade class who doesn't mind doing her homework. Now that her father has left home and moved into a motel, the only thing that brings Amanda any joy is writing her fictional diary entries about a young girl named Polly who lives amid the chaos of the Civil War. Polly would understand Amanda. With one brother fighting for the North and one fighting for the South, Polly knows just how it feels to have a family split in half. But if the North and the South could find a way to reunite despite their differences, can't Amanda's family do the same?In this touching novel by Claudia Mills, the heroine learns that enduring a split doesn't have to mean losing a family.The Totally Made-up Civil War Diary of Amanda MacLeish is a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Riley O'Rourke is writing his report on President Teddy Roosevelt in preparation for the fourth-grade biography tea, but he has a far more important goal: to get a saxophone so he can take instrumental music. His mother can't afford to rent him a sax, and he's sure he'll never save up enough money to buy one. But as Riley learns more about Roosevelt's "bully" spirit, he realizes that there just might be a way to solve his problem after all. Claudia Mills' sparkling story about the influence of important historical figures is enhanced by tender, insightful illustrations. Being Teddy Roosevelt is a 2008 Bank Street—Best Children's Book of the Year.

Ethan Winfield has never been an academic or athletic star like his older brother, Peter. But does that make him a failure? Of course not. Still, Ethan and his best friend, Julius Zimmerman, decide that they qualify to found an exclusive club: Losers, Inc.No sooner have they done this, however, than both boys fall in love with the new student teacher. Ethan knows right away that to impress Ms. Gunderson he has to excel. Instead of reading the shortest book for his report, he has to read the longest. Instead of working with Julius on the worst project for the science fair, he has to make the best one—alone.Unfortunately, it isn't Ms. Gunderson who falls for Ethan, but Lizzie Archer, class nerd. The teasing is unbearable! So without regard for Lizzie's feelings—and over Julius's objections—Ethan helps hatch a plot to prove that he's not Lizzie's boyfriend. The result is that even as he reports on a book that's longer than any Peter read in the sixth...

Here's the third entry in Claudia Mills' charming middle-grade series. Mason Dixon survived the school choir. He survived adopting his now-beloved dog named, uh, Dog. But now he faces his biggest challenge yet: joining the local basketball team. Not by choice, of course. Not only do his parents encourage it, but his dad even volunteers to be his coach. Now, with his best pal Brody and a team of misfits even worse at basketball than him (if that's possible), Mason must try to rally to beat his arch-rival, the school bully Dunk. Just another day-in-the-life of a disaster-prone fourth grader.From the Hardcover edition.

The final book in the Nora Notebooks series finds Nora trying to navigate the unscientific matter of making friends with someone you have nothing in common with. Nora Alpers, fourth-grade scientist, likes things to be just so. Her ant farm, her hobbies, her friends. So when Coach Joe, her teacher, informs the class that all the students have to try something new and write a report about it, Nora is not pleased. She is even less pleased when her classmate Emma seems to decide that befriending Nora will be her "new" thing. Does Emma really want to be friends or is this just an assignment for school? Nora, meanwhile, has to figure out her own new thing. Will she discover that she has interests outside of science or will all her efforts end up being nothing but trouble? Praise for the Nora Notebooks series: "Will resonate with children who have a passion for something out of the ordinary." —Publishers Weekly,...

The students in Miss Molina's third grade class are abuzz with excitement about the upcoming spelling bee, where they will be competing against the two other classes in third grade. Simon Ellis, who just happens to be good at a lot of other things, is also very good at spelling. But Simon's best friend, Jackson, tells him that it's getting boring losing to Simon all the time. Simon is stuck in an impossible situation: Jackson will be mad whether he spells all the words correctly for their team or if he makes a mistake on purpose and causes his team to miss out on the all-you-can-eat pie buffet. Simon's competitive spirit takes over until he realizes that sometimes the best way to win is to take a chance and let other people shine.

Soon-to-be fourth-grader Mason Dixon does not want a pet, but his parents think it will be good for him. Goldfish dies soon after his arrival (from overfeeding). Mason is relieved. Hamster escapes. Mason is relieved. Cat has to go back because best friend Brody is too allergic to ever be at their house while Cat is there. Mason is relieved. But when Dog comes, it takes a little dose of jealousy for Mason to realize he does want a pet, all of his very own. Claudia Mills introduces a new, hilarious character in Mason, and each of the three books about him will feature both boys as they cope with a new experience; pitch-perfect for 8- to 10- year-old newly independent readers, the books will maintain a consistent page count and feature black-and-while art throughout.From the Hardcover edition.