Written in sparse first-person, free-verse poems, is the compelling tale of Billie Jo's struggle to survive during the dust bowl years of the Depression. With stoic courage, she learns to cope with the loss of her mother and her grieving father's slow deterioration. There is hope at the end when Billie Jo's badly burned hands are healed, and she is able to play her beloved piano again.

In 1903 Brooklyn, fourteen-year-old Joseph Michtom's life changes for the worse when his parents, Russian immigrants, invent the teddy bear and turn their apartment into a factory, while nearby the glitter of Coney Island contrasts with the dismal lives of children dwelling under the Brooklyn Bridge.

A young girl eagerly awaits a coming rainstorm to bring relief from the oppressive summer heat.

Using sophisticated computer technology, a fifteen-year-old girl who has been raised by dolphins, records her thoughts about her reintroduction to the human world.

Two Jewish sisters, escapees of the infamous Warsaw ghetto, devise a plan to thwart an attempt by the Gestapo to intercept food bound for starving people behind the dark Wall.

When Radley returns to the U.S. after having volunteered abroad, she discovers a country under military rule with strict travel restrictions, and she must find her way back to her Vermont home through the New England woods.

Realizing that her father's lack of work has endangered her family, nine-year-old Juice decides that she must return to school and learn to read in order to help their chances of surviving and keeping their house.

"I love my thumb, I truly do, it tastes of pears and carrot stew.It's like a hug, an "I love you." My mom hoped in a year or twothere'd be some things that I outgrew, and some I have, but never you."Kids who suck their thumbs know there's nothing better. NOTHING! Here is a fun picture book ode to the thumb.

When Codie's favorite aunt is having a baby, Codie has lots of worries: Will the baby and her aunt be all right, will Codie's baby quilt be done on time, and will her aunt still have time for her?

Maybelle, Jack, and Eddie want to help Ma by putting something extra on the table, so they set out in the dark to take potatoes from a nearby field, but when they arrive home and empty their potato sacks, they are surprised by what they see.