Calling all cat lovers! Do you ever wonder what your cat is saying to you when you leave the house? Do you wonder what they fill their days with? Leonard, the cat, loves his human. He joins him for dinner, hangs around his shoulders and sleeps with him. But, when his human leaves for work Leonard feels lonely. Leonard is quickly bored, until he spots a fellow feline home for the day. The other cat lives across the street in a parallel apartment and Leonard has an idea. He sneaks himself into his human’s instrument case and crosses the street to meet his new friend, cat to cat. Mariposa only speaks Spanish, but the language barrier doesn’t stop the two from having a great time playing with each other. In the evening, Leonard sneaks home through an open window. Leonard takes Mariposa on many adventures through the seasons until one day Mariposa’s human discovers Leonard in his apartment and, because of the cold, closes their apartment window leaving Leonard no way to get home.

This is a cute story of friendship between cats and between felines and their humans. You get to feel the sadness and joy right alongside the characters as the illustrations provide a colorful, emotional journey.

Cat lovers will adore this friendship story!

The F.A.R.T. Diaries is an adventurous comedy that will entice anyone looking for some wacky fun! A diabolical plot by a group of parents and teachers (also known as F.A.R.T.) to brainwash kids into obedience is discovered by FP, and it’s up to a tween boy to figure out how to stop it. The boundless humor and wacky characters were bound to interest anyone who lay a finger on this book! This daring book takes the character vs. society conflict above and beyond with unmatched creativity! People who dislike reading could pick up this book and immediately be engrossed, dystopian readers will appreciate the challenge of authority, but all the action and comedy can be enjoyed by all!

Cloud Town by Danial McCloskey represents a dystopian world with monsters and crazy events. This book is perfect for readers that enjoy science fiction and exploring a whole different world. Two friends, Olive and Pen forever head each other backs, until a giant android that protects their town from huge monsters almost steps on them. Only one of them can drive the android to protect the townspeople. Their friendship then becomes threatened by abandonment, and feelings of betrayal. The miraculous creativity and imagination the author used to create this crazy adventure of a story were compelling. This Dystopian graphic novel mixes adventure, contemporary art, and ridiculous characters all to create this masterpiece.

A fantastically riveting and fast-paced read, this nonfiction thriller, Fallout, by Steve Sheinkin, will entertain readers who enjoy topics from real wartime heroes to readers of the espionage genre, alike. Strangely enough, during the Cold War, a paperboy’s tip leads to the discovery and dismantling of a Russian spy ring, and even the unexpected and the undetected will drive the world forward, even through the surmounting crises of the Cold War. In Fallout, the use of pictures to give readers a window into the physicality of the fantastic people and characters is merely brilliant! The fast-paced high-tension story, following the “how it happened” of selections of the Cold War! Whether you read quickly or slower, this book will keep you on edge and turning the page! Fun and fast, never a dull moment, but thoughtful and contemplating, showing the subject due consideration!

Set Me Free is a page-turning novel about courage and compassion by Ann Clare Lezotte. It is a sequel to Show Me A sign which was inspired by the true history of a deaf community in Martha’s Vineyard. It is sure to be a wonderful hit among middle-grade audiences. Mary Lambert has been tormented by the memory of being kidnapped as a specimen of cruel experiments to determine the cause of her deafness, and she is now growing tired of her life in Martha’s Vineyard and of her beloved writing and decides to the teacher an 8-year-old deaf girl how to communicate with no past language experience, which will prove to be much more complicated than originally thought. The descriptive language allows the reader to feel hope and courage. Those who loved Ann Clare Lezotte’s novel “Give Me a Sign” will honor how much time went into making this book just as good as the first.

by Frances O’Roark Dowell

Hazard written in verse by Frances O’Roark Dowell may just be the new hit among middle-grade audiences. Hazard, is a boy filled with rage and dealing with a father newly home from the Afghanistan war. He is being forced to go talk to a therapist about his father and the rage he keeps inside, strongly feels like it will do nothing. The amount of effort that was put into representing the families that have had very similar experiences as shown in the book makes one appreciate the story even more. Some families can relate to the events of the book and that makes this wonderful realistic fiction story worth reading. Others will enjoy the struggle that the characters experience throughout the book while others will love the realistic part of it. Though everyone will love the story that Frances O’roark Dowell told.

Adrianne Finlay comes up with creative sci-fi twists in Cut Off, where teenagers have signed up to be on a virtual reality show, stranded on an island in a survival-of-the-fittest game. Skym cameras hover over to stream their every move 24/7. Of course, they have the ability to tap out, much like Discovery Channel’s Naked and Afraid series. Four finalists become the story’s focus, each with different inner reasons (or demons) for why they signed up for this game. But when Brandon is injured during an earthquake and taps, nothing happens. Is it not working because of the earthquake? After finding other contestants equally as shaken up by the earthquake, they quickly learn something is very, very wrong. This story begins with fantastic pace, adventure, and character-building. But about 2/3 of the way through, the sci-fi gets complicated. Readers will probably keep going just to see if the characters they’ve been rooting for survive. Thus this will be hit or miss with some readers. A good sales pitch will definitely get them reading, but they may. not finish, much like a contestant or two.

https://watch.screencastify.com/v/gJNdPZvcsXvsFcNjto1y

Fitz is a senior in high school and a wickly smart logophile who believes he needs to stay close to home for college because his mother is developing dementia. He embarks on a tour of colleges around the east coast with his older brother to appease his mother. Juniper is a senior in high school who can’t wait to get away from her family. They are is overly loving, expecting her to stay close and support elders and siblings. She embarks on a tour of colleges with her long-time boyfriend, trying to find a future where they will both be away and happy. Juniper notices Fitz paying absolutely no attention during a college tour she his excited about. Why is this kid even here? Fate brings them together along the road to their futures. There will be sparks. But reality sets in for each. Does reality include each other? Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka teamed in Time of Our Lives to give us two authentic teens with internal dilemmas representative of many college seniors. No cheese here, just clever timings of events and quirkiness of characters to leave readers feeling relatively happy with how life can turn out.

https://watch.screencastify.com/v/gJNdPZvcsXvsFcNjto1y

A lovingly handmade rocking chair is passed down through generations with each carving the word WELCOME, in a different language, into the headrest of the chair. The book was inspired by the Statue of Liberty’s :”Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” and some of Rosemary Wells’ own family history.

The story travels from Germany in the 1800s, to Brooklyn, NY, to Wisconsin, back to New York, and to New Jersey for a final stop in 2016. WELCOME is first carved in German, then Hebrew, English, Irish, Spanish, Haitian, and finally in Syrian. The families’ histories, who sat in this chair, is shared along the way.

The story of being a friend of a young middle school boy bullied by a class peer told in classic Patricia Polacco style.

“Thom. Not Tommy, not plain old Tom–Thom spelled with an H. Thom ignores the mean boy who was glowering at us.” Thom ( AKA — Sissy Boy) does not seem to suffer from self-esteem issues throughout this story from Polacco’s youth. Thom finally takes action when the bully breaks his glasses, which he so dearly needs, and his mother can not afford to replace. Thom finally shows the entire school his hidden wonderful talent as he preforms the Prince Siegfried selection from SWAN LAKE in classic white costume for the school talent show. Thom did not let the ‘catcalls and the laughter and jeering” stop him. Thom was in his zone. The audience soon became enthralled. “No one ever laughed again, and only name they knew him by was Thom. Not Tommy or Tom. T-h-o-m Thom.”

Years later, Thom was accepted to a New York ballet school. If you go on to read the Author’s Note, Thom “is now retired as the artistic director of the American School of Ballet.”

I am bad put not to shed a tear for this wonderful retelling of the victory over a bully.

Just as a penny drive can produce vast monetary rewards, young people are asked to help save the world’s oceans and in turn the human population on Earth. All of Earth’s water flows in the water cycle. “The water cycle is the constant movement of water between the ocean, the land and Earth’s atmosphere…”(6) All of Earth’s oceans are connected. The oceans are in danger from carbon dioxide, warming waters, acidification, pollution, plastic, and overfishing. No matter where you live on earth you can help the ocean (and the earth in doing so) by doing something to help alleviate one or more of these problems.

In addition to HELP SAVE THE GLOBAL OCEANS propaganda (of the positive kind), there are eight insets entitled “Ripples of Change” telling of actions that are already taking place. There are six pages of “Waves of Change” to help the reader choose a starting point for them to beginning helping our planet.