Hoping that if she wins a local beauty pageant her father will come home, Raymie practices twirling a baton and performing good deeds as she is drawn into an unlikely friendship with a drama queen and a saboteur.

"Ware can’t wait to spend summer 'off in his own world'—dreaming of knights in the Middle Ages and generally being left alone. But then his parents sign him up for dreaded Rec camp, where he must endure Meaningful Social Interaction and whatever activities so-called 'normal' kids do. On his first day Ware meets Jolene, a tough, secretive girl planting a garden in the rubble of an abandoned church next to the camp. Soon he starts skipping Rec,...

Pilar has social anxiety, but when tryouts for her favorite ballet are held she uses the coping techniques she has learned and her love of dance to persevere.

"A rigorously researched and intensely moving examination of empathy: how it works, how it transforms us, and how our society misunderstands it"-- In which the author assimilates information from neural lab research, school classrooms, prisons, and places racked by oppression and genocide to report on efforts to heal society's deepest wounds through human connection.

Alder has always lived in his cozy little house in Southern California. And for as long as he can remember, the old, reliable, comforting walnut tree has stood between his house and the one next door. That is, until a new family--with a particularly annoying girl his age named Oak--moves into the neighboring house and, without warning, cuts it down. As Oak and Alder start school together, they can't imagine ever becoming friends. But the two of them...

A collection of 24 picture poems linking animals with emotions using sensory imagery to spark wonder, paint word pictures to ponder, and see the world from a new perspective.

My name is Flint, but everyone in middle school calls me Squint because I'm losing my vision. I used to play football, but not anymore. I haven't had a friend in a long time. Thankfully, real friends can see the real you, even when you can't clearly see. Flint loves to draw. In fact, he's furiously trying to finish his comic book so he can be the youngest winner of the "Find a Comic Star" contest. He's also rushing to finish because he has keratoconus-an...

"When a huge black dog appears outside the Hope family home, each member of the household sees it and hides. Only Small, the youngest Hope, has the courage to face the black dog, who might not be as frightening as everyone else thinks"--

Isaac uses his senses to practice moments of mindfulness with his favorite tree: he hears the leaves, then he smells the grass, then he feels the breeze. Pairs with the nonfiction title Being Mindful.