I live in a small town in rural Maine. My land has a farm pond, big pine trees, fields, and a crabapple orchard that blooms every spring. The air smells wonderful, and the night sky is big and mysterious. It is also less than five miles from the biggest commercial landfill in Maine, owned by the largest waste management company in the world. This landfill takes garbage not only from Maine but from many other states. In 1989, it was the site of a catastrophic landfill collapse. This has made me appreciate books that address the complexities of environmental activism and that remind me how we are all living on this same fragile planet.
I felt Mayo Cornelius Higgins's connection to the land he and his family live on deep in my heart.
It's something I feel about the land I live on, and I recognize how the smells, sounds, sights, and history of a place can become part of your soul. It's a book I've reread many times, and I always see something new in it.
Discover this transcendent middle grade masterpiece about a young black boy whose quiet rural live in the Appalachian Mountains begins to change—winner of the Newbery Medal, the National Book Award, and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award.
Mayo Cornelius Higgins sits on his gleaming, forty-foot steel pole, towering over his home on Sarah’s Mountain. Stretched before him are rolling hills and shady valleys. But behind him lie the wounds of strip mining, including a mountain of rubble that may one day fall and bury his home.
M.C. dreams of escape for himself and his family. And, one day, atop his…
What's not to love about a book with a plastic-eating animal named Marvin Gardens and the boy who finds him? Or a girl named Annie who collects rocks?
The interspersed chapters that tell about "One Hundred Years Ago" are so evocative, taking me back in time to show what happened to Obe's family's land.
The first middle-grade novel from YA superstar Amy Sarig (A. S.) King is a boy-meets-animal story like no other.
The first middle-grade novel from Printz Honor-winning author Amy Sarig (A. S.) King!Washington Post Best Book of the YearA New York Public Library Best Book for KidsA Texas Bluebonnet Master List selectionObe Devlin has problems. His family's farmland has been taken over by developers. His best friend Tommy has abandoned him. And he keeps getting nosebleeds, because of that thing he doesn't like to talk about. So Obe hangs out at the nearby creek, in the last wild patch left, picking…
The Everlasting Life of Charlie Wall
by
Paul Wilborn,
It’s 1985, and Ronald Armstrong, known in the magic mushroom trade as “Trip,” takes a “sober” job as a driver for a retired Tampa mobster. His boss, Charlie Wall, has survived four attempts on his life, the last one in 1955. When Charlie falls into depression, Trip rebuilds his boss’…
I really like books that start with a seemingly impossible situation, and then you begin to see the possibilities. It helps me think about challenges I face and how to approach them.
Minni lives in the poorest part of Mumbai, where there appear to be many things beyond her control, and yet her story is one of imagination, perseverance, and discovery.
The riveting story of a heroic girl who fights for her belief that water should be for everyone.
Minni lives in the poorest part of Mumbai, where access to water is limited to a few hours a day and the communal taps have long lines. Lately, though, even that access is threatened by severe water shortages and thieves who are stealing this precious commodity-an act that Minni accidentally witnesses one night. Meanwhile, in the high-rise building where she just started to work, she discovers that water streams out of every faucet and there's even a…
I love a book that makes me laugh out loud, and this book did that many times!
Despite the serious underlying topic of eco preservation, this story is truly funny, with so many unexpected twists. There's not just alligators, burrowing owls, and poisonous snakes!
The main character, Roy Eberhardt, is the kind of person anyone would be lucky to have as a friend. And Beatrice and her step-brother are also both characters I cheered for.
6
authors picked
Hoot
as one of their favorite books, and they share
why you should read it.
This book is for kids age
12,
13,
14, and
15.
What is this book about?
This Newbery Honor winner and #1 New York Times bestseller is a beloved modern classic. Hoot features a new kid and his new bully, alligators, some burrowing owls, a renegade eco-avenger, and several extremely poisonous snakes.
Everybody loves Mother Paula's pancakes. Everybody, that is, except the colony of cute but endangered owls that live on the building site of the new restaurant. Can the awkward new kid and his feral friend prank the pancake people out of town? Or is the owls' fate cemented in pancake batter?
Welcome to Carl Hiaasen's Florida—where the creatures are wild and the people are…
Red is a shelter cat adopted by the Gioppolo family. Fatty is a nameless stray who wanders into Red’s backyard and begins a tentative friendship with him. She’s had a horrible encounter with a human before, so she’s wary of joining the family. After seeing that Red appears to have…
This book about a robot named Roz surprised me in the best way.
It had adventure, interactions between nature and technology, and made me think about what makes us human and how we live in the natural world. And the illustrations are just wonderful!
'An engaging tale that explores many important themes. We can only hope that Roz serves as the template for all future robots. Peter Brown's illustrations are as marvellous as ever!' Coralie Bickford-Smith, author of THE FOX AND THE STAR
When robot Roz opens her eyes for the first time, she discovers that she is alone on a remote, wild island. She has no idea how she got there or what her purpose is - but she knows she needs to survive. After battling a fierce storm and escaping a vicious bear attack, she realises that her only hope for survival…
Nathan Savage has always been fascinated by anything that moves; he sees movement others don’t notice. But what he sees now out his living room window sets off major alarm bells—the massive landfill across the road is shifting and could be heading toward a catastrophic landslide.
The landfill is also where Nathan’s dad works, on the top of the heap, driving the huge compactor that crushes garbage with its enormous metal wheels. The more Nathan watches the landfill, the more worried he becomes. What will happen to his father if he’s at work when the garbage hill collapses? A fate that seems closer to happening every day if Nathan doesn’t act soon. But how does a ten-year-old boy stop a force of nature?
An auctioned storage locker comes with a box of Raggedy Ann books and a dresser drawer stuffed with grisly momentos. A small college town in Georgia is now ground zero for a mind-bending cold case.
Local journalist James Murphy wishes he had never bought the storage unit which either contains…
Was Jesus of Nazareth a remarkably holy man and a prophet, or was he God in human form? This question tore the early Christian community apart in the fourth century CE, generating 60 years of violent conflict and raising questions that still concern millions of people worldwide.
