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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, is an OK book but in my opinion I didn't really like it, but its a book about a boy that wanted to become a pirate and got lost in a cave and the town thought he was dead but he appeared at his own funeral.

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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer pdf book by Mark Twain Summary, Characters - Ettron

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Download The adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain pdf, read an excerpt from the book and some quotes as well as read reviews from customers

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Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga is a good book that is about a girl that fled her home town with her mom because of war and has to learn how to speak english and adapt to the new environment in america.

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This book by Jasmine Warga is about a girl named Jude who has to leave Syria with her mother and fly to Cincinnati, leaving her beloved father and brother behind. They stay at Jude’s uncle&#8…

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The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart

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The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart

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The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise is a book by Dan Gemeinhart and its an amazing, and intriguing book about a girl that lost her mom and sisters in a car accident the day after they made a memory box and they were destroying the park she buried it in and she had to go back there fast to dig it up before her memory's are gone forever.

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Books are offered at exclusively low prices and shipped to the classroom for free. Plus each order gives back to the class in FREE Books and resources.

Parent: To place an order, you must be connected to a teacher via the Class Code, or search for the teacher to get connected. If you already have an account, just SIGN IN.

Share your Class Code with friends and extended family for ordering online.

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The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise

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Books are offered at exclusively low prices and shipped to the classroom for free. Plus each order gives back to the class in FREE Books and resources. Parent: To place an order, you must be connected to a teacher via the Class Code, or search for the teacher to get connected.

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The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

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The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

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The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick is a great book about a boy that is named Hugo and his dad had died in a fire while fixing something and the machine was in the ruins and Hugo found it and started to fix it while avoiding being caught as an orphan.

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Don't miss Selznick's other novels in words and pictures, Wonderstruck and The Marvels, which together with The Invention of Hugo Cabret, form an extraordinary thematic trilogy!

2008 Caldecott Medal winnerThe groundbreaking debut novel from bookmaking pioneer, Brian Selznick! Orphan, clock keeper, and thief, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks--like the gears of the clocks he keeps--with an eccentric, bookish girl and a bitter old man who runs a toy booth in the station, Hugo's undercover life and his most precious secret are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message from Hugo's dead father form the backbone of this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery.With 284 pages of original drawings and combining elements of picture book, graphic novel, and film, Brian Selznick breaks open the novel form to create an entirely new reading experience. Here is a stunning cinematic tour de force from a boldly innovative storyteller and artist.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:

9780439813785

Publisher:

Scholastic, Inc.

Publication date:

03/01/2007

Pages:

544

Sales rank:

24,504

Product dimensions:

5.90(w) x 8.40(h) x 2.00(d)

Lexile:

820L ( what's this?)

Age Range:

8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Brian Selznick's books have garnered countless accolades worldwide, and have been translated into more than 35 languages. He is the Caldecott Medal-winning creator of the #1 New York Times bestsellers The Invention of Hugo Cabret, adapted into Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning movie Hugo; and Wonderstruck, adapted into the eponymous movie by celebrated filmmaker Todd Haynes, with a screenplay by Selznick; as well as the New York Times bestsellers The Marvels, Baby Monkey, Private Eye, and Kaleidoscope, a New York Times Best Children's Book of 2021. He also illustrated the 20th anniversary paperback edition covers of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.

Hometown:

Date of Birth:

July 14, 1966

Place of Birth:

New Jersey

Education:

Rhode Island School of Design

Editorial Reviews

Awards and Praise for The Invention of Hugo Cabret:2008 Caldecott Medal winnerNational Book Award Finalist#1 New York Times BestsellerNew York Times Best Illustrated BookLos Angeles Times Favorite Children's Book of the YearTIME Magazine's 100 Best Children's and Young Adult Books of All Time"Evokes wonder . . . like a silent film on paper." -- The New York Times"A fast-paced treat." -- People Magazine"Distinctive."-- The Wall Street Journal"Cinematic."-- Parenting Magazine"Captivating."-- Los Angeles Times Book Review"If your kid loves the J.K. Rowling series, then [they are] bound to enjoyThe Invention of Hugo Cabret. . ."-- Good Housekeeping* "A true masterpiece."-- Publishers Weekly, starred review* "Fade to black and cue the applause!"-- Kirkus, starred review* "Complete genius."-- Horn Book, starred review* "Breathtaking . . . shatters conventions."-- School Library Journal, starred review * "An original and creative integration of art and text."-- The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, starred review"Visually stunning . . . raises the bar." -- San Antonio Express-News

From the Publisher

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Don't miss Selznick's other novels in words and pictures, Wonderstruck and The Marvels, which together with The Invention of Hugo Cabret, form an extraordinary thematic trilogy! 2008 Caldecott Medal winnerThe groundbreaking debut novel from bookmaking pioneer, Brian Selznick! Orphan, clock keeper, and thief, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity.

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Scar Island is a tremendous, intriguing book by Dan Gemeinhart, and its about a kid named Johnathan and did a crime so he went to a school for kids that do bad things and has to survive on his own with other boys.

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The acclaimed author of The Honest Truth and Some Kind of Courage brings... read more

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A Wolf Called Wonder is a great book by Rosanne Parry, about a wolf that is growing up in a pack and his pack was sadly defeated by another pack so he has to learn how to survive in the wild alone.

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Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative

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Title rated 4.55 out of 5 stars, based on 165 ratings (165 ratings)

"A young wolf cub, separated from his pack, journeys 1000 miles across the Pacific Northwest, dealing with forest fires, hunters, highways, and hunger before finding a new home. Based on the true story of a wolf called OR-7"--

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A Wolf Called Wander - Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative

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A Wolf Called Wander - Parry, Rosanne, - "A young wolf cub, separated from his pack, journeys 1000 miles across the Pacific Northwest, dealing with forest fires, hunters, highways, and hunger before finding a new home. Based on the true story of a wolf called OR-7"--

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Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by grace Lin

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Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by grace Lin

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Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is a book by Grace Lin, about a girl that lives in an area that is hard to grow crops and is looking for the old man of the moon seeking wealth for her village and family.

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Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is a fantasy- adventure children's novel inspired by Chinese folklore. It was written and illustrated by Grace Lin and published in 2009. The novel received a 2010 Newbery Honor and the 2010 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature. It has been translated into Chinese, French, Hebrew, Romanian, Korean and Slovene.

By a bare mountain, where the Jade River runs through, lies a poor, mud-covered village known as the Village of Fruitless Mountain, where the protagonist, Minli lives. Minli is a young ten-year-old girl with a fast and eager spirit, and is constantly ready for adventure. However, what she especially enjoys are her father, Ba's stories, which are often told at the dinner table. Minli's mother, Ma, instead despises the stories that Ba tells, feeling that they are simply "nonsense." Also, she is full of bitterness and resentment due to their poverty.

All of the villagers, along with Minli's family, are also very poor, as farming is difficult in the hard and dry land due to Fruitless Mountain being the broken and lonely heart of the immortal Jade Dragon, a dragon that once brought rain to the Earth. Plus, there is barely enough rice to feed the people there, causing Minli to develop a wish for good fortune.

Much to the displeasure of Ma, Minli spends her precious money on a goldfish. It turns out the goldfish can talk when people want to hear it. She decides to let it go because of how bitter it made Ma. When she does so, the goldfish tells her directions to Never-Ending Mountain, where a wise immortal known as the Old Man of the Moon lives. According to the goldfish, the wise man can answer Minli's question on how to bring good fortune to her family and the village. The following day, Minli then sets out, freeing the goldfish so as not to burden her parents further, and leaves the village to find "the old man of the moon". When her parents find out she is gone, they try to look for her, but are stopped by the goldfish seller, who tells them to trust Minli. Meanwhile, Minli sleeps for the night in the forest, only to wake up to find a trapped dragon, which she saves. They become friends, and Dragon offers to be her steed for the journey, despite the fact that he cannot fly, unlike other dragons. Dragon also reveals that he was born from a painting and came to life when his eyes were painted.

Along the way, they encounter selfish monkeys, whom Minli manages to trick into letting them pass, and together they enter the City of Bright Moonlight, where Minli leaves Dragon in a cave and takes refuge in a boy's home. The boy is poor and has nothing but a buffalo but helps her find the king, who possesses a borrowed line of text, which is essential to finding the Old Man of the Moon. She ultimately meets the king, and he willingly gives up the borrowed line, which is revealed to be a page from the Book of Fortune, a legendary book that tells of fates and can be read only by immortal folk. Outside the city, Dragon also obtains a red string of destiny that is used to tie people destined to meet and marry together, which he believes is the borrowed line. The two then meet and after relating their adventures, set off once again, puzzled as to which is the real borrowed line.

Meanwhile, at the Village of Fruitless Mountain, Ba and Ma have decided to return home and wait for Minli, and during this time, Ma feels remorse for having been so discontent when she already had her own precious treasure: her daughter.

On the journey, Dragon tries to protect Minli from a poisonous Green Tiger but gets injured in the process and would have died had Minli not sought help from a nearby village of Moon Rain. The grandfather, A-Gong, gives Dragon medicine that doubles as tea. A set of twins from the village manage to trick the Green Tiger down an abandoned well and the next day take Minli and Dragon to Never-Ending Mountain, which turns out to be only a day's journey from the village. The twins explain that their village's name is due to raining seeds that fall from the moon every night, allowing flowering trees to bloom there. The blooms of the flowering trees also provide the antidote to the Green Tiger's poison, which saved Dragon. Using the borrowed line of text and the line of destiny, the adventurers stitch a kite that stretches into a bridge, and Minli goes on alone to meet the Old Man of the Moon. However, he informs her that she can ask only one question. After contemplating her choices, Minli chooses to ask Dragon's question for him: Why can he not fly? The old man instructs her to remove a rock from Dragon's head, which has been preventing him from flying. She does so, and immediately Dragon can fly. Together they fly home to Minli's village. The "rock" turns out to be the coveted Dragon's Pearl, which brings enormous wealth to her village. The Jade Dragon reunites with one of her children, Dragon, and transforms Fruitless Mountain to Fruitful Mountain. Because of Minli's sacrifice to help a friend, she and her family receive everything they could ever have hoped for.

Jennifer Rothschild from School Library Journal stated in her review: "The author's writing is elegant, and her full-color illustrations are stunning."

Andrew Medlar from said: "Lin creates a strong, memorable heroine & mystical land [...] children will embrace this [...] story..."

A companion, titled Starry River of the Sky, was published on February 11, 2014. On August 20, 2015, Lin announced the sequel to the novel, titled When the Sea Turns to Silver. The new book was published on October 4, 2016.

In August 2015, Lin revealed that the film rights for the book had been bought. However, she is still not sure if the film will be made or if it will not be made. She thinks it will be made from 2020 to 2025. If not by then, the film will probably not be made at all. She said there will be a movie released on 11/21/2020, however the movie was never made.

A stage adaptation based on Lin's book was performed at Wheelock Family Theater in Boston, in April 2014. The performance starred Caroline Workman as Minli, Michael Tow as Storyteller/ Minli's Ba, and was directed by Jane Staab.

According to Journal of Education, Grace Lin is the "best-selling author of The Year of the Dog and The Year of the Rat".

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Where the Mountain Meets the Moon - Wikipedia

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Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is a fantasy- adventure children's novel inspired by Chinese folklore. It was written and illustrated by Grace Lin and published in 2009. The novel received a 2010 Newbery Honor and the 2010 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature. It has been translated into Chinese, French, Hebrew, Romanian, Korean and Slovene.

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Praised by Newbery Medal-winning author Katherine Applegate as "graceful" and "miraculous," this Schneider Family Book Award-winning novel tells how one girl's friendship with a homeless dog mends a family's heart.

Cally Fisher knows she can see her dead mother, but the only other living soul who does is a mysterious wolfhound who always seems to be there when her mom appears. How can Cally convince anyone that her mom is still with the family, or persuade her dad that the huge silver-gray dog belongs with them?

With beautiful, spare writing and adorable animals, A Dog Called Homeless is perfect for readers of favorite middle-grade novels starring dogs, such as Because of Winn-Dixie and Shiloh.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:

9780062122261

Publisher:

HarperCollins Publishers

Publication date:

01/07/2014

Edition description:

Reprint

Pages:

224

Sales rank:

174,567

Product dimensions:

5.10(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.70(d)

Lexile:

660L ( what's this?)

Age Range:

8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Sarah Lean lives in England with her husband, son, and dog. She is the author of A Dog Called Homeless and A Hundred Horses. She has worked as a page planner for a newspaper, a stencil maker, a gardener, and a primary school teacher, among various other things.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 4-7-Cally Fisher hasn't spoken for 31 days. As she explains in the prologue, "Talking doesn't always make things happen, however much you want it to." She knows that talking won't bring her mother back to life or keep her dad from selling their home in exchange for a small apartment so what's the point in saying anything. But when her mother appears one day wearing a bright red raincoat and the only other soul that sees her is a big scraggly dog, the girl knows she must find a way to convince her father that the dog is the only thing connecting them to her mother. But her father's growing depression continues to separate the family and Cally struggles to keep her mother from becoming a distant memory. When she meets Sam, who lives downstairs, the friendship that forms between the blind boy and silent girl manages to reunite a family, and each character benefits from the bond. Truly a lesson in the power of love and loss, this story shows that learning how to listen is more important than what's being said. This is a thought-provoking story that will speak to readers of all ages.-Cheryl Ashton, Amherst Public Library, OH

School Library Journal

In this British import, a girl grieving for her dead mother gives up talking when she becomes convinced that what she says doesn't matter. Cally's father never mentions her mom, which seems to deny her existence. Then Cally begins to see her mother--a ghost or wishful imagining?--dressed in a red raincoat and sometimes accompanied by a very large dog that's assuredly not a ghost since he turns up independently at school, in the park and especially with a homeless man, Jed. Cally also meets Mrs. Cooper, a neighbor in their new apartment building who lovingly cares for her blind, nearly deaf 11-year-old son, Sam. Mrs. Cooper, Sam and a psychiatrist all reach out to Cally, each offering wise support, but it's Cally herself, perhaps with the quiet help of her mom, who finds a believable--if a bit miraculous--and highly satisfying resolution. Fifth-grader Cally's first-person voice effectively captures both her suffering and her bewilderment as friends and her father all fail to understand her pain. When she tells Sam she sometimes thinks her mother became a star after she died, he astutely asks, "Why would she go so far away?" giving Cally a comforting new way to think of her mother, much closer to her heart. Ever so gently, this fine debut effort explores the power of human kindness as Cally and her father find effective ways to cope with their loss. (Fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews

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Praised by Newbery Medal-winning author Katherine Applegate as "graceful" and "miraculous," this Schneider Family Book Award-winning novel tells how one girl's friendship with a homeless dog mends a family's heart.Cally Fisher knows she can see her dead mother, but the only...

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Wishtree is a unforgettable book by Katherine Applegate, of a old tree named Red that people tie all their wishes to and a lot the animals live there but, the owner wants to cut down the old tree but the people in the neighborhood doesn't let her.

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35 Total Resources 7 Awards View Text Complexity Discover Like Books

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Wish is a beautiful book by Barbara O'Conner where a girl is forced to go to her aunt and uncle because her mother can't care for her, as well as her father went to jail for fighting so, she has to adapt to the new environment of loving parents.

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Book Details

Don't miss Barbara O'Connor's other middle-grade work-like Wonderland; How to Steal a Dog; Greetings from Nowhere; Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia; The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester; and more!

A touching, New York Times -bestselling story about a girl and her dog, perfect for young animal lovers.

Eleven-year-old Charlie Reese has been making the same secret wish every day since fourth grade. She even has a list of all the ways there are to make the wish, such as cutting off the pointed end of a slice of pie and wishing on it as she takes the last bite. But when she is sent to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina to live with family she barely knows, it seems unlikely that her wish will ever come true. That is until she meets
Wishbone, a skinny stray dog who captures her heart, and Howard, a neighbor boy who proves surprising in lots of ways. Suddenly Charlie is in serious danger of discovering that what she thought she wanted may not be what she needs at all.

From award-winning author Barbara O'Connor comes a middle-grade novel about a girl who, with the help of a true-blue friend, a big-hearted aunt and uncle, and the dog of her dreams, unexpectedly learns the true meaning of family in the least likely of places.

This title has Common Core connections.

Imprint Publisher

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

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Don't miss Barbara O'Connor's other middle-grade work-like Wonderland; How to Steal a Dog; Greetings from Nowhere; Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia; The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester; and more! A touching, New York Times -bestselling story about a girl and her dog, perfect for young animal lovers.

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How to Steal a Dog is a great book by Barbara O'Conner, where a girls mother and father got divorced and they have to live in a car and she decides to steal a dog and try to get reward money for allegedly finding it.

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Read an Excerpt

How to Steal a Dog

By Barbara O'Connor

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Copyright © 2007 Barbara O'Connor
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-374-70679-1
CHAPTER 1

The day I decided to steal a dog was the same day my best friend, Luanne Godfrey, found out I lived in a car.

I had told Mama she would find out sooner or later, seeing as how she's so nosy and all. But Mama had rolled her eyes and said, "Just get on up there to the bus stop, Georgina, and quit your whining."

So that's what I did. I stood up there at the bus stop pretending like I still lived in Apartment 3B. I pretended like I didn't have mustard on my shirt from the day before. I pretended like I hadn't washed my hair in the bathroom of the Texaco gas station that very morning. And I pretended like my daddy hadn't just waltzed off and left us with nothing but three rolls of quarters and a mayonnaise jar full of wadded-up dollar bills.

I guess I'm pretty good at pretending.

My brother, Toby, however, is not so good at pretending. When Mama told him to get on up to the bus stop and quit his whining, he cried and carried on like the baby that he is.

"What's wrong with Toby?" Luanne asked me when we were standing at the bus stop.

"He has an earache," I said, trying as hard as anything to look like my life was just as normal as could be instead of all crazy like it really was.

When I saw Luanne's eyes narrow and her lips squeeze together, I knew her nosiness was about to irritate me.

Sure enough, she said, "Then how come your mama is making him go to school?" She kept looking at me with that squinty-eyed look of hers, but I didn't let on that I was irritated. I just shrugged and hoped she would hush up about Toby.

She did. But then she went and turned her nosy self loose on me.

"No offense, Georgina," she said. "But you're starting to look kind of unkempt."

Unkempt? That was her mama talking if I'd ever heard it. Luanne wouldn't never have said that word "unkempt" if she hadn't heard her mama say it first.

And what was I supposed to say to that anyways? Was I supposed to say, "Well, for your information, Luanne Godfrey, it's kinda hard to keep your clothes looking nice when you've been sleeping in the backseat of a Chevrolet for a week"?

Or maybe I was supposed to say, "I know it, Luanne. But my hairbrush got tossed out in that pile of stuff Mr. Deeter left on the sidewalk when he kicked us out of our apartment."

And then Luanne would say, "Why'd Mr. Deeter do that?"

And I would say, "'Cause three rolls of quarters and a mayonnaise jar full of wadded-up dollar bills doesn't pay the rent, Luanne."

But I didn't say anything. I acted like I hadn't heard that word "unkempt." I just climbed on the bus and sat in the sixth seat on the left side with Luanne, like I always did.

I knew Luanne wouldn't give up, though. I knew she'd keep on till she found out the truth.

"What if she wants to come over?" I said to Mama. "Or what if she looks in the window or something and finds out we don't live there anymore?"

But Mama just flapped her hand at me and closed her eyes to let me know how tired she was from working two jobs. So every day I imagined Luanne peeking in the kitchen window of Apartment 3B. When she did, of course, she wouldn't see me and Toby and Mama and Daddy eating our dinner and being happy. She'd see some other family. Some happy family that wasn't all broken up like mine.

And then one day, when we got off the school bus, Luanne went and did the nosiest thing I could imagine. She followed me. I was trying to catch up with Toby 'cause he had grabbed the car key and run on ahead of me, so I didn't even notice her sneaking along behind me. She followed me all the way past Apartment 3B, across the street, and clear on around the back of Eckerd Drugstore, where our car was parked with laundry hanging out the windows and Toby sitting on a milk crate waiting for me.

If there was ever a time when I wished the earth would open up and swallow me whole, it was when I turned around and saw Luanne looking at me and Toby and that car and all. I could see her thoughts just plain as day right there on her face.

I wanted to wave my hand and make that dented-up car disappear off the face of the earth. But more than anything, I wanted my daddy to come on home and change everything back to the way it was before.

I set a smile on my face and said, "It's just temporary," like Mama had said to me about a hundred times.

Luanne turned red and said, "Oh."

"When Mama gets paid, we're moving into our new apartment," I said.

"Oh."

And then we both just stood there, looking at our feet. I could feel the distance between us grow and grow until it seemed like Luanne Godfrey, who had been my friend forever, was standing clear on the other side of the universe from me.

Finally, she said, "I better go."

But she didn't. She just stood there and I squeezed my eyes shut and told myself not to look pitiful and, for heaven's sake, don't cry.

And then, of course, Toby had to go and make everything worse by saying, "Mama left a note that she's working late, so we're supposed to eat that macaroni that's in the cooler."

Luanne arched her eyebrows up and then she said, "I haven't seen your daddy in a long time."

That did it. I couldn't stop the tears from spilling out of my squeezed-up eyes. I sat down right there in the drugstore parking lot and told Luanne everything.

I felt her arm around me and I heard her saying something, but I was too lost in my misery to do anything but cry. When I was all cried out, I stood up and brushed the dirt off the seat of my pants, pushed the hair out of my eyes, and said, "Promise you won't tell?"

Luanne nodded. "I promise."

"I mean, not even your mama."

Luanne's eyes flickered for just a second, but then she said, "Okay."

I crooked my pinkie finger in the air and waited for her to give me the pinkie promise, but she hesitated.

I stamped my foot and jabbed my pinkie at her. Finally she crooked her pinkie around mine and we shook.

"I better go," she said.

I watched her hurry across the parking lot, then glance back at me before disappearing around the corner of the drugstore.

"I hate that macaroni," Toby said from his seat on the milk crate. It was just like him to not even give me one little minute to wallow in my misery.

I stomped around to the back of the car and kicked the cooler, sending it toppling over on its side. Ice and water and plastic containers spilled out onto the parking lot.

"Me too," I said.

Then I climbed into the backseat of the car and waited for Mama to come back.

It was way past dark when I heard Mama's shoes click-clacking on the asphalt as she made her way toward the car. I sat up and looked out the window. Even in the dim glow of the streetlights, I could see her tired, sad look. Part of me wanted to stay put and just go on back to sleep and leave her be, but another part of me wanted to get out and have my say, which is what I did.

Mama jumped when I opened the car door.

"What in the world are you doing awake, Georgina?" she said.

"I hate this," I said. "I don't want to do this anymore."

I pushed the car door shut softly so Toby wouldn't wake up; then I turned back to Mama and said, "You got to do something. You got to find us a place to live. A real place. Not a car."

Mama reached out like she was gonna touch me, so I jerked away. She dropped her hand to her side like it was heavy as cement. Then she let out a whoosh of breath that blew her hair up off her forehead.

"I'm trying," she said.

"How are you trying?"

She tossed her purse through the car window into the front seat. "I just am, okay, Georgina?"

"But how?"

"I'm working two jobs. What else do you want me to do?"

"Find us a place to live." I stomped away from her and then whirled back around. "This is all your fault."

She stormed over and grabbed me by the shoulders.

"It takes money to get a place." She gave me a little shake when she said the word "money."

"I'm trying to save up, okay?" she said.

She let go of me and leaned against the car.

"How much money do we need?" I said.

She looked up at the sky like the answer was written up there in the stars. Then she shook her head real slow and said, "I don't know, Georgina. A lot, okay?"

"Like how much?"

"More than we got."

We both just stood there in the dark and listened to the crickets from the vacant lot next door.

Mama draped her arm around my shoulder, and I laid my head against her and wanted to be a baby again-a baby that just cries and then gets taken care of and that's all there is to a day.

Finally I asked her the same question I'd asked her about a million times already.

"Why did Daddy leave?"

I felt her whole body go limp. "I wish I knew." She brushed my hair out of my eyes. "Just got tired of it all, I reckon," she said.

"Tired of what?"

The silence between us felt big and dark, like a wall. Then I asked her the question that had been burning a hole in my heart. "Tired of me?"

Mama took my chin in her hand and looked at me hard. "This is not your fault, okay?"

She peered inside the car at Toby, all curled up in a ball in the backseat.

"We got to go," she said.

"Where?"

"I don't know. Just somewhere else." The car door creaked when she opened it, sending an echo into the still night air. "We've been here two nights now," she said. "The cops are liable to run us off if we don't leave."

She shot me a look when she saw the overturned cooler, so I helped her gather things up before I climbed back in the car. As we drove out of the parking lot, I slouched down and stared glumly out the window. The empty shops we passed made Darby, North Carolina, seem like a ghost town, all locked up and dark.

Mama pulled the car into the alley beside Bill's Auto Parts. When she shut the engine off, we got swallowed up in quiet.

I draped a beach towel over the clothesline that Mama had strung along the middle of the car to make me a bedroom. I could picture Luanne, snuggled in her pink-and-white quilt with her stuffed animals lined up along the wall beside her and her gymnastics ribbons taped on her headboard, and I sure felt sorry for myself.

Then I curled up on the seat, turning every which way trying to get comfortable. Finally I settled on my back with my feet propped against the car door and stared out at the starry sky.

And then I saw it. A sign, tacked up there on a telephone pole right outside the car window. A faded old sign that said: REWARD. $500. And under that was a picture of a bug-eyed little dog with its tongue hanging out.

And then under that it said: HAVE YOU SEEN ME? MY NAME IS MITSY.

Five hundred dollars! Who in the world would pay five hundred dollars for that little ole dog?

"Mama?" I whispered through my beach towel wall.

Mama rustled some in the front seat.

"Would five hundred dollars be enough money to get us a place to live?" I said.

Mama sighed. "I suppose so, Georgina. Now go to sleep. You got school tomorrow."

I looked up at Mitsy and my mind started churning.

What if I could find that dog? I could get that money, and we could have a real place to live instead of this stinking old car.

But that dog could be anywhere. I wouldn't even know where to look. Besides, that sign was old. Somebody had probably already found Mitsy and got that five hundred dollars.

I stared out the window at the sign, thinking about Mitsy and wondering if there were other folks out there who would pay money for their lost dogs.

And that's when I got a thought that made me sit up so fast Toby mumbled in his sleep and Mama hissed, "Shhhh."

I folded my legs up and lay back down in my beach towel bedroom. The damp car seat smelled like greasy french fries and bug spray. I closed my eyes and smiled to myself. I had a plan.

I was gonna steal me a dog.

CHAPTER 2

I thought about my plan for a couple of days before I decided to tell Toby. "You got to keep this a secret," I told him.

I glanced out the back window of the car, then pulled the beach towel over our heads. Mama had left for work, and me and Toby were waiting till it was time to walk up to the bus stop.

Toby nodded in the darkness under the towel. "I will," he said.

I pushed my face up closer to his and said, "You can't tell anybody, okay?"

"Okay."

I knew it was risky telling Toby my plan, but I figured I had to. Mama said he had to stay with me after school, so there I was, stuck with him. I couldn't even go to Luanne's or anything. How was I gonna steal a dog without Toby finding out? Then he'd go and tell Mama, for sure. If I made him think he was part of my secret plan, maybe he wouldn't be the tattletale baby that he usually is.

"Here's my plan," I said.

I paused a minute to add some drama 'cause Toby likes drama. He stared at me with wide eyes. His breath smelled like tuna fish, and I was wishing I hadn't covered us up with the towel like that.

"We're gonna steal a dog," I said. "How about that?" I grinned and waited for him to say "Hot dang" like he does, but he just stared at me with his mouth hanging open. That tuna fish odor swirled around us inside our beach towel tent. I waved my hand in front of my nose and flipped the towel off of us.

"Jeez, Toby," I said. "Can't you brush your teeth?"

He glared at me. "How?" he hollered. "There ain't no sink in here." He waved his arms around the car.

"Use the water in the cooler," I said.

"No way. It's cruddy."

"Well, anyways," I said. "Don't you want to know why we're gonna steal a dog?"

He nodded, sending a clump of greasy hair flopping down over his eyes. He had Mama's straight, copper-colored hair, but I had to go and get Daddy's curly ole black hair that I hate. One more good reason to be mad at my daddy.

I smoothed the crumpled yellowing sign out on the seat between us. "Because of this," I said.

Toby looked at it. "What's it say?"

"For crying out loud, Toby, you're in third grade." I jabbed a finger at the sign. " Reward, it says. Five hundred dollars reward for this ugly ole dog. Can you believe that?"

"He's not ugly."

" She," I said. "Her name is Mitsy. See?" I jabbed at the sign again.

Toby squeezed his eyebrows together. "Why are we gonna steal that dog?"

"Not this dog, you idiot," I said. "We're gonna steal a different dog."

"What dog?"

"I don't know yet," I said. "That's why I need you to help me."

I looked out the window again. The alley beside the auto parts store was empty. I slouched down lower in the seat and motioned for Toby to come closer.

"Listen," I whispered. "We're gonna find us a dog that somebody loves so much, they'd pay a reward to get it back." I poked Toby with my elbow. "Get it?"

"Pay a reward to who?" Toby said.

I sighed and shook my head. "To us, you ninny."

"But why would they pay us if we steal their dog?"

I rolled my eyes and flopped back against the seat.

"I swear, Toby, sometimes I wonder about you." I sat back up and took him by the shoulders, looking him square in the eyes. "The person who loves the dog won't know it was us that stole it. The person will think we found the dog. Now do you get it?"

Toby grinned. "Okay," he said. "Where's the dog?"

"We've got to find the dog," I hollered.

I slapped my hand over my mouth and glanced quickly around us. The alley was still empty.

"We've got to find the dog," I repeated in a whisper. "Mama said five hundred dollars is enough to get a place to live. If we steal a dog, we can get five hundred dollars, see?"

Toby had a look on his face that made me think I'd made a mistake sharing my plan with him.

"Listen, Toby," I said. "It's the only way we're ever gonna have us a real place to live instead of this car, you hear?"

He nodded.

"Don't you want a real place to live?"

He nodded again.

"Then we got to steal us a dog and get the reward," I said. "And if you tell anyone, and I mean anyone, you might as well just say your prayers and kiss this earth goodbye, you hear me?"

"Okay," he said. "But how do we steal a dog?"

"Don't worry," I said. "I'm working on it."

After school that day, me and Toby raced back to the car. When I unlocked it, Toby climbed in the driver's seat and started spreading peanut butter on a saltine cracker with his finger. I climbed in the backseat and locked the doors. Mama had told us to stay put. If anybody asked us what we were doing, we were supposed to say we were waiting for our mama, who was in the bank next door.

Excerpted from How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O'Connor. Copyright © 2007 Barbara O'Connor. Excerpted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Don't miss Barbara O'Connor's other middle-grade work-like Wish; Wonderland; Greetings from Nowhere; Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia; The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester; and more!Half of me was thinking, Georgina, don't do this. Stealing a dog is just plain...

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Greetings from Nowhere by Barbra O'Conner

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Greetings from Nowhere by Barbra O'Conner

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Greetings from nowhere is an intriguing book, and amazing, as well as my favorite book ever, it has a bunch of different perspectives, and its about a person that owns a motel and sells it to someone as a few people arrive and they all work together to fix it up.

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Book Details

Don't miss Barbara O'Connor's other middle-grade work-like Wish; Wonderland; How to Steal a Dog; Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia; The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester; and more!

From an author long recognized for her true Southern voice and heartfelt characters, Greetings from Nowhere, with its four intertwining stories, brings Barbara O'Connor's work to a new level of sophistication.

Aggie isn't expecting visitors at the Sleepy Time Motel in the Great Smoky Mountains. Since her husband died, she is all alone with her cat, Ugly, and keeping up with the bills and repairs has become next to impossible. The pool is empty, the garden is overgrown, and not a soul has come to stay in nearly three months. When she reluctantly places a For Sale ad in the newspaper, Aggie doesn't know that Kirby and his mom will need a room when their car breaks down on the way to Kirby's new reform school. Or that Loretta and her parents will arrive in her dad's plumbing company van on a trip meant to honor the memory of Loretta's birth mother. Or that Clyde Dover will answer the For Sale ad in such a hurry and move in with his daughter, Willow, looking for a brand-new life to replace the one that was fractured when Willow's mom left. Perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that Aggie and her guests find just the friends they need at the shabby motel in the middle of nowhere.

This title has Common Core connections.

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Don't miss Barbara O'Connor's other middle-grade work-like Wish; Wonderland; How to Steal a Dog; Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia; The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester; and more! From an author long recognized for her true Southern voice and heartfelt characters, Greetings from Nowhere, with its four intertwining stories, brings Barbara O'Connor's work to a new level of sophistication.

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Fish in a Tree is a book about a girl with dyslexia and had a hard time doing normal things like reading and writing and soon got a nice understanding teacher that helped her do those every day things.

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Synopsis

The author of the beloved One for the Murphys gives readers an emotionally-charged, uplifting novel that will speak to anyone who's ever thought there was something wrong with them because they didn't fit in.

Everybody is smart in different ways. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its life believing it is stupid."

Ally has been smart enough to fool a lot of smart people. Every time she lands in a new school, she is able to hide her inability to read by creating clever yet disruptive distractions. She is afraid to ask for help; after all, how can you cure dumb? However, her newest teacher Mr. Daniels sees the bright, creative kid underneath the trouble maker. With his help, Ally learns not to be so hard on herself and that dyslexia is nothing to be ashamed of. As her confidence grows, Ally feels free to be herself and the world starts opening up with possibilities. She discovers that there's a lot more to her-and to everyone-than a label, and that great minds don't always think alike.
Read Chapter One here! Teachers - Share (and find!) Fish in a Tree ideas that you have enjoyed using with your kids. Printable Fish in a Tree Teacher's Guide!
Awards and Honors:

Schneider Family Book Award

SCBWI Crystal Kite Winner

ALSC Notable Book of 2016

New York Times Bestseller

Global Read Aloud choice, 2015

SLJ Best Book, 2015

Audible.com (Amazon) Kids Audiobook of Year Winner

Will be published in 15 different languages thus far

ALSC Notable Children's Recordings Nominee

ALSC Notable Children's Book Nominee

Indie Best Book Choice

Amazon Best Book of the month

Amazon Best Book of the Year (9-12 yo), 2015

Amazon bestseller re: books about disabilities

Barnes and Noble ~ Best books about bullying

ALSC Summer Reading List, 2016

SCBWI Summer Reading List, 2016

*State Lists:

Great Stone Face Award Book (New Hampshire)

Colorado State Book Award nominee

Golden Sower Award (Nebraska) nominee

South Carolina Junior Book Award nominee, 2016-2017

Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Book Award (Illinois) nominee, 2016-2017

Iowa Children's Choice Award nominee, 2016-2017

Georgia Children's Book Award nominee, 2016-2017

North Carolina Battle of the Books, 2016-2017

Black-Eyed Susan Book Award (Maryland) nominee, 2016-2017

Maine Student Book Award Nominee, 2016-2017

Buckeye State Award List (Ohio), 2016-2017

William Allen White Award List (Kansas), 2017-2018

Visit Ally's Sketchbook of Impossible Things

Read (or add your own!) SUCCESS STORIES of people who struggled in school and later set the world on fire! (as Mr. Daniels would say ;-) Buy merchandise from a non-profit online store Help yourself to some Fish in a Tree badges
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SOLVING THE SECRET CODE:
HELLO! Below is the code that Mr. Daniels writes on the board for the students to solve. Unfortunately, I will not give you an answer for it. However, I will tell you a couple of things:

1. Yes, it can be solved.

2. Each letter stands for another letter in the alphabet and follows a pattern. So, for example, if I told you that every letter in this word < ALD > was really the letter that is three letters after it in the alphabet, <ALD > would really be < DOG >. This code below follows a pattern similar to this.

3. Writing out the entire alphabet for yourself and experimenting will make this easier to solve.

4. If you find this hard, don't quit! It's supposed to be hard and it feels AWESOME to solve something difficult.

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The videos below were done in conjunction with Global Read Aloud. Each video covers 8 chapters of the book. Video 1: Chapter 1 - 8 Video 2: Chapter 9 - 17 Video 3: Chapter 18 - 24 Video 4: Chapter 25 - 33 Video 5: Chapter 34 - 42 Video 6: Chapter 43 - end I begin each taping with a reading of the last chapter in the block and then answer questions form readers for that chapter block ONLY. The last video has a bit more of an overview.

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Synopsis The author of the beloved One for the Murphys gives readers an emotionally-charged, uplifting novel that will speak to anyone who's ever thought there was something...

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Wonder is a wonderful book of a boy that had a birth defect that gave him a deformed face and had to try to ignore all the mean comments and eventually found nice friends to be with.

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Celebrate the Power of Kindness with WONDER - Penguin Random House

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Celebrate the power of kindness with WONDER by R.J. Palacio—the worldwide bestseller that launched the Choose Kind movement.

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One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

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One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

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One for the Murphys is an amazing book of a girl that got a foster family and has to adapt to the new life style of nice parents.

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ONE FOR THE MURPHYS | Lynda Mullaly Hunt

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Synopsis In the wake of heart-breaking betrayal, Carley Connors is thrust into foster care and left on the steps of the Murphys, a happy, bustling…