Jackson, Gig, Isaac, and Diego are established middle-school students and some of their initial worries seem far away. But as basketball season approaches, they have new problems with worries about Diego’s availability and Quincy and Dante trying to persuade Isaac to play on traveling team. All four boys also have the challenge of their first middle-school dance approaching.

Jackson, Gig, Isaac, and Diego, four sports-loving friends who have always stuck together, are finally about to begin middle school. They’ve talked about and worried about if for months and are also excited. Lockers that won’t open, older (and bigger) kids, classes that are far apart, tons of homework—there’s a lot to get used to.

One thing the boys are looking forward to, however, is making the football team. Not every one will get what he wants, though, on the field and at home.

Discussion Guide

Just before they’re due to start middle school, Jackson, Gig, Isaac, and Diego, four sports-loving friends, all attend the same weeklong soccer camp. Diego is an experienced soccer player, and Gig has a natural ability for the sport he never realized. But Jackson and Isaac are split into another group of players—a group with younger, smaller kids. For the first time, both boys aren’t the stars of their team. In fact, they can’t seem to get a handle on soccer. At the same time, Jackson is having a hard time getting a handle on his mom’s deepening relationship with her boyfriend, and her suggestion that they move in with him. And Gig is worried about his father’s deployment to Afghanistan. Here is a story about how life, like sports, can be unpredictable, frustrating, and exhilarating.

Discussion Guide

Awards and Honors: Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices, 2011

Jackson’s parents are divorced and his mother has started dating. Gig’s dad is in the National Guard and has been called up to serve in the Middle East. Isaac’s dad wants him to go to a different middle school than all his friends. Diego is the new kid in school, a power-hitter who works with his family on the weekends and can’t make every team practice. These four friends lead different lives, but on the baseball field, they’re a strong team, the top of the order. In this crucial last year of elementary school, they’re faced with preparing for middle school and dealing with a new member of their team—a girl!

Discussion Guide

Awards and Honors: Junior Library Guild; Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices, 2010; Read On Wisconsin Book of the Month; Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Book of the Year, 2010; Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award nominee, 2012-2013

In this fast-paced game celebrating international basketball, players in ten different countries compete to win. With comic book inspired art by Tom Lynch and Antonio Reonegro, readers have loads to look at on each page. The book offers a great way to teach geography, time zones and the international nature of the game so many kids love.

Awards and Honors: Junior Library Guild selection; NBA Read to Achieve and Basketball without Borders programs

One day at her dad's house, a young girl finds two old potatoes in the cupboard. "Gross." But before she can throw them away, her dad suggests they try to grow new potatoes from the old ones, which have sprouted eyes. Told from May to September, the potato-growing season, the story includes all the basic steps for growing potatoes while subtly dealing with the parents' recent divorce. Just like the new potatoes that emerged from ugly old potatoes, this dad and daughter move on and make a new life together in the face of unavoidable and unpleasant change. Carolyn Fisher's artwork will be instantly recognizable from her recent picture book debut, A Twisted Tale, and her trademark high-energy art and design infuse joy and humor into this heartwarming story.

Awards and Honors: Starred reviews in School Library Journal and Publisher's Weekly; Minnesota Book Award finalist; Charlotte Zolotow Honor book for picture book text; Ohio Farm Bureau Federation honor book; Nickelodeon Jr.'s Best Family Books of the Year; Bank Street College of Education Best Book of the Year; Reading Rainbow selection; Read On Wisconsin Book of the Month program; The Junior Master Gardener Program and the American Horticultural Society Growing Good Kids Book Awards.

Ten-year-old James has gone to the basketball court with his brother Nate many times, but one day a player's injury actually gets him into the game with the older, stronger boys. James must guard powerful Marcus, whose strength intimidates him. James is skilled, but can he prove himself against the odds? John Coy's lively prose and Leslie Jean-Bart's dramatic photo collages deliver both the grit of the game and an important lesson about determination.

One August night, cake-bake hot, Carmela can't get to sleep. So she and Daddy get into their car for a little drive. Vroomaloom zoom vroom vroom! They take a fantasy ride past farms (cackle lackle), through woods (whoo whoo), to the sea (splash dash wave crash). "Are you ready for sleep?" asks Daddy. "Not yet. Keep driving," says Carmela. So on they go by swamps, over streams, around waterfalls, forward, backward, sideways, and around in circles. Finally, Carmela's eyes close. She must be ready to sleep. "Not yet, Daddy. Keep driving." Vroomaloom zoomaloom vroom vroom. With its inventive use of language and irresistible refrain, this send-up of a familiar family problem will tickle the fancies of parents and children.

Awards and Honors: Book of Excellence, Children's Literature Choice List for 2001; Best Children's Book of the Year for 2001 by the Children's Book Committee at Bank Street College of Education; 2001 2X2 Reading List of the Texas Library Association, a list for children ages 2 to second grade; starred review in School Library Journal.

Ten-year-old James has gone to the basketball court with his brother Nate many times, but one day a player's injury actually gets him into the game with the older, stronger boys. James must guard powerful Marcus, whose strength intimidates him. James is skilled, but can he prove himself against the odds? John Coy's lively prose and Leslie Jean-Bart's dramatic photo collages deliver both the grit of the game and an important lesson about determination.

Reading Guide

Readers' Theater Script

Awards and Honors: ALA Notable Book of 2000; Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People, 2000; American Library Association Notable Book 2000; Choices List 2000, Cooperative Children's Book Council; Bank Street College Best Children's Books of the Year; Notable Book for a Global Society by the International Reading Association

A father and son drive into the night. As the sky turns shades of deep blue and purple they watch for night animals, swap baseball stories, and keep a lookout for eighteen wheelers. But they have miles to go before they can sleep, and it's a real challenge to stay awake for a whole night of driving.

Celebrating the relationship between a father and his son, JohnCoy's spare, poetic text and Peter McCarty's striking black-and-white drawings (complete with gas pumps, cafes, and truck stops)capture the warmth and nostalgia of a very special road trip.

Activity Guide

Editing a Picture Book

Sound Curriculum

Awards and Honors: Cooperative Children's Book Center, Choice Books of 1996; The Horn Book Honor List, 1996; Hungry Mind Review Children's Book of Distinction finalist; 1997 Marion Vannett Ridgway Memorial Award for excellence in an author's or illustrator's first picture book; New York Times' Christopher Lehmann-Haupt "one of the best books of the year"; 1997 Minnesota Book Award finalist; Family Channel Entertainment Guide Seal of Quality; Vermont's Red Clover Award nominee; Children's Book Council "Not Just for Children Anymore" list; New York Times Best Illustrated Books of the Year.