Akron Public Library

In her own words, a young girl describes her feelings about starting kindergarten and what she does when she decides not to ride the bus home.

Fourteen-year-old Nikki Maxwell writes in her diary of her struggle to be popular at her exclusive new private school, then of finding her place after she gives up on being part of the elite group.

"The life of a book isn't easy, especially when people judge you by your cover (not every book can be adorned with sparkly unicorns!). And this narrator should know--it's the book itself, and it has a lot of opinions. It gets irritated when readers bend its pages back, and it finds authors quite annoying. But it does have a story to tell. Through witty direct address and charming illustrations, readers meet a book that has never been read, with a...

Publisher Annotation: When he decides to tag along with his brother Rodrick's band, Loded Diper, Greg doesn't realize what he's getting into. But he soon learns that late nights, unpaid gigs, fighting between band members, and money troubles are all part of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle. Can Greg help Loded Diper become the legends they think they are? Or will too much time with Rodrick's band be a diper overlode?

The six mean Herdman kids lie, steal, smoke cigars (even the girls) and then become involved in the community Christmas pageant.

Brian is on his way to Canada to visit his estranged father when the pilot of his small prop plane suffers a heart attack. Brian is forced to crash-land the plane in a lake--and finds himself stranded in the remote Canadian wilderness with only his clothing and the hatchet his mother gave him as a present before his departure. Brian had been distraught over his parents' impending divorce and the secret he carries about his mother, but now he is truly...

"Grab a flashlight, crawl under the covers, and dive into the twisted, unexpectedly hilarious world of Rowley Jefferson's imagination. You'll meet zombies, vampires, ghosts, and much more in these comically terrifying tales. Rowley's spooky stories might leave you laughing, but beware--you could end up sleeping with the lights on!" --

After she falls headfirst into a bird's nest, a baby bat is raised like a bird until she is reunited with her mother.

When Jack and Annie travel back to the Kansas prairie in search of "something to learn," they gain an understanding of how hard life was for pioneers and they experience the terror of a tornado.

Pippi moves into in a house at the edge of a Swedish village with a horse, a monkey, a suitcase full of gold, and no grown-ups to tell her what to do. She has upside-down braids and is wild and funny and her crazy ideas have a way of making anything exciting! Naturally, the children next door, Tommy and Annika are curious about their new neighbor. The three children have the most rollicking adventures on their own, with horses and monkeys, the circus,...