More to the Story

When Jameela Mirza is picked to be feature editor of her middle school newspaper, she’s one step closer to being an award-winning journalist like her late grandfather. The problem is, her editor-in-chief keeps shooting down her article ideas. Jameela’s assigned to write about the new boy in school, who has a cool British accent but doesn’t share much, and wonders how she’ll make his story gripping enough to enter into a national media contest.

Jameela, along with her three sisters, is devastated when their father needs to take a job overseas, away from their cozy Georgia home for six months. Missing him makes Jameela determined to write an epic article—one to make her dad extra proud. But when her younger sister gets seriously ill, Jameela’s world turns upside down. And as her hunger for fame looks like it might cost her a blossoming friendship, Jameela questions what matters most, and whether she’s cut out to be a journalist at all…

Parrots, Pugs, and Pixie Dust: A Book About Fashion Designer Judith Leiber

At night, she took comfort
making handbags
with any scraps she could find.
Every purse she made
made her dreams come alive.

Growing up in Budapest, Hungary, Judith Leiber drew inspiration from her father, who always brought back special handbags for her mother from wherever he traveled. After getting a job at a handbag house, she dreamt up designs that took her mind off her difficult life. World War II had broken out, and Judith and her family were Hungarian Jews facing persecution. At night, she would make handbags with any scraps she could find.

She found her passion for fashion, and after the war ended, Judith immigrated to America. Here, she found her vision for her designs from preening peacocks, fanciful frogs donning gilded crowns, burgers and fries, and layer cake. She turned the ordinary into extraordinary handbags, designing creations unlike anything that had been seen before.

This is an inspiring picture book about finding your passion and being creative from the same team behind Polka Dot Parade: The Story of Bill Cunningham!

Author’s note with photographs. Bibliography. Full-color illustrations.

The Downstairs Girl

By day, seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady’s maid for the cruel daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Atlanta. But by night, Jo moonlights as the pseudonymous author of a newspaper advice column for the genteel Southern lady, “Dear Miss Sweetie.” When her column becomes wildly popular, she uses the power of the pen to address some of society’s ills, but she’s not prepared for the backlash that follows when her column challenges fixed ideas about race and gender. While her opponents clamor to uncover the secret identity of Miss Sweetie, a mysterious letter sets Jo off on a search for her own past and the parents who abandoned her as a baby. But when her efforts put her in the crosshairs of Atlanta’s most notorious criminal, Jo must decide whether she, a girl used to living in the shadows, is ready to step into the light. With prose that is witty, insightful, and at times heartbreaking, Stacey Lee masterfully crafts an extraordinary social drama set in the New South.

Author’s note.

Caught!: Nabbing History's Most Wanted

Outlaw, assassin, art thief, and spy, these fourteen troublemakers and crooks—including Blackbeard the pirate, Typhoid Mary, and gangster Al Capone—have given the good guys a run for their money throughout the ages. Some were crooked, some were deadly, and some were merely out of line—but they all got caught!, as detailed in this fascinating and funny study of crime, culture, and forensic science.

FEATURING HISTORY'S MOST WANTED: Joan of Arc, Sir Walter Raleigh, Caravaggio, Blackbeard, John Wilkes Booth, Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Mata Hari, Typhoid Mary, Rasputin, Vincenzo Peruggia (Mona Lisa thief), Bernard Kuehn (Pearl Harbor spy), Anna Anderson (Anastasia impersonator), and Al Capone.

Bibliography. Index. Black-and-white illustrations.

The World Ends in April

Every day in middle school can feel like the end of the world.

Eleanor Dross knows a thing or two about the end of the world, thanks to a survivalist grandfather who stockpiles freeze-dried food and supplies—just in case. So when she reads about a Harvard scientist’s prediction that an asteroid will strike Earth in April, Eleanor knows her family will be prepared. Her classmates? They’re on their own!

Eleanor has just one friend she wants to keep safe: Mack. They’ve been best friends since kindergarten, even though he’s more of a smiley emoji and she’s more of an eye-roll emoji. They’ll survive the end of the world together…if Mack doesn’t go away to a special school for the blind. But it’s hard to keep quiet about a life-destroying asteroid—especially at a crowded lunch table—and soon Eleanor is the president of the (secret) End of the World Club. It turns out that prepping for TEOTWAWKI (the End of the World as We Know It) is actually kind of fun. But you can’t really prepare for everything life drops on you. And one way or another, Eleanor’s world is about to change.

Author’s note. Historical information. Definitions. Asteroid facts from NASA. Information on disaster readiness kits and supplies. Note about identifying legitimate online sources. List of acronyms. Sources.

Once Upon a Goat

Once upon a time, a very prim and proper king and queen begged their fairy godmother for a child. They’d prefer a boy, with glowing skin, bright eyes, and two roses for lips…but any kid will do. When they find themselves gifted with a baby goat (also known as a kid) instead, they can’t imagine how he’ll fit into their lives. But of course, it isn’t long before he’s part of the royal family.

Readers will delight in this story’s hilarity, confusion, and celebration of families that come in every shape and size.

Full-color illustrations were created using pencil, watercolor, acrylic, and Adobe Photoshop.

Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation

Charlie Thorne is a genius.
Charlie Thorne is a thief.
Charlie Thorne isn’t old enough to drive.
And now it’s up to her to save the world…

Decades ago, Albert Einstein devised an equation that could benefit all life on earth—or destroy it. Fearing what would happen if the equation fell into the wrong hands, he hid it. But now, a diabolical group known as the Furies are closing in on its location. In desperation, a team of CIA agents drags Charlie into the hunt, needing her brilliance to find it first—even though this means placing her life in grave danger. Charlie must crack a complex code created by Einstein himself, struggle to survive in a world where no one can be trusted, and fight to keep the last equation safe once and for all.

Ida B. Wells: Discovering History's Heroes

Ida B. Wells was an African-American journalist and activist who led an anti-lynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s.

On one fateful train ride from Memphis to Nashville, in May 1884, Wells reached a personal turning point. Having bought a first-class train ticket, she was outraged when the train crew ordered her to move to the car for African Americans. She refused and was forcibly removed from the train—but not before she bit one of the men on the hand. Wells sued the railroad, winning a $500 settlement. However, the decision was later overturned by the Tennessee Supreme Court.

This injustice led Ida B. Wells to pick up a pen to write about issues of race and politics in the South. Using the moniker “Iola,” a number of her articles were published in black newspapers and periodicals. Wells eventually became an owner of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight, and, later, of the Free Speech. She even took on the subject of lynching, and in 1898, Wells brought her anti-lynching campaign to the White House, leading a protest in Washington, DC, and calling for President William McKinley to make reforms.

Ida B. Wells never backed down in the fight for justice.

Epilogue. Glossary. Endnotes. Bibliography.

Fighting for the Forest: How FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps Helped Save America

When Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in March 1933, the United States was on the brink of economic collapse and environmental disaster. Thirty-four days later, the first of over three million impoverished young men were building parks and reclaiming the nation’s forests and farmlands. The Civilian Conservation Corps—FDR’s favorite program and “miracle of inter-agency cooperation”—resulted in the building and/or improvement of hundreds of state and national parks, the restoration of nearly 120 million acre of land, and the planting of some three billion trees—more than half of all the trees ever planted in the United States.

Fighting for the Forest tells the story of the Civilian Conservation Corp through a close look at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia (the CCC’s first project) and through the personal stories and work of young men around the nation who came of age and changed their country for the better working in Roosevelt’s Tree Army.

Bibliography. Endnotes. Time line. Index. Black-and-white photographs and reproductions.

Do You Dream of Terra-Two?

Have you ever hoped you could leave everything behind?
Have you ever dreamt of a better world?
Can a dream sustain a lifetime?

A century ago, an astronomer discovered an Earth-like planet orbiting a nearby star. She predicted that one day, humans would travel there to build a utopia. Today, ten astronauts are leaving everything behind to find it. Four are veterans of the twentieth century’s space-race. And six are teenagers who’ve trained for this mission most of their lives. It will take the team twenty-three years to reach Terra-Two. Twenty-three years locked in close quarters. Twenty-three years with no one to rely on but each other. Twenty-three years with no rescue possible, should something go wrong. And something always goes wrong.

Permanent Record

On paper, college dropout Pablo Rind doesn’t have a whole lot going for him. His graveyard shift at a twenty-four-hour deli in Brooklyn is a struggle. Plus, he’s up to his eyeballs in credit card debt. Never mind the state of his student loans.

Pop juggernaut Leanna Smart has enough social media followers to populate whole continents. The brand is unstoppable. She graduated from child stardom to become an international icon, and her adult life is a queasy blur of private planes, step-and-repeats, aspirational hotel rooms, and strangers screaming for her just to notice them.

When Leanna and Pablo meet at 5:00 a.m. at the bodega in the dead of winter, it’s absurd to think they’d be A Thing. But as they discover who they are, who they want to be, and how to defy the deafening expectations of everyone else, Lee and Pab turn to each other. Which, of course, is when things get properly complicated.

Angela's Christmas

Angela is six-years-old and worries for the baby Jesus on the altar of St. Joseph's church in Limerick. December nights are damp and cold, and the church is dark at night. How can the baby Jesus' mother leave him in the manger without even a blanket to cover him? The baby Jesus surely needs Angela's help, even if she is not allowed to go on the altar, especially by herself.

Filled with the characters, incident, and detail that have made Frank McCourt internationally renowned and beloved, Angela’s Christmas is a timeless story of real life—in all of its joy, innocence, and incongruity. A story for all generations to enjoy and cherish.

Full-color illustrations rendered with watercolor, colored pencil, and lithograph pencil.