Anna has looked forward to her class field trip to the zoo, but from the time they board the bus she is pulled between her long-time best friend, Sadie, and new best friend, Isabel, who argue about everything and want Anna to take sides.

Anna and Sadie have always been best friends so when Sadie suddenly starts being mean, Anna is very sad and seeks support from her dog Banana and classmate Isabel, as well as advice from her brother Chuck and her parents.

After telling her dog Banana about her loose tooth and discovering that some of her friends do not believe in the Tooth Fairy, Anna makes an impulsive bet with a pesky boy who also has a loose tooth.

Sadie, Isabel, and Anna decide to enter Banana into a puppy parade to raise money for the local animal shelter, but when Sadie and Isabel get really involved, helping to bathe, brush, and get Banana ready for the big day, Anna starts to feel possessive about her dog.

When preparing for a magic show, Anna and her friends find a talent for trouble instead in the eighth book of this “fast-paced, fun, and funny” (Megan McDonald, bestselling author of the Judy Moody series) illustrated chapter book series about the joys and challenges of elementary school friendships. Anna, Sadie, and Isabel develop an interest in magic tricks when their frenemy Justin mystifies them with a cool card trick but refuses to tell them how he did it. Determined to figure it out for themselves, the girls set out for the best place to find answers—the library!—ready to learn every magic trick in the book. But magic isn’t as easy as it appears, even with a book of instructions. When Anna goes to her neighbor Mrs. Shirley for advice, she finds out that while Mrs. S doesn’t know any magic tricks herself, her very favorite birthday party ever was a magician show where the magician pulled a rabbit out of a hat. With the neighborhood potluck coinciding with Mrs. Shirley’s seventy-sixth birthday, Anna and her friends decide to practice their own magic act to perform for her, but a whole slew of mix-ups ensue as they try to puzzle out how the tricks are done and how to figure out Justin’s secret, too. Can Anna and her friends perform some magic and get the mix-ups under control before—presto—it’s showtime?

Anna wrestles with a big secret at Isabel’s super-fun sleepover in the seventh book of this “fast-paced, fun, and funny” (Megan McDonald, bestselling author of the Judy Moody series) illustrated chapter book series about the joys and challenges of elementary school friendships. Anna and her friends love having sleepovers. So, when Isabel invites Anna and Sadie to spend the night at her house for the first time Anna can’t wait! Between pranking Isabel’s older sisters, make-your-own pizzas, and truth or dare this is going to be the best night ever. But when one of Isabel’s older sisters’ dares results in Anna breaking a really special vase, everything stops being all fun and games. Isabel’s sisters convince the girls they can hide it from their parents, but after her friends fall asleep, Anna lies on the floor in her sleeping bag, wide awake. At night, with the lights out and everyone else sleeping, Isabel’s house seems different. Unfamiliar. Not like home. Anna misses Banana terribly, and worst of all she feels really guilty keeping what happened a secret. If Anna doesn’t stay at the sleepover, everyone might get mad at her for ruining it, but if she stays and lets the secret slip about the broken vase, everyone might get mad at her for that instead. Anna and her friends share all their secrets, but can they help her with her secret dilemma?

A ten-year-old girl learns the importance of family and community in this tale of love and hope set during the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Armani Curtis can think about only one thing: her tenth birthday. All her friends are coming to her party, her mama is making a big cake, and she has a good feeling about a certain wrapped box. Turning ten is a big deal to Armani. It means she’s older, wiser, more responsible. But when Hurricane Katrina hits the Lower Nines of New Orleans, Armani realizes that being ten means being brave, watching loved ones die, and mustering all her strength to help her family weather the storm. A powerful story of courage and survival, Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere celebrates the miraculous power of hope and love in the face of the unthinkable. Praise for Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere “Lamana goes for and achieves realism here, carefully establishing the characters and setting before describing in brutal detail, beyond what is typical in youth literature, the devastating effects of Katrina—loss of multiple family members, reports of attacks in the Superdome, bodies drifting in the current and less-than-ideal shelter conditions. An honest, bleak account of a national tragedy sure to inspire discussion and research.” —Kirkus Reviews “I recommend the book because I think it does a good job of capturing what life was like in New Orleans both before and after Katrina and because Armani’s journey will give readers a lot to think about and discuss. But parents will want to know that it doesn’t flinch when describing the death and destruction that hit New Orleans during that time and be cautious with younger, sensitive readers.” —Cindy Hudson, author of Book by Book