A kooky kid is banished to another planet in this hilarious adventure about a futuristic world where different is dangerous, imagination is insanity, and creativity is crazy! Norbert Riddle lives in the United State of Earth, where normal means following the rules, never standing out, and being exactly the same as everyone else, down to the plain gray jumpsuits he wears every day. He's been normal his whole life -- until a moment of temporary hilarity when he does a funny impression of their dictator, Loving Leader . . . and gets caught! Now, Norbert's been arrested and banished to planet Zorquat 3 in the Orion Nebula, where kids who defy the rules roam free in the Astronuts camp. Norbert has been taught his whole life that different is wrong, but everyone at Astronuts is crazy, creative, and insane! Norbert wants nothing more than to go back to earth where things are awful but at least they're familiar. But he soon realizes that being different could be better -- and maybe the crazy farm is exactly where he belongs after all.

The Crossover meets War Horse in this novel about an urban kid's redemption through the grit of polo. Take a ride on this hero's journey amid city streets and an uncertain future. Troy is a kid with a passion. And dreams. And wanting to do the right thing. But after taking a wrong turn, he's forced to endure something that's worse than any juvenile detention he can imagine -- he's been "sentenced" to the local city stables where he's made to take care of the horses and learn to play polo. The greatest punishment has been trying to make sense of things after his mom died. Troy's also figuring out which friends have his back, which kids to cut loose, and whether he and Alisha have a true connection. Laced with humor and beating with heartache, this novel will grip readers, pull quickly, and take them in an unforgettable ride. Set in modern Philadelphia, Christine Kendall's stunning debut lets us come face-to-face with the challenges of a loving family that helps turn hardships into a horse of a different color.

Fahrenheit 451 meets The Giver in an award winning dystopian story about the dangers of censorship and how far we will go in the pursuit of freedom. What if you were only allowed to speak 500 words? The city of Ark is the last safe place on Earth: the polar ice caps have melted and flooded everything, leaving few survivors. To make sure humans do not make the same mistakes, Ark's leader John Noa decrees everyone in Ark must speak List, a language of only 500 words. Language is to blame for mankind's destruction, John Noa says, as politicians and governments hid the disastrous effects of global warming and environmental damage until it was too late. Everyone must speak List ... except Letta. As apprentice to the Wordsmith, Letta can read all the words that have ever existed. Forbidden words like freedom, music, and even pineapple tell her about a world she's never known. One day her master disappears. John Noa tells Letta she is the new Wordsmith, and must shorten List to fewer and fewer words. Then Letta meets a teenage boy who somehow knows all the words that have been banned. Letta's faced with a dangerous choice: sit idly by and watch language slowly slip away or follow a stranger on a path to freedom . . . or banishment. Letta chooses to fight for the very thing that keeps us human: language itself. The List: The perfect tool to discuss censorship and freedom of speech with young readers A gripping, fast-moving story that will appeal to 5th grade readers and above, especially 10 year old girls that will love the strong character of Letta A discussion starter on the importance of language and the power of expression, and what it means for society A 2018 Notable Children's Books Selection A 2018-19 Maine Student Book Award Winner A 2018 Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Book of the Year (Ages 12-14) A Junior Library Guild Selection

You Know You've Reached Middle Age If . . . is a requiem to retirement. For boomers celebrating their official entry into middleagedom or those just on the cusp, Joey Green and Alan Corcoran offer hundreds of humorous defining moments that even the youngest at heart can't dispute.

Is Everything You Know Wrong? Set the record straight! Debunk myths! Learn the truth behind fallacies, falsehoods, hearsay, and lies! Isn’t it time you knew the honest-to-goodness truth? We’ve all come to believe hundreds of “false facts”—myths that we’ve blindly accepted as truth, misconceptions that we’ve ignorantly retold to others—Contrary to Popular Belief provides an instant remedy for your pounding head full of misinformation, giving you quick relief with enlightening and entertaining facts. Inside you’ll learn: George Washington was not the first president of the United States. Leap year does not occur every four years. The ostrich does not bury its head in the sand. Thomas Edison did not invent the light bulb. Ship captains cannot perform marriages at sea. Sound does not travel at the speed of sound. The needle on a compass does not point to the North Pole. Leonardo da Vinci did not paint the Mona Lisa. And more than two hundred other bits of conventional “wisdom” that are completely bunk.

From the guru of discovering extraordinary uses for brand-name products come brand-new ways to make cleaning, organizing, and decluttering quick, easy, and a lot more fun The public is endlessly fascinated by quirky and offbeat uses for their favorite products and, this time around, Joey Green tackles household chores with his pantry full of cleaning power. Green's easy and effortless tips and tricks show how to scrub, deodorize, shine, and remove stains with products already in the house. While Green's suggestions may sound implausible, they are, in fact, highly effective. Most products on the market today are a complex mix of lubricants, abrasives, and cleansers, giving these brand-name products plenty of power to clean, dissolve, and fix in the most unexpected ways. Joey Green's Cleaning Magic offers clever ways to make household items do double duty, like using a slice of Wonder Bread to clean up tiny shards of glass from a kitchen floor—just pat it flat against the floor and toss it away—and wiping away the gunk from the bottom of an iron with Purell. This practical, useful, funny, and entertaining volume includes thousands of incredibly simple ways to clean up every room (and dusty corner) in the house.

Eleven-year-old Delphine has it together. Even though her mother, Cecile, abandoned her and her younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, seven years ago. Even though her father and Big Ma will send them from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to stay with Cecile for the summer. And even though Delphine will have to take care of her sisters, as usual, and learn the truth about the missing pieces of the past. When the girls arrive in Oakland in the summer of 1968, Cecile wants nothing to do with them. She makes them eat Chinese takeout dinners, forbids them to enter her kitchen, and never explains the strange visitors with Afros and black berets who knock on her door. Rather than spend time with them, Cecile sends Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern to a summer camp sponsored by a revolutionary group, the Black Panthers, where the girls get a radical new education. Set during one of the most tumultuous years in recent American history, one crazy summer is the heartbreaking, funny tale of three girls in search of the mother who abandoned them—an unforgettable story told by a distinguished author of books for children and teens, Rita Williams-Garcia.