Young Readers Fiction

Missed the bus? Flubbed a test? Got overwhelmed in a crowd? When you’re feeling big feelings or having a bad day, it can be hard to calm your racing mind and stay present. The Marvelous Now gives kids the tools to see that this is the moment where you need to be!

In the groundbreaking tradition of his award-winning Monster and Bad Boy: A Memoir, Walter Dean Myers fashions a highly listenable, powerful novel about the rules for success for young men, especially those navigating coming of age while Black. Share this book in the classroom, in a father-son group, or as a summer listening (or anytime) choice that's likely to spark conversation and be a favorite.

Seven-year-old Lola Levine is fierce on and off the soccer field. She can do a slide tackle (although she's not supposed to) and even likes gooey worms. Nothing scares Lola! That is, until she's auditioning in front of EVERYONE for her class play. After Lola is overcome with stage fright, she's cast as Squirrel #2, a non-speaking part!

It's Halloween—Lola and Ben's favorite holiday. She loves pumpkins, scary costumes, monsters, and ghosts—and she likes to scare people, too. But when Lola plays a scary joke on her super best friends, Josh Blot and Bella Benitez, it doesn't go as planned.

On an island at the edge of a wide, wild sea, a girl and her grandmother gather gifts from the earth. Salmon from the stream, herring eggs from the ocean, and in the forest, a world of berries. Through the seasons, they sing to the land as the land sings to them. Brimming with joy and gratitude, in every step of their journey, they forge a deeper kinship with both the earth and the generations that came before, joining in the song that connects us all.

Today is the day the exuberant Lucy is going to make a new friend! But she finds it's harder than she had thought - she accidentally ruins the giraffe's breakfast and is much too big for the frogs' pond. Just when she's about to give up, an unexpected friend finds her and loves her just the way she is.

Reading Makes You Feel Good will inspire and encourage young children to delight in the joyful, rewarding experience of reading. Kids will learn that reading isn't something that just happens at school or at home - it can happen anywhere! Todd shows us all the fun ways we can read - from in the library and in bed to in the bathtub and on the road. Targeted to those first beginning to read, this audiobook invites children to listen to the main text as well as all the funny signs, labels, and hidden messages.

Before Garrett Morgan became a successful inventor and saved countless lives with his creations, he was a little boy with a head full of ideas on how to make life better for everyone. At a tumultuous time filled with racism and discrimination, Garrett became a prominent business man and skilled inventor who produced the traffic signal, a gas mask, and others objects still used today.

Before she traveled the country speaking out against discrimination, Bessie was a little girl with a big imagination that took her to the sky, through the clouds, and past the birds. Knocking down barriers one by one, Bessie endured racism and grueling training to become the first Black female pilot and an inspiration to Mae Jemison, Josephine Baker, and many more influential people of color for years to come.

Emma has been lonely all her life growing up in a neighborhood with no other kids—until the day two sets of sisters move to her street! The girls immediately form a club, only to discover that something mysterious is going on. They’ve each always had special talents, but when they work together, it's almost like their skills become...superpowers. Now the sisterhood is ready to help their neighborhood thrive, as long as they can keep the spooky Ms. Wigglestoot from discovering their secret. Or maybe there’s a way these super sisters can help their archnemesis, too.

Once upon a time—gloooooooorp! Ew, gross! Who slimed Goldilocks? Was it the Three Bears, exacting revenge? Not a chance! They're next on the list of fairy-tale sliming victims! Red Riding Hood, the Wolf, Rapunzel, the Three Pigs...they're all under attack. Who could be the mastermind behind this icky, sticky plan? Young detectives can look for clues and solve the mystery in this picture book whodunnit that's positively oozing with wit and charm, perfect for fans of Patrick McDonnell's A Perfectly Messed-Up Story.

Stories from the old neighborhood, from when we were children back in the '60s. These were our growing-up years. Childhood was simple; all we had to do was follow a few rules and keep out of trouble...well okay, that may have been asking too much.

Looking for a calming and delightful bedtime story for kids to get the little ones to sleep? Worries about monsters in the dark? Squabbles at bedtime? Freya and Pixie’s bedtime stories are ideal, especially if you have young children who are siblings, munchkins who are afraid of the dark or struggling with any lingering worries about monsters under the bed.

As a young girl cautiously approaches a castle full of soaring, roaring dragons, she worries about their wildness and their terribly sharp teeth. And indeed, the dragons are hungry and noisy, and they seem to be hovering closer and closer...until the girl notices that some of the beasts are wearing mismatched socks. And some are playing tambourines. And some prefer to color quietly in the corner. Could there be more to these dragons than the girl first realized?

In this heartfelt and universal story, a mother and daughter look forward to their special Saturday routine together every single week. But this Saturday, one thing after another goes wrong - ruining story time, salon time, picnic time, and the puppet show they'd been looking forward to going to all week. Mom is nearing a meltdown...until her loving daughter reminds her that being together is the most important thing of all.

Anyone who's ever been underestimated or overshadowed will find inspiration in this empowering new book from Meena Harris, New York Times best-selling author of Kamala and Maya's Big Idea, which is based on a true story about her aunt, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, and her mother, Maya Harris.

The troublemaking students of Ms. Jenkins' class arrive at school one day to discover a substitute creacher has come to put a stop to their monkey business! He regales them with mind-boggling stories about his former students who didn't follow the rules: Keith the glue-eater, Zach the daydreamer, and Hank the prankster, to name a few. But even this multi-tentacled, yellow-spotted, one-eyed monster's cautionary tales about the consequences of mischief-making can't seem to change the students' wicked ways until he reveals the spookiest and most surprising story of all: his own.

A collection of short stories for younger listeners, brought to life by Nicki White and Matt Stewart.