Gae Polisner

JB Barnes is looking forward to spending the summer hanging out on the beach. But his mother, a scientist, asks him to join her aboard a research ship where he'll spend his summer seasick and bored, staring out at the endless plastic, microbeads, and other floating debris that make up the Great Pacific Garbage Pile. Miles away, twelve-year-old Sidney is trying to come up with an activity worthy of convincing her overprotective parents that she can skip camp. When Jeremy is asked to find the contact info for a list of important scientists and invite them to attend a last-minute Emergency Global Summit, he's excited to have a chance to do something. But how could he know that the Sidney Miller he emailed was not the famous marine biologist, but a girl posting blogs from her bedroom—let alone that she would come aboard the ship? This is a comedy of errors, mistaken identity, and synchronicity. Above all, it is a heartfelt story about friendship and the power of kids to step up and save our oceans and our Earth, perfect for fans of Lynne Kelly's Song for a Whale.

" A] gripping, emotional story set in the part of history we'll never forget." - New York Daily News On the morning of September 11, 2001, sixteen-year-old Kyle Donohue watches the first twin tower come down from the window of Stuyvesant High School. Moments later, terrified and fleeing home to safety across the Brooklyn Bridge, he stumbles across a girl perched in the shadows, covered in ash, and wearing a pair of costume wings. With his mother and sister in California and unable to reach his father, a NYC detective likely on his way to the disaster, Kyle makes the split-second decision to bring the girl home. What follows is their story, told in alternating points of view, as Kyle tries to unravel the mystery of the girl so he can return her to her family. But what if the girl has forgotten everything, even her own name? And what if the more Kyle gets to know her, the less he wants her to go home? Gae Polisner's The Memory of Things tells a stunning story of friendship and first love and of carrying on with our day-to-day living in the midst of world-changing tragedy and unforgettable pain--it tells a story of hope.

While Nick Gardner's family is falling apart, his best friend, Scooter, is dying from a freak disease. The Scoot's final wish is that Nick and their quirky classmate, Jaycee Amato, deliver a prized first-edition copy of Of Mice and Men to the Scoot's father. There's just one problem: the Scoot's father walked out years ago and hasn't been heard from since. So, guided by Steinbeck's life lessons, and with only the vaguest of plans, Nick and Jaycee set off to find him. Characters you'll want to become friends with and a narrative voice that sparkles with wit make Gae Polisner's The Pull of Gravity a truly original coming-of-age story.