Shawn K. Stout

A heartwarming middle grade novel about figuring out who you are when it seems like everyone else has already decided for you, for fans of Erin Entrada Kelly and Gary D. Schmidt. Nigel Binty has spent sixth grade trying to stick to a plan. His problem is the plan keeps changing in unexpected ways. His only friend has dropped him. His dad moved out two months ago. His anxiety isn't getting any better. None of that is part of the plan. When Glory Bea Medford (yes, that's her real name) turns up at school in March, she plans to keep the reason for her mid-year transfer a secret. Glory Bea prizes being truthful but having everyone find out her father embezzled money from his church was bad enough the first time around. She doesn't plan to go through that again. Told in two perspectives, with Glory Bea's chapters presented as unmailed letters to her incarcerated father, Shawn K. Stout uses warmth and humor to explore what happens when two sixth graders overwhelmed by major life changes cross paths.

A laugh-through-your-tears middle grade novel about what it's like to lose something precious. For fans of the Three Rancheros series by Kate DiCamillo. A necklace. A bugle. A lion statue. What do they have to do with each other? Absolutely nothing unless you're Tildy, Leon, or Nell. These items matter an awful lot to them. Not because of what they are, but what--and who--they represent. Anatomy of Lost Things shares the crisscrossing stories of Tildy, Leon, and Nell, of the impossible losses they've each recently faced, and the unexpected histories of their prized objects. Written with heartbreaking honesty and humor, this novel unfolds in the tender space that exists between staggering loss and the start of recovery, and it finds plenty of hope and laughter waiting there.

Do you believe in impossible things? Cutie Grackle does. She has to. Otherwise, she'll never be more than a lonely 10 year old in a cursed family. Cutie Grackle is used to being different--she lives alone on a mountain with her feeble-minded uncle, and when she's not sucking pebbles to trick her stomach into feeling full, she's chatting with a weathered garden gnome for company. But having a flock of ravens follow you is more than just different. Cutie worries the birds are connected to the curse Uncle Horace tends to mutter about. And she's right. The ravens present her with a fortune from a cookie, and when she touches it she's pulled into a vision from her family's past. It involves the curse and her long-lost mother. The birds offer up a series of objects, each imbued with memories that eventually reveal Cutie must do what her mother could not: break the curse. Part outdoor survival adventure, part fantastical quest, Shawn K. Stout's The Impossible Destiny of Cutie Grackle is a journey of hope, heart, and a willingness to believe in the impossible.

Do you believe in impossible things? Cutie Grackle does. She has to. Otherwise, she'll never be more than a lonely 10 year old in a cursed family. Cutie Grackle is used to being different--she lives alone on a mountain with her feeble-minded uncle, and when she's not sucking pebbles to trick her stomach into feeling full, she's chatting with a weathered garden gnome for company. But having a flock of ravens follow you is more than just different. Cutie worries the birds are connected to the curse Uncle Horace tends to mutter about. And she's right. The ravens present her with a fortune from a cookie, and when she touches it she's pulled into a vision from her family's past. It involves the curse and her long-lost mother. The birds offer up a series of objects, each imbued with memories that eventually reveal Cutie must do what her mother could not: break the curse. Part outdoor survival adventure, part fantastical quest, Shawn K. Stout's The Impossible Destiny of Cutie Grackle is a journey of hope, heart, and a willingness to believe in the impossible.

Penelope Crumb is not having a very good week. First she accidentally comes to school dressed as an elephant. Next, in gym class she's made to dance with a boy who is known as Lippy Gordon because of how sweaty his lip is. Penelope is mortified. And she's extra mortified when she discovers that Lippy doesn't want to dance with her either! When Grandpa tells Penelope that he sings to the moon when he's having trouble, Penelope grabs onto this plan. But sometimes you need more than the moon to fix things...

Fiona lands herself in a fairground fluster in this conclusion to the mischievous and charming Not-So-Ordinary Girl trilogy. Fiona is tired of hearing "no" from everyone. Especially when it is followed by: "You're not old enough." Can she go all the way to California by herself to visit her mom? "Not on your life," says Dad. Can she do something more exciting than handing out maps at the Great Ordinary Fair along with the rest of Mr. Bland's class? "Not until next year, when you're in fifth grade," answers Mr. Bland. Fiona sets out to prove that she is, in fact, old enough to do things on her own--and ends up babysitting chickens in the fair's poultry pavilion. It's not easy being trustworthy and mature, especially when nobody is paying attention. But when the feathers start to fly at the Great Ordinary Fair, Fiona sticks her neck out for a new friend (and a bunch of chickens) and learns a few things about herself and what it means to take responsibility, even when things go really wrong.

Fiona Finkelstein was born to be a ballerina--if she can get over her stage fright, that is. The first in the feisty and endearing Not-So-Ordinary Girl trilogy. More than catching fireflies, more than eating triple-hot fudge sundaes, and even more than waking up on the first day of summer vacation, Fiona Finkelstein wants to become a ballerina. There's just one problem: In her last recital, she starred as the unforgettable Fiona VOMITstein--her "performance" went all over the stage, and all over Benevolence Castles's cancan costume. Can Fiona overcome her fears and blossom as a big-time ballerina in The Nutcracker, even in a snowstorm? Or will she be the only person in her family to have the flat-out worst case of stage fright ever? Originally published as Fiona Finkelstein, Big-Time Ballerina .