Scholastic Book Fairs Podcast

Welcome, boys and girls, readers of all ages, to the first-ever Library Olympiad! Kyle and his teammates are back, and the world-famous game maker, Luigi Lemoncello, is at it again! This time Mr. Lemoncello has invited teams from all across America to compete in the first ever Library Olympics. But something suspicious is going on: books are missing from Mr. Lemoncello’s library. Is someone trying to censor what the kids are reading?! In between figuring out mind-boggling challenges, the kids will have to band together to get to the bottom of this mystery!

In this comforting read-aloud, all the animals find cozy places to keep them safe and warm, no matter how loud the storm rumbles or how dark the night gets. Next to their mothers, the baby animals are able to let go of their fears and fall asleep despite the storm in this fun and imaginative good-night story.

What do you do with your last day on earth? There are 27 hours and 15 minutes left until an asteroid strikes North America, and for Emerson and everyone else who didn't leave, the world will end. But Emerson's world already ended when she ran away from home last year. Since then she has lived on the streets, relying on her wits and her friend Vince to help her find places to sleep and food to eat. The city's quieter now that most people are gone, and no one seems to know what to do as the end approaches. But then Emerson and Vince meet Carl, who tells them that he has been granting people's wishes. He gave his car away so a woman could take her son to see the ocean for the first time, and he gives Emerson and Vince all the money he has in his wallet. Suddenly this last day seems full of possibility. Emerson and Vince can grant a lot of wishes in 27 hours, maybe even their own.

Amsterdam, 1943. Hanneke spends her days procuring and delivering sought-after black market goods to paying customers, her nights hiding the true nature of her work from her concerned parents, and every waking moment mourning her boyfriend, who was killed on the Dutch front lines when the Germans invaded. She likes to think of her illegal work as a small act of rebellion. On a routine delivery, a client asks Hanneke for help. Expecting to hear that Mrs. Janssen wants meat or kerosene, Hanneke is shocked by the older woman's frantic plea to find a person; a Jewish teenager Mrs. Janssen had been hiding, who vanished without a trace from a secret room. Hanneke initially wants nothing to do with such dangerous work, but is ultimately drawn into a web of mysteries and stunning revelations that lead her into the heart of the resistance, open her eyes to the horrors of the Nazi war machine, and compel her to take desperate action.

Lizzie Bennett is on scholarship at the wealthy, girls-only Longbourn Academy. She isn't exactly interested in going to the prom with anyone from the equally snobby guys-only Pemberton School, but her best friend Jane is excited. Readers will enjoy finding out what happens in this prom-season delight of Jane Austen proportions.

Nothing exciting happens on the Hill of Dust in the remote mountains of Mexico in the 1950s. There's no electricity, no plumbing, no cars - just day after day of pasturing goats. And now, without his sister and mother, eleven-year-old Teo's life feels even more barren. Then one day, the mysterious young Esma, who calls herself the Gypsy Queen of Lightning, rolls into town like a fresh burst of color. Against all odds, her caravan's Mistress of Destiny predicts that Teo and Esma will be longtime friends. Suddenly, life brims with possibility. With the help of a rescued duck, a three-legged skunk, a blind goat, and other unexpected allies, Teo and Esma must overcome obstacles - even death - to fulfill their impossible destiny. Inspired by true stories derived from rural Mexico, THE LIGHTNING QUEEN offers a glimpse of the encounter between two fascinating but marginalized cultures, the Romany and the Mixtec Indians, while telling the heart-warming story of an unlikely friendship that spans decades.

Barnacle is stuck on the underside of a pier, wishing he had something to do. Every day is exactly the same. The tide comes in and Barnacle gets wet. The tide goes out and Barnacle dries off. Boring! Barnacle wants something EXCITING to happen. Then a colorful fish swims by. Barnacle bets the fish doesn't have a boring life. In the end, it turns out exciting isn't always better! This picture book is an irreverent and playful answer to any child's declaration of boredom!

Corinne La Mer isn’t afraid of anything. Not scorpions, not the boys who tease her, and certainly not jumbies. She knows that jumbies aren’t real. They’re just creatures parents make up to frighten their children. But on All Hallows’ Eve, Corinne chases an agouti all the way into the forbidden woods. Those shining yellow eyes that follow her to the edge of the trees, they couldn’t belong to a jumbie. Or could they? Corinne begins to notice odd occurrences after that night. First she spots a beautiful stranger speaking to the town witch at the market. Then this same beauty, called Severine, turns up at Corinne’s house, cooking dinner for her father. Danger is in the air. Sure enough, bewitching Corinne’s father is the first step in Severine’s plan to claim the entire island for the jumbies. Corinne must call on her courage, her friends and ancient magic to stop Severine and to save her island home.

For fans of Raina Telgemeier’s SMILE, a heartwarming graphic novel about friendship and surviving junior high through the power of roller derby. For most of her twelve years, Astrid has done everything with her best friend Nicole. But after Astrid falls in love with roller derby and signs up for derby camp, Nicole decides to go to dance camp instead. And so begins the most difficult summer of Astrid's life as she struggles to keep up with the older girls at camp, hang on to the friend she feels slipping away, and cautiously embark on a new friendship. As the end of summer nears and her first roller derby bout (and junior high!) draws closer, Astrid realizes that maybe she is strong enough to handle the bout, a lost friendship, and middle school… in short, strong enough to be a roller girl. In her graphic novel debut, real-life derby girl Victoria Jamieson has created an inspiring coming-of-age story about friendship, perseverence, and girl power!

Inspired by Victor Hugo's classic, Les Miserables, A Little in Love beautifully conveys the heartbreaking story of street girl Eponine. Paris, 1832. A girl lies alone in the darkness, clutching a letter to her heart. Eponine remembers being a child: her swing and the peach tree, and the baby brother she loved. But mostly she remembers being miserable. Taught to lie and cheat, and to hate the one girl, Cosette, who might have been her friend. Now, at sixteen, the two girls meet again, and Eponine has one more chance. But what is the price of friendship--the love of a boy?

The frog does not want to sit on a log. Doing his best to find an alternative place to sit, the frog asks the cat a litany of questions. For every answer the cat has, the frog has another question - until the frog finds out what dogs sit on! Peppered with catchy rhymes, this delightful story shows young readers that every animal has a special place to sit. With rhymes that are reminiscent of Dr. Seuss's beginner books, FROG ON A LOG? is a fun, educational read-aloud story that helps teach phonics!

A companion piece to the JOURNEY TO STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS character novels, this book is an anthology that focuses on the lives of Rey, Finn, and Poe before the events of the new movie.

Allie Velasco wants to be a trailblazer. A trendsetter. A winner. No better feeling exists in the world than stepping to the top of a winner’s podium and hoisting a trophy high in the air. At least, that’s what Allie thinks. She’s never actually won anything before. Everyone in her family is special in some way. Her younger sister is a rising TV star; her brother is a soccer prodigy; her great-grandfather is a Congressional Medal of Honor winner. With a family like this, Allie knows she has to make her mark or risk being left behind. She’s determined to add a shiny medal, blue ribbon, or beautiful trophy to her family’s award shelf. When a prestigious school contest is announced, Allie has the perfect opportunity to take first, at last. There’s just one small snag: her biggest competition is her ex-best friend, Sara. Can Allie take top prize and win back a friend, or is she destined to lose it all?

When Tuesday McGillycuddy and her beloved dog, Baxterr, discover that Tuesday's mother - the famous author Serendipity Smith - has gone missing, they set out on a magical adventure. In their quest to find Serendipity, they discover the mysterious and unpredictable place that stories come from. Here, Tuesday befriends the fearless Vivienne Small, learns to sail an enchanted boat, tangles with an evil pirate, and discovers the truth about her remarkable dog. Along the way, she learns what it means to be a writer and how difficult it can sometimes be to get all the way to The End.

The year is 1948, and the place is Brooklyn, NY. Stephen Satlow, a local Jewish boy, is an avid Brooklyn Dodgers' fan but a mediocre athlete, at best. When Jackie Robinson moves into his predominantly Jewish neighborhood and befriends Steve, his status changes instantly. Their bond deepens when Jackie commits a well-intentioned blunder - he mistakenly gives Steve's family a Christmas tree. As the tension clears, acceptance of Jackie's gift of the tree becomes symbolic of two families from different religious and cultural backgrounds finding common ground. The friendship between the two families grows over the next few decades, when enormous social changes sweep the nation. Based on a true story.

Explore everything awesome about sharks in a fun, accessible, and laugh-out-loud format! Find out which shark has the biggest teeth and which shark is the biggest of them all. Learn about sharks' super-sharp senses and how their bodies make them the perfect hunters. Can you see as well as a shark can? Probably not - the blue shark has a special layer in its eye for seeing in the dark ocean! Bursting with attention-grabbing facts, fun, and stickers, this Scholastic Level 2 Reader will keep every child turning pages.

When an educational safari goes wrong, five teens find themselves stranded in the Kalahari Desert without a guide. It’s up to Sarah, the daughter of zoologists, to keep them alive and lead them to safety, calling on survival know-how from years of growing up in remote and exotic locales. Battling dehydration, starvation and the pangs of first love, she does her best to hold it together, even as their circumstances grow increasingly desperate. But soon a terrifying encounter makes Sarah question everything she’s ever known about the natural world. A silver lion, as though made of mercury, makes a vicious, unprovoked attack on the group. After a narrow escape, they uncover the chilling truth behind the lion’s silver sheen: a highly contagious and deadly virus that threatens to ravage the entire area - and eliminate life as they know it. Sarah and the others must not only outrun the virus, but its creators, who will stop at nothing to wipe every trace of it.

On May 22, 2010, at the age of thirteen, American teenager Jordan Romero became the youngest person to climb to the summit of Mount Everest. At fifteen, he became the youngest person to reach the summits of the tallest mountains on each of the seven continents. In this energizing memoir for young adults, Jordan recounts his experiences, which started as a spark of an idea at the age of nine and, many years of training and hard work later, turned into a dream come true.

Mara James has always been a perfectionist with a plan. But despite years of overachieving at her elite school, Mara didn't plan on having a total meltdown during her calculus exam. Like a rip-up-the-test-and-get-escorted-out kind of meltdown. And she definitely didn't plan on never wanting to show her face again. Mara knows she should go back, only she can't bring herself to do it. Because suddenly she doesn't know why she's been overachieving all these years. So Mara tells her mom she wants to go live with her estranged dad in Tahoe. Maybe in a place like Tahoe, where people go to get away from everyday life, and with a dad like Trick McHale, a ski bum avoiding real life, Mara can figure things out.

When Truly is invited to sit at the Popular Table with the group she has dreamed of joining, she can hardly believe her luck. Everyone seems so nice, so kind to one another. But all is not as it seems with her new friends, and soon she's caught in a maelstrom of lies, misunderstandings, accusations and counter-accusations, all happening very publicly in the relentless, hyperconnected social media world from which there is no escape. Six eighth-graders, four girls and two boys, struggle to understand and process their fractured glimples into one another's lives as they find new ways to disconnect, but also to connect, in Rachel Vail's richest and most searching book.