Scholastic Book Fairs Podcast

With only an estimated 1,600 remaining in the wild and just 300 in captivity, giant pandas are one of the world's most endangered species. A panda cub at the Wolong Conservancy is the first captive giant panda to be raised in a natural setting with no sight of humans. When he is two, he will take his first steps into the wild and will hopefully be the first captive panda to survive being released. This is why no chances are being taken with him. The conservancy's staff goes to extreme lengths to ensure his survival, like dressing up in panda costumes whenever they need to feed or care for him. Children will love reading about the humorous adventures of the young cub and his caretakers while also learning the importance of conservation. A Scholastic Level 3 Reader.

Primrose Squarp is back! The wise and curious heroine of the Newbery Honor Book EVERYTHING ON A WAFFLE is facing another adventure-filled year in Coal Harbor. Even though her parents, once lost at sea, are home, there are a whole slew of problems and mysteries to keep Primrose busy. There's Uncle Jack and Kate Bowzer, who may (or may not) be in love. There's Ked, a foster child who becomes Primrose's friend. And there's the new development on the outskirts of town that threatens the Coal Harbor Primrose knows and treasures.

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 send them from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to stay with Cecile for the summer. And even though Delphine has 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.

Nick is the shortest seventh-grader in the history of the world (he’s pretty sure), doesn’t fit in with any groups or clubs (who needs ’em?), and spends more time inside than outside his locker (they’re roomier than you’d think). Things only get worse when a well-intentioned guidance counselor forces Nick to join the school’s lamest club—along with fellow misfits Molly and Karl—in her quest to cure all three of their “peer allergies.” What starts off as a reluctant band of hopeless oddballs morphs into an effective and empowered team ready to face whatever middle school throws at them, including bullies, awkward romance, zany adults, and a brave new world of surprising friendships.

Fully re-illustrated for its anniversary, this classic is funnier and more kid-appealing than ever. In celebration of twenty-five gleeful years in print, Tedd Arnold has created all-new artwork in the zany style he is now known and loved for - the style of his bestselling character, Fly Guy.

At the end of World War II, Jack Baker, a landlocked Kansas boy, is suddenly uprooted after his mother's death and placed in a boy's boarding school in Maine. There, Jack encounters Early Auden, the strangest of boys, who reads the number pi as a story and collects clippings about the sightings of a great black bear in the nearby mountains. Newcomer Jack feels lost yet can't help being drawn to Early, who won't believe what everyone accepts to be the truth about the Great Appalachian Bear, Timber Rattlesnakes, and the legendary school hero known as The Fish, who never returned from the war. When the boys find themselves unexpectedly alone at school, they embark on a quest on the Appalachian Trail in search of the great black bear. But what they are searching for is sometimes different from what they find. They will meet truly strange characters, each of whom figures into the pi story Early weaves as they travel, while discovering things they never realized about themselves and others in their lives.

Shalini is new to L.A. Not new like from New York City new—or even Kansas new. New like from India new. And in the US, she has it all wrong: the way she dresses, the way she talks, the way she wears her hair. And then there is the ring, which makes her way different from everyone else—because Shalini has been engaged since she was three to Vikram, back in India. Shalini’s life has been turned upside down. She doesn’t fit in, her mom is depressed, and email is no substitute for being with Vikram. But when she meets Toby at school, Shalini’s heart gets turned upside down, too. Just looking at Toby makes her stomach flutter. She thinks she loves Vikram, but he never made her feel like this. In LOVETORN, Shalini discovers that her heart must ultimately make its own choices, even when it seems as if her destiny has already been chosen.

M Freeman has been homeschooled her entire life so she has no idea just how unusual her education has been - not until she leaves home to attend the prestigious (and mysterious) Lawless School. Suddenly, it's very clear to M that her tutors have been preparing her all along for a life of crime. She excels at escape tactics. She's a whiz at spotting forgeries. Her years of piano lessons pay off when picking pockets and cracking safes. M's newfound talent for criminal mischief soon brings her to the attention of the Masters, the secretive school's most secretive clique. M's interest in the Masters is personal; joining this international dishonor society is her best chance to learn the truth about her father's life - and his death. But when her first real-world heist goes wrong, M is left wondering: Is there truly honor among thieves? This debut novel is full of twists and turns, reveals and reversals. Spoiling the ending for your friends would be criminal!

What does it mean when the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence is your father and also your slave owner? Beverly, Harriet, Madison, and Eston are Thomas Jefferson's children by one of his slaves, Sally Hemings. While they do get special treatment, better work, better shoes, even violin lessons, they are still slaves, and are never to mention who their father is. The lighter-skinned children have been promised a chance to escape into white society, but what does this mean for the children who look more like their mother? As each child grows up, their questions about slavery and freedom become tougher, calling into question the real meaning of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

When Andy Greenwood is sent to the Reclamation School for Boys, he expects the lousy food, mean drill sergeant instructors, and brutal bullies. What he doesn't expect is an infestation of weirdly large and aggressive ants, or the itching welts all over the staff and students. Even odder, Andy learns that kids never leave the school when they're supposed to. They just seem to get stuck there indefinitely. Following a ground-splitting earthquake, however, things quickly go from bad to horrifying. The school is overrun by monstrous bugs, and Andy himself comes face to face with mutant ants the size of humans, equipped with pinchers that can cut steel. Trapped in a cinderblock institutional building in the New Mexico desert, miles from civilization, Andy must figure out a way to save himself and the surviving boys from this nightmare. A contemporary take on the classic creature-feature genre, INFESTATION is a thrilling, fast-paced story that will leave your skin crawling.

Hiding is Roo Fanshaw's special skill. Living in a frighteningly unstable family, she often needs to disappear at a moment's notice. When her parents are murdered, it's her special hiding place under the trailer that saves her life. As it turns out, Roo, much to her surprise, has a wealthy if eccentric uncle, who has agreed to take her into his home on Cough Rock Island. Once a tuberculosis sanitarium for children of the rich, the strange house is teeming with ghost stories and secrets. Roo doesn't believe in ghosts or fairy stories, but what are those eerie noises she keeps hearing? And who is that strange wild boy who lives on the river? People are lying to her, and Roo becomes determined to find the truth. Despite the best efforts of her uncle's assistants, Roo discovers the house's hidden room:a garden with a tragic secret.

Brimming with humor, this sparkling new book handles a timeless children's topic with wit and wisdom. Romp and stomp! Roar and slam! Almost everyone gets angry. But how can young dinosaurs also learn to calm down, take a time out, and behave? The award-winning team of Jane Yolen and Mark Teague have created a fun, engaging book sure to help children handle anger and frustration.

Where is Early's father? He's not the kind of father who would disappear. But he's gone and he's left a whole lot of trouble behind. As danger closes in, Early, her mom, and her brother have to flee their apartment. With nowhere else to go, they are forced to move into a city shelter. Once there, Early starts asking questions and looking for answers. Because her father hasn't disappeared without a trace. There are patterns and rhythms to what's happened, and Early might be the only one who can use them to track him down and make her way out of a very tough place.

Something sinister lurks in the woods outside of Slade. Gabe has seen it, or he thinks he has, a shadow standing at the tree line, watching Gabe's house with faintly glowing eyes. Despite Gabe's misgivings, his new friend Seth relishes the creepy atmosphere of the forest. It's the perfect setting for his imaginary struggle against the Hunter, a deformed child-eating creature said to leave the bones of his victims in his wake. It's just a game, but it's all a bit much for Gabe, who quickly loses interest as summer ends and the days grow shorter. But then strange things start to happen, frightening things. And Gabe knows it has to do with the dark figure watching him from the edge of the woods. Is Seth out to teach Gabe a lesson? Or is the Hunter more than just a myth? Gabe isn't sure which option is more horrifying, but he's determined to learn the truth before someone gets hurt, or worse!

After leaving Uncle Chester's homestead claim, orphan Hattie Brooks throws a lasso around a new dream that's even bigger than the Montana sky. She wants to be a reporter. Real reporters must go to Grand Places and do Grand Things, like Hattie's hero Nellie Bly. Another girl might be stymied by this, but Hattie has faced down a hungry wolf and stood up to a mob of angry men. Nothing can squash her desire to write for a big city newspaper. A letter and love token from Uncle Chester's old flame in San Francisco fuels that desire and Hattie jumps at the opportunity to get there by working as a seamstress for a traveling acting troupe. This could be her chance to solve the mystery of her "scoundrel" uncle and, in the process, help her learn more about herself. But Hattie must first tell Charlie that she will not join him in Seattle. Even though her heart approves of Charlie's plan for their marriage, her mind fears that saying yes to him would be saying no to herself. Can making headlines compensate for the pain o

Elizabeth has just started working as a page at the New York Circulating Material Repository - a lending library of objects, contemporary and historical, common and obscure. And secret, too - for in the repository's basement lies the Grimm Collection, a room of magical items straight from the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. But the magic mirrors and seven-league boots and other items are starting to disappear. And before she knows it, Elizabeth and her fellow pages - handsome Marc, perfect Anjali, and brooding Aaron - are suddenly caught up in an exciting, and dangerous, magical adventure.

It begins, as the best superhero stories do, with a tragic accident that has unexpected consequences. The squirrel never saw the vacuum cleaner coming, but self-described cynic Flora Belle Buckman, who has read every issue of the comic book Terrible Things Can Happen to You!, is just the right person to step in and save him. What neither can predict is that Ulysses (the squirrel) has been born anew, with powers of strength, flight, and misspelled poetry, and that Flora will be changed too as she discovers the possibility of hope and the promise of a capacious heart.

Jade Moon is a Fire Horse -- the worst sign in the Chinese zodiac for girls, said to make them stubborn, willful, and far too imaginative. But while her family despairs of marrying her off, she has a passionate heart and powerful dreams, and wants only to find a way to make them come true. Then a young man named Sterling Promise comes to their village to offer Jade Moon and her father a chance to go to America. While Sterling Promise's smooth manners couldn't be more different from her own impulsive nature, Jade Moon falls in love with him on the long voyage. But America in 1923 doesn't want to admit many Chinese, and when they are detained at Angel Island, the "Ellis Island of the West," she discovers a betrayal that destroys all her dreams. To get into America, much less survive there, Jade Moon will have to use all her stubbornness and will to break a new path . . . one as brave and dangerous as only a Fire Horse girl can imagine.

Elise has loved her life with Aunt Bessie and Uncle Hugh so far, and she’s always been best friends with her neighbor, Franklin. But when Elise starts middle school, suddenly everything goes wrong: more family moves into their house, things with Franklin seem off, she can’t keep up in school, and her locker partner is a nightmare. That’s when Elise discovers a secret, one that has been waiting for her since she was a little girl. She’s never given much thought to the eight locked rooms above her uncle’s workshop in the barn; that is, not until she finds a key with her name on it.

Pacy is back! The beloved heroine of THE YEAR OF THE DOG and THE YEAR OF THE RAT has returned in a brand new story. This summer, Pacy's family is going to Taiwan for an entire month to visit family and prepare for their grandmother's 60th birthday celebration. Pacy's parents have signed her up for a Chinese painting class, and at first she's excited. This is a new way to explore her art talent! But everything about the trip is harder than she thought it would be: she looks like everyone else but can't speak the language, she has trouble following the art teacher's instructions, and it's difficult to make friends in her class. At least the dumplings are delicious!