Showing results by narrator "Cassandra Morris" in All Categories

You've never met anyone exactly like 12-year-old Sarah Nelson. While most of her friends obsess over Harry Potter, she spends her time writing letters to Atticus Finch. She collects trouble words in her diary. Her best friend is a plant. And she's never known her mother, who left when Sarah was two. Since then, Sarah and her dad have moved from one small Texas town to another, and not one has felt like home. Everything changes when Sarah launches an investigation into her family's Big Secret.

Young Tessa is a diminutive girl, far too small for farm work and the object of ridicule by both her own family and the other children in their isolated Midwestern community. Her father seems to believe in nothing beyond his crops, certainly not education for his misfit daughter. When a mysterious, entrancing librarian comes to town, full of fabulous stories, earthy wisdom and potions for the lovelorn, she takes Tessa under her wing, teaching her to read and to believe in herself and a whole new magical world of possibilities opens up.

Why has their grandmother bothered keeping a menu from a restaurant that closed years ago, a restaurant that never served very good food in the first place? Three cousins listen to Gee's own story, set in the early days of lunch counter sit-ins in Nashville, a time when a black child could sit up front in a city bus but still could not get a milk shake at a downtown restaurant.

Turning thirteen starts off with a bang for Lily. Literally. A birthday present explodes on her porch... and soon after a trio of leprechauns (yes, leprechauns) appears in her bedroom. They whisk her away to a land of clover, pixies, a new friend, a cute boy, and lots of glimmering, glittering gold. A world of Green. It turns out that Lily, like her grandmother before her, is next in line to be keeper for the Clan of Green, and in charge of all their gold. That is, if she passes three tests. And she has to pass them. Because if she doesn’t she may never get to go home again.

A science-class field trip to the Everglades is supposed to be fun, but Sarah's new at Glades Academy, and her fellow freshmen aren't exactly making her feel welcome. When an opportunity for an unauthorized side trip on an airboat presents itself, it seems like a perfect escape - an afternoon without feeling like a sore thumb. But one simple oversight turns a joyride into a race for survival across the river of grass. Sarah will have to count on her instincts - and a guy she barely knows - if they have any hope of making it back alive.

Dawn Christian has been psychic since she was seven years old and has always considered herself an outcast. Even her own mother discourages her talent, so Dawn has kept her abilities quiet and feared a lifetime of loneliness. When she gets involved with a fortuneteller and two teenage girls who share her mysterious perception, Dawn finally belongs to a group. As her intuition strengthens, so does Dawn's self esteem. However, when she learns her new friends may be tied to two freak "accidents" in town, she has an important choice to make....

Making the transition from grade school to middle school can be a very scary experience, but girls don't have to navigate it alone! Here's a book by five savvy and extremely smart girls - written when they were in middle school for girls just like them. With straight-from-the-heart advice on everything from dealing with being popular (or not!) and staying true to yourself, to handling more responsibility at home and at school, this is a girl's ultimate guide to surviving and succeeding in middle school on her own terms.

What the Cahors witches thought was the end of their troubles was only the beginning. A threat more powerful and more frightening than anything they have faced has been watching and waiting. The Cahors witches must come together and find Jer and Eli as both the Devereux and the Cahors family lines face eradication. All the secrets of the Cahors will be revealed, forcing them to overcome their greatest weaknesses in order to achieve their most powerful strengths.

After Massie Block gets kicked off her high horse and out of her ultra exclusive Westchester riding camp, her parents force her to do the unthinkable-find a summer job. Not one for dog-walking or brat-sitting, Massie comes up with the ah-bvious solution: She'll be a sales rep for the cosmetics brand Be Pretty. Massie fully hearts her new role as fairy gawdmother of makeup-until she discovers transforming LBRs into glam-girls takes more than a swish of her royal purple mascara wand.

Libby Fawcett decides to start a secret blog so that she can have an outlet to vent her feelings and frustrations. When Seth Jacobs (her crush since eighth grade) witnesses her tragic (and comic) run-in with a Bunsen burner in chemistry class, or when she finds out that her mother is dating the father of her arch-nemesis, Angel Rodriguez, shes able to keep a level head. But when her entries get posted all over for the whole world to see, will Libby be able to walk the halls - or face Seth - ever again?

Girl Code: Never date a friend's ex. Willa Evans has no intention of breaking the code. So what if she's always secretly loved her next-door neighbor Zach? As her best friend's boyfriend, he was always off-limits and it needs to stay that way, even though they just broke up. Even though every time she turns around he's there, tempting her. Flor Hidalgo has a lot on her plate: her breakup with Zach, her dad's new dating life, and her struggling grades. So why can't she stop thinking about her hot, know-it-all tutor? At least she's got Willa, her constant in the chaos. 

Zoe named the kitten Pipsqueak, because she was so tiny, and promised to always take care of her. Then the kitten grew. And grew. Now she’s bigger than a horse - and talking as well! Fleeing into the woods to escape the curious eyes of the internet, Zoe and her best friend, Harrison, must keep the giant cat hidden as they desperately search for a way to return her to normal size. If they don’t succeed, Pipsqueak may never be safe again. But why did she grow so large in the first place? And what if trying to change her back leads to even greater danger?

Kit-with-a-small-k is navigating middle school with a really big, really strange secret: When she's stressed, she turns into a naked mole rat. It first happened after kit watched her best friend, Clem, fall and get hurt during an acrobatic performance on TV. Since then, the transformations keep happening - whether kit wants them to or not. Kit can't tell Clem about it, because after the fall, Clem just hasn't been herself. She's sad and mad and gloomy, and keeping a secret of her own: the real reason she fell.

The girls and the Gorafrex have a long list of amends to make all around Austin. How hard can it be? Harder than they realize. Things get dicey when the local magicals recognize the ethereal creature who’s been wreaking havoc for weeks. Can the Hadstrom sisters finally fix magic without making things worse?

Magic is still on the fritz. To put it right, the Hadstrom sisters take a winding tour across Austin to find the artifacts for their final spell. If everything goes according to plan, they can fix the city’s magic without any more damage. That’s a big if.... And if they get it wrong? They may never break the family curse and free the Gorafrex. It’s harder than it looks, but a Hadstrom sister doesn’t give up easily. They’re gonna have to make it work.

When Delphine, a young orphaned dressmaker mouse living in the walls of Cinderella's château, stumbles upon an enormous secret, it upends everything she thought she knew: The magical tailor mice of legend really existed. Racing to stay ahead of King Midnight, the fearsome leader of the rats who is bent on harnessing age-old magic, Delphine embarks on an epic quest to uncover the truth about the past. Joined by Alexander, the most pompous noblemouse in the royal court, she travels a perilous route, encountering strange enemies and unlikely allies along the way.

In starred reviews, Booklist has described Gerber's novels as "highly empathetic" and "truly inspiring" - Taking Up Space promises to be a realistic and compelling story about overcoming struggles with body image and learning that true self-esteem comes from within. 

N.H. Senzai and Shannon Hitchcock expertly craft the intersection of the lives of two girls - one, a Muslim fleeing civil war, the other, an American from the South - as they are forced to examine their beliefs and the true meaning of friendship in the midst of the president's 2017 Muslim ban.

It's been five years since Josie squared off against the evil Beryl and her killer haunted dolls. She hasn't talked about it since and likes to pretend it didn’t happen. Too bad she didn't tell her younger sister, Anna. Because Anna is now the one being drawn in to the evil - and the evil has some new tricks this time.

Twins Esmeralda and Atticus Fetch are the best pet finders in Thorns Hollow - a town where people have a lot of pets, and those pets often get lost. But when a lost dog leads them to an old, Victorian house on the edge of town, the twins find their world turned upside down. This creepy house contains a portal that leads to a whole other world - a world where mythical creatures like trolls, fairies, and dragons are real.