Deborah Hopkinson

A thrilling account of the most daring American P.O.W. rescue mission of World War II.
Scholastic Focus is the premier home of thoroughly researched, beautifully written, and thoughtfully designed works of narrative nonfiction aimed at middle-grade and young adult readers. These books help readers learn about the world in which they live and develop their critical thinking skills so that they may become dynamic citizens who are able to analyze and understand our past, participate in essential discussions about our present, and work to grow and build our future.

Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, America entered World War II, and a new theater of battle opened up in the Pacific. But US troops, along with thousands of Filipino soldiers who fought alongside them, were overtaken in the Philippines by a fiercely determined Japanese navy, and many Americans and Filipino fighters were killed or captured.

These American and Filipino prisoners of war were forced to endure the most horrific conditions on the deadly trek known as the Bataan Death March. Then, the American servicemen who were held captive by the Japanese military in Cabanatuan Camp and others in the Philippines, faced beatings, starvation, and tropical diseases, and lived constantly under the threat of death.

Unable to forget their comrades’ fate and concerned that these POWs would be brutally murdered as the tides of war shifted in the Pacific, the US Army Rangers undertook one of the most daring and dangerous rescue missions of all time. Aided by the “Angels of the Underground,” the Sixth Ranger Battalion and courageous Filipino guerrilla soldiers set out on an uncertain and treacherous assignment. Often called the Great Raid, this remarkable story remains largely forgotten.

Sibert Honor author Deborah Hopkinson presents an extraordinary and unflinching look at the heroic servicemen and women who courageously weathered the worst of circumstances and conditions in service to their country, as well as those who answered the call to save their fellow soldiers.

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Kentucky

A thrilling account of the most daring American P.O.W. rescue mission of World War II.

Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, America entered World War II, and a new theater of battle opened up in the Pacific. But US troops, along with thousands of Filipino soldiers who fought alongside them, were overtaken in the Philippines by a fiercely determined Japanese navy, and many Americans and Filipino fighters were killed or captured.

These American and Filipino prisoners of war were forced to endure the most horrific conditions on the deadly trek known as the Bataan Death March. Then, the American servicemen who were held captive by the Japanese military in Cabanatuan Camp and others in the Philippines, faced beatings, starvation, and tropical diseases, and lived constantly under the threat of death.

Unable to forget their comrades' fate and concerned that these POWs would be brutally murdered as the tides of war shifted in the Pacific, the US Army Rangers undertook one of the most daring and dangerous rescue missions of all time. Aided by the "Angels of the Underground," the Sixth Ranger Battalion and courageous Filipino guerrilla soldiers set out on an uncertain and treacherous assignment. Often called the Great Raid, this remarkable story remains largely forgotten.

Sibert Honor author Deborah Hopkinson presents an extraordinary and unflinching look at the heroic servicemen and women who courageously weathered the worst of circumstances and conditions in service to their country, as well as those who answered the call to save their fellow soldiers.

Race Against Death: the Greatest POW Rescue of World War II (Scholastic Focus)

7304984b-ea0c-4018-92d2-24d6cd6f1eb3-1

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Wisconsin

A humorous and heartwarming bounce-to-the-beat underdog story about a young rapper whose rhymes help bring his community together, from America's favorite rapping teacher.



As featured on Good Morning America!



Eleven-year-old Simon Barnes dreams of becoming a world-famous rapper that everyone calls Notorious D.O.G. But for now, he's just a Chicago fifth grader who's small for his age and afraid to use his voice.



Simon prefers to lay low at school and at home, even though he's constantly spitting rhymes in his head. But when his new teacher assigns the class an oral presentation on something that affects their community, Simon must face his fears.



With some help from an unexpected ally and his neighborhood crew, will Simon gain the confidence to rap his way to an A and prove that one kid can make a difference in his 'hood?



Dwayne Reed is a Chicago teacher, whose viral back-to-school music video "Welcome to the 4th Grade" took the internet by storm. His debut novel, Simon B. Rhymin' , inspires young readers everywhere to use their voice to create change within their communities.



Read more about Simon and his crew in Simon B. Rhymin' Takes a Stand!

Simon B. Rhymin'

5f0c1200-f524-4a6a-a78c-daa7e3423647-1

Pennsylvania

Save The Date 

Oklahoma

A Flavia Albia Novel

In Rome, ruled by the erratic Emperor Domitian, Flavia Albia is dragged into the worst sort of investigation—a politically charged murder—in Lindsey Davis’s next historical mystery, A Capitol Death. A man falls to his death from the Tarpeian Rock, which overlooks the Forum in the Capitoline Hill in Ancient Rome. While it looks like a suicide, one witness swears that she saw it happen and that he was pushed. Normally, this would attract very little official notice but this man happened to be in charge of organizing the Imperial Triumphs demanded by the emperor. The Emperor Domitian, autocratic and erratic, has decided that he deserves two Triumphs for his so-called military victories. The Triumphs are both controversial and difficult to stage because of the not-so-victorious circumstances that left them without treasure or captives to be paraded through the streets. Normally, the investigation would be under the auspices of her new(ish) husband but, worried about his stamina following a long recovery, private informer Flavia Albia, daughter of Marcus Didius Falco, steps in. What a mistake that turns out to be. The deceased proves to have been none-too-popular, with far too many others with much to gain from his death. With the date of the Triumphs fast approaching, Flavia Albia must unravel a truly complex case of murder before danger shows up on her own doorstep.

A Capitol Death

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#hardcover #brightshinymorning #jamesfrey 

Alabama

One of the most celebrated and controversial authors in America delivers his first novel—a sweeping chronicle of contemporary Los Angeles that is bold, exhilarating, and utterly original. Dozens of characters pass across the reader's sight lines—some never to be seen again—but James Frey lingers on a handful of LA's lost souls and captures the dramatic narrative of their lives: a bright, ambitious young Mexican-American woman who allows her future to be undone by a moment of searing humiliation; a supremely narcissistic action-movie star whose passion for the unattainable object of his affection nearly destroys him; a couple, both nineteen years old, who flee their suffocating hometown and struggle to survive on the fringes of the great city; and an aging Venice Beach alcoholic whose life is turned upside down when a meth-addled teenage girl shows up half-dead outside the restroom he calls home. Throughout this strikingly powerful novel there is the relentless drumbeat of the millions of other stories that, taken as a whole, describe a city, a culture, and an age. A dazzling tour de force, Bright Shiny Morning illuminates the joys, horrors, and unexpected fortunes of life and death in Los Angeles.

Bright Shiny Morning

f625a065-0b88-4291-8f25-68f48aff524c-1

Jessie Burton

Utah

Alive with the magic of 18th-century Amsterdam, an enchanting, fantastical stand-alone companion novel to the sensational New York Times bestseller The Miniaturist, which has sold over two million copies worldwide.

Amsterdam in the year 1705. It is Thea Brandt's eighteenth birthday. She is ready to welcome adulthood with open arms, but life at home is increasingly difficult. Her father Otto and her Aunt Nella argue endlessly over their financial fate, selling off furniture in a desperate attempt to hold on to the family home.

As catastrophe threatens to engulf the household, Thea seeks refuge in Amsterdam's playhouses. She loves the performances, and the stolen moments afterwards are even better. In the backrooms of her favorite theater, Thea can spend a few precious minutes with her secret lover, Walter, the chief set-painter, a man adept at creating the perfect environments for comedies and tragedies to flourish. The thrill of their hidden romance offers Thea an exciting distraction from home. But it also puts her in mind of another secret that threatens to overwhelm the present: Thea knows her birthday marks the day her mother, Marin, died in labor. Thea's family refuses to share the details of this story, just as they seem terrified to speak of "the miniaturist" - a shadowy figure from their past who is possessed of uncanny abilities to capture that which is hidden.

Aunt Nella believes the solution to all Thea's problems is to find her a husband who will guarantee her future. An unexpected invitation to Amsterdam's most exclusive ball seems like a golden opportunity. But when Thea finds, on her doorstep, a parcel containing a miniature figure of Walter, it becomes clear that someone out there has another fate in mind for the family . . .

A feat of sweeping, magical storytelling, The House of Fortune is an unputdownable novel about love and obsession, family and loyalty, and the fantastic power of secrets.

The House of Fortune

7d5c7978-8831-4e0b-9973-d28611667ad0-1

Mississippi

How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man

In this revelatory, authoritative portrait of Donald J. Trump and the toxic family that made him, Mary L. Trump, a trained clinical psychologist and Donald’s only niece, shines a bright light on the dark history of their family in order to explain how her uncle became the man who now threatens the world’s health, economic security, and social fabric. Mary Trump spent much of her childhood in her grandparents’ large, imposing house in the heart of Queens, New York, where Donald and his four siblings grew up. She describes a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse. She explains how specific events and general family patterns created the damaged man who currently occupies the Oval Office, including the strange and harmful relationship between Fred Trump and his two oldest sons, Fred Jr. and Donald. A firsthand witness to countless holiday meals and interactions, Mary brings an incisive wit and unexpected humor to sometimes grim, often confounding family events. She recounts in unsparing detail everything from her uncle Donald’s place in the family spotlight and Ivana’s penchant for regifting to her grandmother’s frequent injuries and illnesses and the appalling way Donald, Fred Trump’s favorite son, dismissed and derided him when he began to succumb to Alzheimer’s. Numerous pundits, armchair psychologists, and journalists have sought to parse Donald J. Trump’s lethal flaws. Mary L. Trump has the education, insight, and intimate familiarity needed to reveal what makes Donald, and the rest of her clan, tick. She alone can recount this fascinating, unnerving saga, not just because of her insider’s perspective but also because she is the only Trump willing to tell the truth about one of the world’s most powerful and dysfunctional families.

Too Much and Never Enough

7c6cbc50-87ba-42b6-b32f-b046d6958252-1

#hardcover #fiction #bemjaminludwig #ginnymoon

Iowa

"Meet Ginny Moon. She's mostly your average teenager--she plays flute in the high school band, has weekly basketball practice, and reads Robert Frost poems in English class. But Ginny is autistic ... After being traumatically taken from her abusive birth mother and moved around to different homes, Ginny has finally found her 'forever home'--a safe place with parents who will love and nurture her. This is exactly what all foster kids are hoping for, right? But Ginny has other plans. She'll steal and lie and exploit the good intentions of those who love her--anything it takes to get back what's missing in her life. She'll even try to get herself kidnapped"--Amazon.com.

Ginny Moon

59edf41b-6507-4729-9633-1f5db1b538a3-1

Laminated, factory made tassels. 
Price is for both. 
#handmade #bookish #bookmark #bookmarks #

Plant Lady Bookmark Set

Steffi Fletcher

Has a sticker residue on the top left. Other than that, all new, book hasnt even been opened. Spine uncracked.

The beloved tale of a wooden puppet who longs to become a real boy is as appealing now as when it was first released in 1940. The beautiful, vintage illustrations in this Little Golden Book retelling will charm children and collectors alike. It makes a great companion to the Platinum Edition DVD being released by Disney in spring 2009!

Pinocchio (Disney Classic)

866a4d7d-3fdd-4d3c-bba4-05ac99ee9b5d-1

Paul Greci

In Paul Greci's The Wild Lands, Travis and his sister are trapped in a daily race to survive—and there is no second place. Natural disasters and a breakdown of civilization have cut off Alaska from the world and destroyed its landscape. Now, as food runs out and the few who remain turn on each other, Travis and his younger sister, Jess, must cross hundreds of miles in search of civilization. The wild lands around them are filled with ravenous animals, desperate survivors pushed to the edge, and people who’ve learned to shoot first and ask questions never. Travis and Jess will make a few friends and a lot of enemies on their terrifying journey across the ruins of today’s world—and they’ll have to fight for what they believe in as they see how far people will go to survive. The Wild Lands is a pulse-pounding YA thriller full of shocking plot twists. It’s the ultimate survival tale of humanity’s fight against society’s collapse. An Imprint Book “This rugged survival story places a group of teens in a dark, burned-out post-apocalyptic nightmare. Your heart will pound for them as they face terrible dangers and impossible odds. Gripping, vivid, and haunting!” —Emmy Laybourne, international bestselling author of the Monument 14 trilogy “A compelling story that wouldn’t let me stop reading. Greci has created both a frightening landscape and characters you believe in and want to survive it.” —Eric Walters, author of the bestselling Rule of Three series

The Wild Lands

25770bad-b0f5-47c7-90a1-fff60bf11910-1

Sara Shepard

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

Maryland

After their friend who has been missing for more than three years turns up dead, four former best friends continue to receive frightening messages from someone who knows damaging secrets about them.

Flawless

6ded9c98-492a-4993-a067-6761bae12c02-1

California

What Your Government Doesn't Want You to Know

Not Free America is a call to all Americans to take back our constitutional freedoms and break free of "our abusive relationship with our government." Mike Donovan's groundbreaking work on behalf of personal liberties has made him an object of fascination on both the Right and the Left.

In this groundbreaking book, Mike Donovan, the CEO of Nexus Services, calls out the elites who wield power in our country--not only the elites at the federal level, but the elites who exert control over us in our states and counties, our cities and towns. Not Free America is a passionate call to all freedom-loving Americans to take back our constitutional freedoms and break free of what he calls "our abusive relationship with our government."

Donovan details how the "wholesale shredding of the Bill of Rights" started long before the concurrent crises of Covid-19 and the protests and violence that followed the murder of George Floyd. Not Free America shows us how those events were used by forces in our local, state, and federal governments that had systematically been abridging our rights for decades. These rights, Mike reminds us, are God-given rights guaranteed to us by the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment.

As the pastor of the First Christian Church Universalist in Harrisonburg, Virginia, Mike Donovan is far from your quiet country clergyman. A fierce warrior with the spirit of God and the tough skin of a lawyer, he has dedicated his life to protecting liberty and preserving individual rights, serving the underserved, and ministering to those who are overlooked in our broken society. Indeed, there are aspects to his past and present that make him an easy target for judgment from all directions. But Mike Donovan hides from nothing: He openly embraces the faults of his past and dedicates his present to creating a future that helps others move past their own unfortunate pasts.

Born to a poor family in Page County, Virginia, he found himself at a young age convicted of writing bad checks, resulting in multiple felonies for which he served seven months in the county jail. But the time he served didn't break him; it helped make him the man he is today: a man of the law and a man of God who believes with all his heart and soul in the possibility of redemption and the power of moving beyond past mistakes. He also came out of that experience knowing he needed to make a difference for others who found themselves in the same place he'd just been. Not content to talk the talk, Mike Donovan walks the walk in the footsteps of the Jesus who said "I was in prison and you came to visit me . . . Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me."

Not Free America shows us how to do all that for America and for our children. The book ends with "The Liberty Pledge": an agreement readers will make stating that they will vote only for lawmakers who agree to uphold the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment.

Not Free America

313ef2f7-2e7b-4b20-ad37-ab47da1bbed4-1

Has never been opened. Plastic is still on it

Florida

Swim along with Baby Neptune to meet and hear his ocean friends! 4 interactive buttons play music and underwater sounds to bring the story to life. The special top button is set within a custom-shaped frame and plays three fun variations of Handel's Water Music. Young readers will stay engaged as they interact with the rhyming story, which promotes music appreciation and animal recognition.

BABY EINSTEIN(tm) under the Sea with Me!

ce6621ba-0828-4c9f-867b-32b8358f3f1d-1

Classic Tales (Bundle)

New York

A Novel

The Bitterroots

8b9b96ec-3d4a-4275-a8fb-7753ca1689e4-1

#fiction #children #hardcover #SesameStreet#Elmo#volume20

Virginia

Elmo's Colorful Adventure

Sesame Street Elmo's Learning Adventure

Christa Roberts

Blu's Wild Journey

Rio 2

9df5b8c6-16d8-43e9-939c-16f89f71a988-1

Marissa Moss

The arrival of the ultra-cool new girl, Maxine, also brings the mysterious appearance of incredibly mean notes in Amelia's locker in this relatable installment of the bestselling Amelia series.

When a new girl Maxine comes to the 6th grade, she seems more like an 8th grader. She's super stylish and has sushi for lunch, while Amelia has bologna. Then Amelia's best friend Carly starts hanging with Maxine, and mysterious notes start appearing in Amelia's locker. Could Maxine be behind them? Amelia tries not to think so but then when Maxine comes between Amelia and Carly--it's more than Amelia can bear!

Amelia's Book of Notes and Note Passing

f342f87e-a097-44b1-9d81-36332d0b72d2-1

Tish Rabe

All about Insects

Catch the bug buzz and learn all about insects with the Cat in the Hat--a perfect gift for little scientists on Earth Day and every day! The Cat in the Hat's Learning Library is a nonfiction picture book series that introduces beginning readers ages 5-8 to important basic concepts.

Find out all you ever wanted to know about insects when the Cat in the Hat and friends get an up-close view of life as a bug. Kids will learn how insects -- from the spittlebug to the honeybee to the moth -- see, smell, communicate, and pollinate, as well as sometimes pester and amaze and generally make life better for us humans.

Featuring beloved characters from Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat, the Learning Library are unjacketed hardcover picture books that explore a range of nonfiction topics about the world we live in and include an index, glossary, and suggestions for further reading.

On Beyond Bugs

23f2519b-0af5-4e11-bb74-b9fbfb91d153-1

Rachel Cohn

South Dakota

On a futuristic island paradise where humans are served by enslaved clones, a 16-year-old clone named Elysia seeks her own freedom. By the New York Times best-selling author of 11 young adult novels, including Gingerbread, Shrimp and Cupcake and, with David Levithan, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Dash and Lily's Book of Dares.

Beta

de192c15-dcf1-4d55-b0fb-cf9b3d1c8306-1

Cinderella 

Ohio

My Journey from Cuban Refugee to World-Renowned Record Producer and Songwriter

The Latin Hit Maker is the fascinating story of how a poor refugee kid in Miami rose to the world stage and created some of the greatest music of the 21st century. Rudy Pérez shares his genuine rags-to-riches story filled with inspiration, little-known accounts of working with celebrity artists, and a powerful reminder of God's grace.

The Latin Hit Maker

d9fb9c3c-ce8e-48be-8c36-facd890bd24e-1

Colleen Sexton

Frogfish are unique in that unlike other fish they lack the ability to conventionally swim, instead they "walk" on their fins, crawling along the sea floor. Discover the life of the frogfish. Vivid photos support leveled text meant to engage young readers.

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