Mary's baby has arrived, and she can't contain her joy! As Joseph sleeps, she examines her newborn's tiny mouth, his wild hair, his little hands. Yet whats most wondrous is that this child is not just Mary's own but a gift that God has shared with everyone.Poetic text by Newbery Medalist Katherine Paterson reveals the intimacy of that unforgettable night long ago when the mother of Jesus was the first to welcome him into a world he would change forever.The Night of His Birth is a Junior Library Guild Selection.
Written by Newbery, National Book Award, and Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal winner Katherine Paterson
The Johnsons are becoming country music stars. They're on TV and the radio--and it's all because of James. His voice and his guitar playing bring the songs to life, and make the audiences beg for more. Most kids would love it. Not James. He's had to change his name to "Jimmy Jo," dress in clothes he hates, and turn into someone else. Will he ever be able to cope with the fame?
Winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction
They tell Jip he tumbled off the back of a wagon when he was small, and no one ever came back for him. He never had a reason to question this tale-but then a stranger shows up and begins asking about him around town. Who is this man, and could he possibly know something about Jip's past?
From two-time Newbery award-winning author Katherine Paterson.
When Lyddie and her younger brother are hired out as servants to help pay off their family farm's debts, Lyddie is determined to find a way to reunite her family once again. Hearing about all the money a girl can make working in the textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts, she makes her way there, only to find that her dreams of returning home may never come true.
"Rich in historical detail...a superb story of grit, determination, and personal growth." -The Horn Book, starred review
"Lyddie is full of life, full of lives, full of reality." -The New York Times Book Review
An ALA Notable Book
An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
A Booklist Editor's Choice
American Bookseller "Pick of the Lists"
School Library Journal Best Book
Parents magazine Best Book
In an engrossing historical novel, the Newbery Medal-winning author of Bridge to Terabithia follows a young Cuban teenager as she volunteers for Fidel Castro's national literacy campaign and travels into the impoverished countryside to teach others how to read.
When thirteen-year-old Nora tells her parents that she wants to join Premier Castro's army of young literacy teachers, her mother screeches to high heaven and her father roars like a lion. Nora has barely been outside of Havana - why would she throw away her life in a remote shack with no electricity, sleeping on a hammock in somebody's kitchen? But Nora is stubborn: didn't her parents teach her to share what she has with someone in need? Surprisingly, Nora's abuela takes her side, even as she makes Nora promise to come home if things get too hard. But how will Nora know for sure when that time has come?
Shining light on a little-known moment in history, Katherine Paterson traces a young teen's coming-of-age journey from a sheltered life to a singular mission: teaching fellow Cubans of all ages to read and write while helping with the work of their daily lives and sharing the dangers posed by counterrevolutionaries hiding in the hills nearby. Inspired by true accounts, the novel includes an author's note and a time line of Cuban history.
From her childhood in China to the moment she won her first National Book Award, literary icon Katherine Paterson shares the personal stories that inspired her children's books. Told with her trademark humor and heart, Paterson's tales reveal details about her life from her childhood with missionary parents, to living as a single woman in Japan, to raising four children in suburban Maryland with her minister husband. Read about the origins of such familiar characters as Leslie Burke and Janice Avery from "Bridge to Terabithia," and go behind the scenes to the moments Katherine found out she won her many awards. Filled with personal photos and letters, this funny, heartwarming history from a legendary writer lets fans in on the making of literary classics.
When 15-year-old peasant Wang Lee is kidnapped by ruthless bandits, he is afraid his life is over. But his fear turns to astonishment when a mysterious stranger, beautiful young Mei Lin, rescues him to serve in the forces of the Heavenly Army. As they fall in love, the two Chinese youths are caught up in the heady Taiping Rebellion and the beginning of The New Age. Suddenly they are separated by a new edict: men and women will no longer live or work together. This award-winning tale is of one of Katherine Paterson's best. It was chosen for the American Bookseller "Pick of the Lists" and the Bank Street Children's Book of the Year. Set against a backdrop of one of China's most dramatic periods of history, it follows these two young soldiers as they are torn between the idealism of a movement seeking to restore the Empire to its people-and a perilous desire for each other.
Long ago, in the land of Dartmoor, a magic man created an enchanted charm that granted its possessor incredible power-at the cost of the wearer's own tenderness and compassion. After the merciless Flint Heart causes much destruction, it is lost among the reeds and rocks of the moor, where a kindly farmer discovers it thousands of years later. With the Flint Heart in his possession, the once adoring father Billy Jago is transformed into a cruel and merciless brute. Young Charles is determined to win back his father's true nature, and with his sister Unity and dog, Ship, he sets off into an enchanted world where animals talk, fairies hold elaborate banquets, and magical mischief must be resolved to bring Dartmoor and Merripit Farm back to rights again.This luminous fantasy by Katherine and John Paterson, freely abridged from Eden Phillpotts's original story, is a tale that promises to capture the hearts of listeners with an enchantment all its own.
Grade Level: 4-6 Age Level: 9-11 Listening Level: Grades 4-6 Meli Lleshi is positive that her drawing of her teacher with his pelican nose is what started it all. The Lleshis are Albanians living in Kosovo, a country trying to fight off Serbian oppressors. Suddenly, they are homeless refugees. As they travel the dangerous roads at night and leave burning farms and houses behind, young and old alike find their courage and resilience constantly tested. It is humiliating to have to live in crowded tent cities with hundreds of other displaced persons. If it weren't for Mama and Baba's efforts to keep the family together, who knows what would happen to them? Then one day Baba makes a surprise announcement: they will all soon be going to a country far away. It will be a great adventure, he assures the family. There will be no more running from an enemy, and no turning back to their old way of life. But will they really find freedom at last? Meli wonders.
At eleven, Gilly is nobody's real kid. If only she could find her beautiful mother, Courtney, and live with her instead of in the ugly foster home where she has just been placed! How could she, the great Gilly Hopkins, known throughout the county for her brilliance and unmanageability, be expected to tolerate Maime Trotter, the fat, nearly illiterate widow who is now her guardian? Or for that matter, the freaky seven-year-old boy and the shrunken blind black man who are also considered part of the bizarre "family"? Even cool Miss Harris, her teacher, is a shock to her.
Gutsy Gilly is both poignant and comic as, behind her best barracuda smile, she schemes against them and everyone else who tries to be friendly. The reader will cheer for her as she copes with the longings and terrors of always being a foster child.
Katherine Paterson, winner of the 1978 Newbery Medal for Bridge to Terabithia and of the 1977 National Book Award for The Master Puppeteer, again reaches across boundaries with her wit, compassion, and love, and here creates an immensely engaging story about a child's desperate search for a place to call home.
Esau have I hated . . .
Sara Louise Bradshaw is sick and tired of her beautiful twin Caroline. Ever since they were born, Caroline has been the pretty one, the talented one, the better sister. Even now, Caroline seems to take everything: Louise's friends, their parents' love, her dreams for the future.
For once in her life, Louise wants to be the special one. But in order to do that, she must first figure out who she is . . . and find a way to make a place for herself outside her sister's shadow.
Jess Aaron's greatest ambition is to be the fastest runner in the fifth grade. He's been practicing all summer and can't wait to see his classmates' faces when he beats them all. But on the first day of school, a new kid, a new girl, boldly crosses over to the boy's side of the playground and outruns everyone.
That's not a very promising beginning for a friendship, but Jess and Leslie Burke become inseparable. It doesn't matter to Jess that leslie dresses funny, or that her family has a lot of money -- but no TV. Leslie has imagination. Together, she and Jess create Terabithia, a magical kingdom in the woods where the two of them reign as king and queen, and their imaginations set the only limits. Then one morning a terrible tragedy occurs. Only when Jess is able to come to grips with this tragedy does he finally understand the strength and courage Leslie has given him.
