Jennifer Ikeda

Eleanor Murray will always remember her childhood on Edisto Island, where her late father, a local shrimper, shared her passion for music. Now her memories of him are all that tempers the guilt she feels over the accident that put her sister in a wheelchair-and the feelings she harbors for her sisters husband.To help support her sister, Eleanor works at a Charleston investment firm during the day, but she escapes into her music, playing piano at a...

These ten short stories explore loss and sacrifice in American suburbia. In idyllic suburbs across the country, from Philadelphia to San Francisco, narrators struggle to find meaning or value in their lives because of (or in spite of) something that has happened in their pasts. In "Hole," a young man reconstructs the memory of his childhood friend's deadly fall. In "The Theory of Light and Matter," a woman second-guesses her choice between a soul...

When Martin Grace enters the hip Philadelphia coffee shop Cornelia Brown manages, her life changes forever. But little does she know that her newfound love is only the harbinger of greater changes to come. Meanwhile, across town, Clare Hobbs-eleven years old and abandoned by her erratic mother-goes looking for her lost father. She crosses paths with Cornelia while meeting with him at the cafe, and the two women form an improbable friendship that carries...

Acclaimed author Jane Breskin Zalben delivers a poignant coming-of-age story about two former friends who reconnect during the first year of middle school. Daniel and Krista drift apart when Krista develops a crush on Daniel's chief swim team rival. And then an allergic reaction during a routine dental procedure leaves Daniel paralyzed. But after Krista volunteers to help Daniel swim again and the two join forces in a school tadpole project, a remarkable...

McQuarrie Middle School's students miss Origami Yoda when Dwight leaves for Tippett Academy, but he sends Sara a paper Fortune Wookiee that seems to give advice just as good as Yoda's--even if, in the hands of girls, it seems preoccupied with romance.

People just can't live together without telling stories. We tell stories that are funny, ironic, insightful, or just simply pleasing to the tongue and ear. Stories just seem to happen. When a story happens with the force of universality, it finds its way into that pantheon of tales that is the common denominator of cultural exchange. Here are 33 such tales, collected from Brazil, China, Korea, Russia, Tibet, Africa, from America's native peoples,...

Award-winning author Helen Frost takes us into the breathtaking Alaskan winter landscape in this thrilling adventure with a touch of fantasy. Twelve-year-old Willow-whose heritage is both Athabascan Indian and European-wants nothing more than to mush the sled dogs to her grandparents' home. After pressing her parents for some time, she is finally allowed to go alone. But when she commits a critical mistake, Willow wonders how she'll ever make things...

Dark times have fallen on McQuarrie Middle School. Dwight's back-and not a moment too soon, as the gang faces the FunTime Menace: a new educational program designed to raise students' standardized test scores. Instead, it's driving everyone crazy with its obnoxious videos of Professor FunTime and his insidious singing calculator! When Principal Rabbski cancels the students' field trip-along with art, music, and LEGO classes-to make time for FunTime,...

The award-winning author of more than 75 books for young readers, Children's Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis crafts poetic portraits of civil rights luminaries in this important work. From Coretta Scott King and Gandhi to Nelson Mandela and Jackie Robinson, When Thunder Comes resounds with the voices of heroes who changed the world.