by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Realistic/Contemporary Fiction
Sometimes families have stories to tell, but they choose not to, especially when they are filled with loss. This is the story of a family that suffered a great loss and never wanted to face it and talk about it. But, one day, just as summer is ending and the island is...
by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Historical Fiction
Sometimes it just seems as though life is full of really hard and scary things to do. For Gabe King, who is white, going into the fifth grade is one of those hard and scary things, and he does NOT intend to do it. But his friend, Frita Wilson, who is African-American,...
by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Realistic/Contemporary Fiction
Sometimes you get a teacher who is wise to the ways of the classroom but not this year. This year Gloria has Mrs. Yardley, “the dragon of doom.” Mrs. Yardley thinks the worst of this class and of Gloria and doesn’t see that Billy Watkins is really...
by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Realistic/Contemporary Fiction
Sometimes, all a guy has is his three-point shot, and, in this case, seventeen-year-old Greg Harris, has a lot of great moves on the basketball court. He has been sent to a new school, a magnet school for the arts, and has left his old school behind. This new school...
by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Picture Book
Speaking of heroes, here is a young girl, age 10, who climbed Long’s Peak out in Colorado about 100 years ago. It was a struggle, and it took determination and courage. Everyone goes on journeys in life, and it is a wonderful thing for young people to read about...
by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Humor
Splat! Oops there goes another family member crushed by a speeding vehicle. Limpy just doesn’t understand why humans don’t like cane toads, So, he sets out to be an ambassador and to try to mend the obvious hole in the human/cane toad relationship....
by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Poetry
Sports hold so many of the lessons of life, and in this poetic book by Charles R. Smith Jr., the power of baseball rings out. There’s the confidence of a pitcher and the superstitiousness of a player who wants to hold on to all the tools and/or magic that make...
by Dawn | Mar 24, 2009 | Mystery
Stand-out Zoe Sharp and her seemingly less talented sister and brother, Franny and J.D., are headed to the fabulous Allbright Academy. On the school tour the Sharp family looks in wonder at the perfect dorm rooms, the perfect meals, the perfect students … and...
by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Realistic/Contemporary Fiction
Stargirl has moved to Pennsylvania – far away from the Arizona town where she found love, and where she left her imprint. In this new town she begins to acquire a motley crew of friends. There is Betty Lou who is afraid to leave her house, a chatty five year old...
by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Non-Fiction
Start with a single dot and make your way through a million. It’s hard to imagine what a million would look like, isn’t it. Well with this book children can begin to get their minds around it. They explore the largeness through things they can understand...
