Tag: Middle Grade

Teacher’s Guide: Pie in the Sky

Pie in the Sky by Remy Lai

A poignant, laugh-out-loud illustrated middle-grade novel about an eleven-year-old boy’s immigration experience, his annoying little brother, and their cake-baking hijinks!

When Jingwen moves to a new country, he feels like he’s landed on Mars. School is torture, making friends is impossible since he doesn’t speak English, and he’s often stuck looking after his (extremely irritating) little brother, Yanghao.

To distract himself from the loneliness, Jingwen daydreams about making all the cakes on the menu of Pie in the Sky, the bakery his father had planned to open before he unexpectedly passed away. The only problem is his mother has laid down one major rule: the brothers are not to use the oven while she’s at work. As Jingwen and Yanghao bake elaborate cakes, they’ll have to cook up elaborate excuses to keep the cake making a secret from Mama.

In her hilarious, moving middle-grade debut, Remy Lai delivers a scrumptious combination of vibrant graphic art and pitch-perfect writing that will appeal to fans of Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham’s Real Friends, Kelly Yang’s Front Desk, and Jerry Craft’s New Kid.

Download the teacher’s guide here →

Teacher’s Guide: The Lost Boy’s Gift

The Lost Boy’s Gift by Kimberly Willis Holt

Kimberly Willis Holt explores themes of divorce, acceptance, intergenerational friendship, and the power that comes with noticing in The Lost Boy’s Gift, an insightful middle-grade novel.

There are places where you want to go and places where you want to leave. There are also places where you want to stay.

Nine-year-old Daniel must move across the county with his mom after his parents’ divorce. He’s leaving behind his whole life—everything—and he’s taking a suitcase of anger with him. But Daniel is in for a surprise when he settles into While-a-Way Lane and meets his new neighbors—the Lemonade Girl, the hopscotching mailman, the tiny creatures, and especially Tilda Butter. Tilda knows how to look and listen closely, and it’s that gift that helps Daniel find his way in that curious placed called While-a-Way Lane.

Download the teacher’s guide here →

Teacher’s Guide: Locked in Ice: Nansen’s Daring Quest for the North Pole

Locked in Ice: Nansen’s Daring Quest for the North Pole by Peter Lourie

A spellbinding biography of Fridtjof Nansen, the pioneer of polar exploration, with a spotlight on his harrowing three-year journey to the top of the world.

An explorer who many adventurers argue ranks alongside polar celebrity Ernest Shackleton, Fridtjof Nansen contributed tremendous amounts of new information to our knowledge about the Polar Arctic. At a time when the North Pole was still undiscovered territory, he attempted the journey in a way that most experts thought was mad: Nansen purposefully locked his ship in ice for two years in order to float northward along the currents. Richly illustrated with historic photographs, this riveting account of Nansen’s Arctic expedition celebrates the legacy of an extraordinary adventurer who pushed the boundaries of human exploration to further science into the twentieth century.

Download the teacher’s guide here →

MARCH GIVEAWAY: WIN A POETRY KIT!

This giveaway has now ended. Check our giveaway page for more chances to win books for your classroom or library!

Enter for a chance to win a set of some of our favorite and award-winning poetry books to help celebrate National Poetry Month, including Home Run, Touchdown, Basket, Goal! by Leo Landry; Wet Cement by Bob Raczka; Hypnotize a Tiger by Calef Brown; Keeping the Night Watch by Hope Anita Smith; illustrated by E.B. Lewis ; and My Book of Life by Angel by Martine Leavitt. Giveaway ends March 31st at 11:59 PM ET.

Teacher’s Guide: The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise
by Dan Gemeinhart

Five years. That’s how long Coyote and her dad, Rodeo, have lived on the road in an old school bus, criss-crossing the nation. It’s also how long ago Coyote lost her mom and two sisters in a car crash.

Coyote hasn’t been home in all that time, but when she learns that the park in her old neighborhood is being demolished—the very same park where she, her mom, and her sisters buried a treasured memory box—she devises an elaborate plan to get her dad to drive 3,600 miles back to Washington state in four days…without him realizing it. Along the way, they’ll pick up a strange crew of misfit travelers. Lester has a lady love to meet. Salvador and his mom are looking to start over. Val needs a safe place to be herself. And then there’s Gladys…

Over the course of thousands of miles, Coyote will learn that going home can sometimes be the hardest journey of all…but that with friends by her side, she just might be able to turn her “once upon a time” into a “happily ever after.”

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Congratulations to our 2019 ALA Award Winners!

Congratulations to all of this year’s award winners! Keep reading to find out more about our ALA Award winners and recommended reading selections from ALSC and YALSA.

★ Geisel Honor Winner
★ William C. Morris Finalists
★ ALA Rainbow Reading List
★ ALSC Notable Children’s Books
★ YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults
★ YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels
★ YALSA’s Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers

See all of our ALA award winners here →