The League of Unexceptional Children: The Kids Who Knew Too Little

The League of Unexceptional Children: The Kids Who Knew Too Little
Author:
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Total Pages: 136
Release: 2017-10-10
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0316405787

The final book in a smart, funny, and exceptional middle grade series about unexceptionals from School of Fear author Gitty Daneshvari! Since being recruited by the League of Unexceptional Children, Jonathan Murray and Shelley Brown have rescued the vice president and stopped the outbreak of a virus capable of dimming human intelligence. Against all odds, these totally average spies have somehow managed to save the day...twice. Now Jonathan's parents have been arrested by the CIA for treason, and liberating them means going head-to-head with a secret organization so powerful it has literally changed the course of history. It's Jonathan and Shelley's most dangerous mission yet, and one that will decide their fate as members of the League. Will they be able to accidentally sort of save the day one last time?/DIV

The League of Unexceptional Children

The League of Unexceptional Children
Author: Gitty Daneshvari
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2015-10-20
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0349124213

Hilarious action adventure for readers aged 8 and up, featuring the world's most unexceptional spies. You think spies are clever and cool and mysterious? Think again . . . When Jonathan and Shelley are summoned to work for The League of Unexceptional Children they're more than a little bit surprised. Average in every single way, they've never been singled out for anything in their lives . . . scrap that, they've never even been noticed. But that's exactly what the League is after. Because if you're truly forgettable, you're perfect for acts of espionage - as Jonathan and Shelley are about to find out.

School of Fear

School of Fear
Author: Gitty Daneshvari
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2009-09-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 031607117X

Everyone is afraid of something... Madeleine Masterson is deathly afraid of bugs, especially spiders. Theodore Bartholomew is petrified of dying. Lulu Punchalower is scared of confined spaces. Garrison Feldman is terrified of deep water. With very few options left, the parents of these four twelve year-olds send them to the highly elusive and exclusive School of Fear to help them overcome their phobias. But when their peculiar teacher, Mrs. Wellington, and her unconventional teaching methods turn out to be more frightening than even their fears, the foursome realize that this just may be the scariest summer of their lives.

The League of Unexceptional Children: Get Smart-ish

The League of Unexceptional Children: Get Smart-ish
Author: Gitty Daneshvari
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Total Pages: 150
Release: 2016-10-11
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0316405736

A hilarious and action-packed sequel to The League of Unexceptional Children! Jonathan Murray: Twelve years old. Wears khaki pants to tell the world he plans on driving the speed limit when he grows up. Saved the world once; it was probably a fluke. Shelley Brown: Twelve years old. Narrates her imaginary exploits as if she is the subject of a documentary film. Saved the world once; it was probably a fluke. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has called upon Jonathan and Shelley to catch a criminal who has stolen a virus that makes people less smart. When the stakes are this high, can the kids be the utterly average spies the world needs them to be and save the day? Embrace your unexceptional side in this hysterically funny sequel!

Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan
Author: Matt Christopher
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Total Pages: 100
Release: 2009-12-19
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 0316094013

Don't miss this action-packed and informative look at the life and achievements of a basketball legend! Matt Christopher, the number one sports writer for kids, profiles basketball superstar Michael Jordan, covering his childhood, college career, rookie years, professional career highlights, and even his short stint in minor league baseball. Written in Matt Christopher's easy-to-read style and complete with incredible photos and Michael Jordan's key stats, this comprehensive biography will entertain and educate.

The Journalist and the Murderer

The Journalist and the Murderer
Author: Janet Malcolm
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2011-06-22
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0307797872

A seminal work and examination of the psychopathology of journalism. Using a strange and unprecedented lawsuit by a convicted murder againt the journalist who wrote a book about his crime, Malcolm delves into the always uneasy, sometimes tragic relationship that exists between journalist and subject. Featuring the real-life lawsuit of Jeffrey MacDonald, a convicted murderer, against Joe McGinniss, the author of Fatal Vision. In Malcolm's view, neither journalist nor subject can avoid the moral impasse that is built into the journalistic situation. When the text first appeared, as a two-part article in The New Yorker, its thesis seemed so radical and its irony so pitiless that journalists across the country reacted as if stung. Her book is a work of journalism as well as an essay on journalism: it at once exemplifies and dissects its subject. In her interviews with the leading and subsidiary characters in the MacDonald-McGinniss case -- the principals, their lawyers, the members of the jury, and the various persons who testified as expert witnesses at the trial -- Malcolm is always aware of herself as a player in a game that, as she points out, she cannot lose. The journalist-subject encounter has always troubled journalists, but never before has it been looked at so unflinchingly and so ruefully. Hovering over the narrative -- and always on the edge of the reader's consciousness -- is the MacDonald murder case itself, which imparts to the book an atmosphere of anxiety and uncanniness. The Journalist and the Murderer derives from and reflects many of the dominant intellectual concerns of our time, and it will have a particular appeal for those who cherish the odd, the off-center, and the unsolved.

The Wolf Wilder

The Wolf Wilder
Author: Katherine Rundell
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2016-09-06
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1481419439

“Fairy tale and history merge seamlessly” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) in this enchanting and lyrical novel about love and resilience from the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winner, Katherine Rundell. Feo’s life is extraordinary. Her mother trains domesticated wolves to be able to fend for themselves in the snowy wilderness of Russia, and Feo is following in her footsteps to become a wolf wilder. She loves taking care of the wolves, especially the three who stay at the house because they refuse to leave Feo, even though they’ve already been wilded. But not everyone is enamored with the wolves, or with the fact that Feo and her mother are turning them wild. And when her mother is taken captive, Feo must travel through the cold, harsh woods to save her—and learn from her wolves how to survive.

Ella Minnow Pea

Ella Minnow Pea
Author: Mark Dunn
Publisher: MP Publishing
Total Pages: 165
Release: 2010-05-22
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1596929995

An epistolary novel set on a fictional island off the South Carolina coastline, 'Ella Minnow Pea' brings readers to the hometown of Nevin Nollop, inventor of the pangram 'The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog'. Deified for his achievement in life, Nevin has been honored in death with a monument featuring his famous phrase. One day, however, the letter 'Z' falls from the monument, and some of the islanders interpret the missing tile as a message from beyond the grave. The letter 'Z' is banned from use. On an island where the residents pride them-selves on their love of language, this is seen as a tragedy. They are still reeling from the shock when another tile falls. And then another... In his charming debut, first published in 2001, Mark Dunn took readers on a journey through the eyes of Ella Minnow Pea, a young woman forced to create another clever turn of phrase in order to save the islanders’ beloved language.

Late Bloomers

Late Bloomers
Author: Rich Karlgaard
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2021-01-19
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1524759775

A groundbreaking exploration of how finding one's way later in life can be an advantage to long-term achievement and happiness. “What Yogi Berra observed about a baseball game—it ain't over till it's over—is true about life, and [Late Bloomers] is the ultimate proof of this. . . . It’s a keeper.”—Forbes We live in a society where kids and parents are obsessed with early achievement, from getting perfect scores on SATs to getting into Ivy League colleges to landing an amazing job at Google or Facebook—or even better, creating a start-up with the potential to be the next Google, Facebook or Uber. We see coders and entrepreneurs become millionaires or billionaires before age thirty, and feel we are failing if we are not one of them. Late bloomers, on the other hand, are under-valued—in popular culture, by educators and employers, and even unwittingly by parents. Yet the fact is, a lot of us—most of us—do not explode out of the gates in life. We have to discover our passions and talents and gifts. That was true for author Rich Karlgaard, who had a mediocre academic career at Stanford (which he got into by a fluke) and, after graduating, worked as a dishwasher and night watchman before finding the inner motivation and drive that ultimately led him to start up a high-tech magazine in Silicon Valley, and eventually to become the publisher of Forbes magazine. There is a scientific explanation for why so many of us bloom later in life. The executive function of our brains doesn’t mature until age twenty-five, and later for some. In fact, our brain’s capabilities peak at different ages. We actually experience multiple periods of blooming in our lives. Moreover, late bloomers enjoy hidden strengths because they take their time to discover their way in life—strengths coveted by many employers and partners—including curiosity, insight, compassion, resilience, and wisdom. Based on years of research, personal experience, interviews with neuroscientists, psychologists, and countless people at different stages of their careers, Late Bloomers reveals how and when we achieve our full potential. Praise for Late Bloomers “The underlying message that we should ‘consider a kinder clock for human development’ is a compelling one.”—Financial Times “Late Bloomers spoke to me deeply as a parent of two millennials and as a coach to many new college grads (the children of my friends and associates). It’s a bracing tonic for the anxiety they are swimming through, with a facts-based approach to help us all calm down.”—Robin Wolaner, founder of Parenting magazine

How to Meet a Mermaid

How to Meet a Mermaid
Author: Sue Fliess
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 34
Release: 2020-06-16
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1510754105

Legend has it the only way to meet a mermaid is to know where to look and to give her a beautiful handmade gift that shows her you care. If you’re lucky, she may take you on an ocean adventure! Mermaids are rarely seen, and even more rarely met. But, if you gather some natural craft supplies—shells, coral, driftwood, and sea glass—and make her a gift, you might just befriend one! Will you spot a mermaid in the waves just off shore? If you do, will you be ready? By being observant, resourceful, and friendly, you can make a beautiful crown from natural beach materials that will show your new mermaid friend you truly care. Perhaps she’ll take you on an incredible adventure through the ocean’s depths, past ancient shipwrecks, and to her shell castle! You just might experience what it’s like to be a mermaid yourself! Sue Fliess’s poetic read-aloud text and Simona Sanfilippo’s vibrant, whimsical illustrations will provide joy for young readers eager to meet their own mermaids! Also included are guides for teachers and parents about how to engage children in building mermaid crowns and how to interest them in the natural world, the history of mermaids, and the many cultures that have believed in them.