New Releases by Jean Craighead George

• Downloadable discussion guide

From the most celebrated children’s nature writer of our time comes a posthumous new novel in the tradition of her Newbery award-winning Julie of the Wolves In 1848, a young boy witnesses a rare sight—the birth of a bowhead, or ice whale, he calls Siku. Years later, he unwittingly brings about the death of an entire pod of whales, and only Siku survives. For this act, the boy receives a curse of banishment. Through the generations, this curse is handed down: Siku returns year after year, in reality and dreams, to haunt the boy’s descendants. Told in alternating voices, both human and whale, Jean Craighead George’s last novel shows the interconnectedness of humankind and the animals they depend on. “It’s a bold, wistful, and heartfelt coda to a distinguished career.”—School Library Journal

Fourteen-year-old Jack sets out in a handmade canoe for the legendary Okefenokee Swamp. But after several idyllic days of exploring, he's hit with some bad luck. He can't find his way home, and he runs into a hungry alligator who takes a bite out of his canoe. When he pulls up to a remote island, he finds another surprise: a mystery that will reach far into his own past . . . and force him to question the world he's left behind.

A NEWBERY HONOR BOOK • OVER 4 MILLION COPIES SOLD • The defining childhood classic about a boy finding his own way in the wilderness—a nostalgic book for readers young and old who have ever wanted to run away from home. “Should appeal to all rugged individualists who dream of escape to the forest.”—The New York Times Book Review “An extraordinary book… It will be read year after year.”—The Horn Book Twelve-year-old Sam Gribley is terribly unhappy living in his family’s crowded New York City apartment. One day—armed with just a penknife, a ball of red cord, forty dollars, some flint and steel, and the clothes on his back—he decides to run away to his grandfather’s abandoned farm in the Catskill Mountains, to live in the woods all by himself. There, Sam must rely on his own ingenuity and the resources of the great outdoors to survive, as he discovers a side of himself he never knew existed. Teeming with hope, adventure, and a deep search for identity, My Side of the Mountain is a timeless classic for readers of all ages who have ever wondered what it would be like to live off the land. American Library Association Notable Book • Hans Christian Andersen Award Honor Book • Lewis Carroll Shelf Award

Buck is a dog born to luxury, but his life changes dramatically when he is sold to be a sled dog in the Yukon Terrority. First published in 1903, this masterpiece of adventure and survival continues to enthrall readers almost a century later.

Under an autumn moon: Endure the devastation following a hurricane in the salt marshes along the Connecticut coast with a young buck under the September moon. Search for food with an alligator in the Florida Everglades as the October moon rises. Trek through the Alaskan tundra with a pack of wolves as the November moon selects its survivors. In this series, acclaimed naturalist Newbery-winning author Jean Caighead George takes readers on a wondrous journey each season of the year as she captures the lives of North American animals in their natural habitats.

Twelve-year-old Maggie receives European fire bugs for her birthday, but when they fail to metamorphose and grow grossly large and explode instead, she uses scientific reasoning to determine the cause of their strange death.

Continues the story of Julie and her wolves in which Kapu must protect his pack from famine and disease while uniting it under his new leadership.

Sixth-grader Liza K., one of five homeless people living in an unspoiled forest in southern Florida, searches for a missing alligator destined for official extermination and studies the delicate ecological balance keeping her outdoor home beautiful.

"Billie Wind lives with her Seminole tribe. She follows their customs, but the dangers of pollution and nuclear war she's learned about in school seem much more real to her. How can she believe the Seminole legends about talking animals and earth spirits? She wants answers, not legends. "You are a doubter,"say the men of the Seminole Council and so Billie goes out into the Everglades alone, to stay until she can believe. In the wilderness, she discovers that she must listen to the land and animals in order to survive. With an otter, a panther cub, and a turtle as companions and guides, she begins to understand that the world of her people can give her the answers she seeks.

A guide to talking to your pets.

While caring for a baby crow, Mandy begins to look at her family and herself in a different light.

Traveling illegally at night on the Colorado River with a mysterious cargo, two boys are shipwrecked and must depend for survival on their own ingenuity and a wild boy they find living along the river.