New Releases by Stephanie S. Tolan

This third story about the madcap family introduced in Stephanie Tolan’s Newbery Honor Book Surviving the Applewhites features even more outlandish adventures and will appeal to fans of the Applewhites and those meeting them for the first time. E.D. and Jake are doing their best to forget their bewildering kiss—after all, they’re practically family—and get back to “normal” life with the decidedly abnormal, highly creative Applewhites. When the family’s biggest fan, Jeremy Bernstein, pulls up to Wit’s End in an “Art Bus,” he brings with him a proposal for an Education Expedition: a cross-country road trip, educational quest, and video-documented competition for a big cash prize. Jeremy also drags along his troubled but beautiful niece, Melody. She’ll be joining the expedition with her own rebellious flair, much to Jake’s delight . . . and E.D.’s exasperation. With characteristic Applewhite enthusiasm, the artists face disastrous performances, fainting goats, and some very bad ideas—but can they make it through the road trip in one piece?

Jack Semple and E.D. Applewhite are back, in this middle-grade sequel to Stephanie S. Tolan’s Newbery Honor Book Surviving the Applewhites. Teenager E.D., the not so artistic, not at all eccentric member of the unconventional Applewhite clan, can''t believe the plan her father has hatched to save the family from financial disaster. He’s decided to transform their rural North Carolina farm into a summer camp for creative children. Soon the farm is packed with temperamental artists, out-of-control campers, and an even more out-of-control goat. It''s all a little too much for structure-loving E.D., even before threatening notes begin appearing in the family mailbox. Together with Jake Semple--the boy who survived his first year in the Applewhites'' home school—she''s determined to save the camp and the family from disaster. Like Carl Hiassan’s Chomp, Applewhites at Wit''s End combines outrageous humor and the frustrations and joys of being part of a family.

Charley knows a lot about pain. She endures it when she walks on her newly shattered leg, she sees it when her father buries himself in an eighty-hour work week, and she runs from it when she sees photographs her mother took before her death. Then one day, Charley meets a wild, abused dog that knows as much about pain as she does, and, despite herself, she feels an immediate connection and vows to help him. But how will one heartbroken girl help mend the battered spirit of an untamable dog?

The side-splittingly funny Newbery Honor Book about a rebellious boy who is sent to a home-schooling program run by one family—the creative, kooky, loud, and loving Applewhites! Jake Semple is notorious. Rumor has it he managed to get kicked out of every school in Rhode Island, and actually burned the last one down to the ground. Only one place will take him now, and that''s a home school run by the Applewhites, a chaotic and hilarious family of artists: poet Lucille, theater director Randolph, dancer Cordelia, and dreamy Destiny. The only one who doesn''t fit the Applewhite mold is E.D.—a smart, sensible girl who immediately clashes with the defiant Jake. Jake thinks surviving this new school will be a breeze . . . but is he really as tough or as bad as he seems?

In this mind-expanding book, Newbery Honor and Christopher Award-winning author Stephanie S. Tolan, who has been telling stories in the form of plays, novels, non-fiction books and articles for children and adults all her life, shares what she has learned about the power of story not just to express our experiences, but to create them. What Tolan calls Story Principle, explored in these pages, challenges the common view that reality is fixed and immutable, that we have little or no control over it, and that we live our lives within it as best we can. Story Principle suggests the radical idea that we live the stories we tell. Therefore, reality-a collection of stories-is infinitely changeable, one story and one story-teller at a time. Included here are not just ways to recognize stories and the ways they play out in your experience, but specific techniques for replacing them if you wish. This challenging book is an invitation to change your life by changing the stories you live.

When he is granted his wish for a dog from Wishworks, Inc., third-grader Max is disappointed to find that his new pet is nothing like the dog of his imagination.

In this Christmas story, a mouse is invited by an angel and a fox to make the journey to Bethlehem and be blessed by the Christ Child.

Elijah Raymond was one of four remarkably gifted children gathered together in an experimental group home called the Ark. In their shared dreams he was always the Raven, flying over the other three. But when the Ark program was discontinued, Elijah ran away. In Flight Of The Raven, Elijah has been found by a group of environmental terrorist and taken to their snowy woodland hideout. There he meets Amber, the leaders lonely daughter, who insists that radical change justifies the deaths she calls "necessary losses." Unable to escape, Elijah discovers that he can shift into "dreamtime," joining his consciousness with that of creatures who survive in the unforgiving wintry world. Gradually Elijah learns to survive himself. But how can he truly find a home with these violent men -- and how has Amber? Stephanie S. Tolan follows up her magnificient Welcome To The Ark with the story of EIijah, a boy who is forced to confront the world''s cruelty, accept his own mysterious powers -- and help himself and Amber learn to fly free.

In a disturbingly violent world, four brilliant misfits are thrown together in a group home for troubled youth. Miranda, Doug, Taryn, and Elijah discover their minds have powers they could never have imagined. Drawn together by their deep concern for the future, they embark on a mission to stop the violence engulfing the world.

After joining his father in a professional production of a Shakespearean play, Jared must cope with acting insecurities, his obnoxious half brother, and a theatre ghost_

Tired of being a twin, Mark tries to spend more time away from his twin brother and meets a scientist who challenges some of Mark''s long-held Christian beliefs about heaven, God, prayer, and death.

Sixteen-year-old David becomes intimately involved when a scandal is discovered about the strange new boy in his high school and everyone else turns against him.

Joining his estranged father in a professional production of Shakespeare''s "Richard III," Jared tries to cope with acting insecurities, his obnoxious half brother, and a theater ghost.

In this "thought-provoking and engrossing" ("School Library Journal") novel by the author of "Who''s There?", a young girl''s family gets concerned by her deep involvement with a class Halloween pageant.

"A profusion of delightful passages couched in unfailingly lovely language." — New York Times Book Review 1939. As the Nazis advance into Poland, a Jewish mathematician and watchmaker named Pomeranz escapes into the wintry forest, leaving behind his beautiful, intelligent wife, Stefa. After the war, having evaded the concentration camps, they begin to build new lives, Stefa in Stalin’s Russia and Pomeranz in Israel, where, as they move toward reunion, another war is brewing. An intricate tale of people seeking escape from a hostile world in thrillingly fantastical ways. "Lyrical . . . Its youthfulness and energy are exhilarating." — The New Yorker

This powerful adaptation, supported by a lyrical score, focuses the humor, warmth, and emotional intensity of Katherine Paterson''s Newbery Award-winning novel. Jesse, alienated from the pragmatism of his family and rural Virginian culture, draws and dreams of becoming something special. Leslie, the new girl from the city and the ultimate outsider, opens a world of imagination, art, and literature for him. Together they create Terabithia, a fantasy kingdom where they are safe from those who don''t

Sophie is torn between her desire to buy a beautiful toy hedgehog and her compassion for a hungry street person.

Third-grader Marcy, who can''t seem to do anything right, has an adventure involving a dragon and treasure, which bolsters her self-esteem.

Ten-year-old Josh, who finds his private school unbearable, joins forces with an elderly man in tending injured birds.

Having been dragged by his mother from one commune to another as she searches for a place to belong, fourteen-year-old Ty finds conditions at the new place, the Kingdom, intolerable, even while realizing that for some, such as his mother, this way of life is a haven.

Fifteen-year-old Jenny relates her family''s misadventures homesteading in the Adirondack Mountains during the summer.

After reading a book describing the aftermath of a nuclear war, fourteen-year-old Whitney becomes obsessed with the inevitability of the earth''s destruction and finds herself more and more paralyzed by fear and depression.

Fifteen-year-old Jennifer recounts more adventures of the Skinner family as they set off on a vacation across the United States in a motor home.

Fifteen-year-old Jenny relates the further adventures of the Skinner family when her father decides to incorporate the entire family into his new business venture called "At your Service."