by Maud Hart Lovelace (2000)
High School is Heaven! It's Betsy Ray's freshman year at Deep Valley High School, and she and her best childhood chum, Tacy Kelly, are loving every minute. Betsy and Tacy find themselves in the midst of a new crowd of friends, with studies aplenty (including Latin and--ugh--algebra), parties and picnics galore, Sunday night lunches at home--and boys! There's Cab Edwards, the jolly boy next door; handsome Herbert Humphreys; and the mysteriously unfriendly, but maddeningly attractive, Joe Willard. Betsy likes them all, but no boy in particular catches her fancy until she meets the new boy in town, Tony Markham . . . the one she and Tacy call the Tall Dark Handsome Stranger. He's sophisticated, funny, and dashing--and treats Betsy just like a sister. Can Betsy turn him into a beau? "An entertaining picture of school clubs, fudge parties, sings around the piano, and Sunday-night suppers in Betsy's hospitable home." --*Chicago Tribune*.
Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Precocious eleven-year-old Libby had been educated by her bizarre and creative family until her absent mother insisted she go to school to become "socialized". She hates everything about school until she makes some highly original friends in a writing workshop.
Rachelle Delaney
"The Lost Souls have protected the famous treasure on Island X from the pirates. But now, a mysterious predator is prowling around their camp: a ferocious black panther. And with Captain Scarlet McCray stuck in Port Aberhard learning how to be a proper lady, Jem Fitzgerald is left to command the crew, protect the treasure, and keep tabs on both the panther and a new pirate captain, determined to best every pirate in the Islands"--