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Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World

This post was originally published on World Autism Awareness Day. In honor of those with autism and to raise awareness in some small way, this week’s book is about a truly remarkable person with autism.  About the book: When Temple Grandin was born, her parents knew that she was different. Years later she was diagnosed with […]

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The Lemonade War

The Lemonade War

About the Book: Evan Treski is people-smart. He is good at talking with people, even grownups. His younger sister, Jessie, on the other hand, is math-smart—but not especially good at understanding people. She knows that feelings are her weakest subject. So when their lemonade war begins, there really is no telling who will win—and even more […]

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The Evolution of Capurnia Tate book cover

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

About the Book: Calpurnia Virginia Tate is eleven years old in 1899 when she wonders why the yellow grasshoppers in her Texas backyard are so much bigger than the green ones.With a little help from her notoriously cantankerous grandfather, an avid naturalist, she figures out that the green grasshoppers are easier to see against the yellow […]

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The Cavendish Home book cover

The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls

About the Book: Victoria hates nonsense. There is no need for it when your life is perfect. The only smudge on her pristine life is her best friend Lawrence. He is a disaster—lazy and dreamy, shirt always untucked, obsessed with his silly piano. Victoria often wonders why she ever bothered being his friend. (Lawrence does too.) […]

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Flush book cover

Flush

About the Book: You know it’s going to be a rough summer when you spend Father’s Day visiting your dad in the local lockup. Noah’s dad is sure that the owner of the Coral Queen casino boat is flushing raw sewage into the harbor–which has made taking a dip at the local beach like swimming in a toilet. […]

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How Oliver Olson Changed the World book cover

How Oliver Olson Changed the World

About the Book: Oliver Olson’s teacher is always saying that one person with a big idea can change the world. But how is Oliver supposed to change the world when his parents won’t let him do anything on his own – not his class projects or even attending activities such as the space sleepover at school. […]

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Popular Clone book cover

Popular Clone

About the Book: Meet Fisher Bas: 12 years-old, growth-stunted, a geeky science genius, and son of the Nobel Prize-winning creators of the Bas-Hermaphrodite-Sea-Slug-Hypothesis. No surprise: Fisher isn’t exactly the most popular kid in his middle-school, tormented daily by the beefy, overgrown goons he calls The Vikings. But he senses relief when he comes upon the idea […]

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The Year the Swallows Came Early

The Year the Swallows Came Early

About the Book: Eleanor “Groovy” Robinson loves cooking and plans to go to culinary school just as soon as she’s old enough. But even Groovy’s thoughtfully-planned menus won’t fix the things that start to go wrong the year she turns eleven–suddenly, her father is in jail, her best friend’s long-absent mother reappears, and the swallows that […]

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The Reinvention of Edison Thoman

The Reinvention of Edison Thomas

About the Book: Eddy Thomas can read a college physics book, but he can’t read the emotions on the faces of his classmates at Drayton Middle School. He can spend hours tinkering with an invention, but he can’t stand more than a few minutes in a noisy crowd, like the crowd at the science fair, which […]

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One Day in the Desert book cover

One Day in the Desert

About the Book: As day breaks in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona, a wounded mountain lion limps toward a Papago Indian hut. The lion fears people, but today he is desperately hungry. And he has caught the scent of Birdwing and her mother. Then a loud thunderclap warns Birdwing, the mountain lion, and all the creatures […]

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