An adolescent girl learns that realizing a dream requires a good deal more than stubborn, steely resolve as she risks everything to follow her heart. IT'S NOT FAIR! Thirteen-year-old Joelle Cunningham is passionate about baseball. She loves to watch it, read about it, and, most of all, play it. But when her family moves from Minneapolis to the small town of Greendale, Iowa, she quickly discovers that there are strict rules preventing her from playing on the school baseball team. At Hoover Middle School, only boys play baseball. Girls play softball. It's not the same sport! Joelle tries to tell everyone. But no one is listening. Not Coach Carlyle--even though his baseball team is at the bottom of the league, he doesn't want her on his team. Not Ms. Fenner, the softball coach--she wants Joelle to use her big league swing to benefit the girls' team. Not her new friend, Elizabeth, who is growing tired of her complaints. Not even Jason, her older brother, who is too busy at college to be of much help. But Joelle is determined to play baseball. And through some creative problem-solving and surprising alliances she finds a solution to her dilemma that brings the disputing sides togetherÂ…and baseball to the girls of Greendale. Author Dori Butler has created a high-spirited, indomitable character that young girls will admire and root for in this story of frustrated ambition and ultimate triumph....

When Zebby and Amr create the website thetruthabouttruman.com, they want it to be honest. They want it to be about the real Truman Middle School, to say things that the school newspaper would never say, and to give everyone a chance to say what they want to say, too. But given the chance, some people will say anything—anything to hurt someone else. And when rumors about one popular student escalate to cruel new levels, it's clear the truth about Truman School is more harrowing than anyone ever imagined....

FOR THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD SAMANTHA, life consists of too many unanswered questions. Why has her father not tried to contact her all these years? How could he have allowed her twin sister to drown in Clearwater Quarry when they were only toddlers? And how can Samantha's mother expect her to accept some man she hardly knows as her new father? Samantha already has a father out there. Somewhere. A fateful decision sets into motion a chain of events and confrontations that will change Samantha's and her family's lives forever. As she sets out to find her father and discover what really happened the day her sister was presumed drowned, she uncovers painful secrets that threaten to destroy her family all over again. Readers will be drawn into Dori Butler's dramatic, suspenseful, and sensitive story of one family's crisis unwittingly brought on by an adolescent girl's search for the truth....

Tank's summer is not shaping up the way he'd hoped. It's bad enough that his three stepsisters will be sharing his cramped house for the summer vacation. Then he finds out that he has to work with a math tutor every day and fill a big notebook with his writing-just to pass fifth grade!

Tank wishes he could just sell his friend Jason's movie script to Hollywood. After all, Tank is Jason's agent. But passing fifth grade is a big deal too and soon, inspired by his brother's breakup with Jason's sister, Tank realizes he can fill his notebook writing a guide to girls. It will be a bestseller!

Tank has plenty of material to work with-his three stepsisters and Jason's strange new interest in Kelly, the Mistress of Evil. What is up with that, anyway? Readers first met Tank and Jason in Trading Places with Tank Talbott....

What happens when a loved one suffers a stroke? Often, for a child, the experience can be painful, invoking feelings of anger, fear, and confusion. My Grandpa Had a Stroke is a story of Ryan's relationship with his grandfather both before and after his grandfather suffers from a stroke, leaving both Ryan and his Grandfather to deal with the physical, mental, and emotional aftermath. After Ryan's grandfather has a stroke, their close relationship has to change and with the help of his parents, rehabilitation professionals, and Grandpa himself, Ryan learns what a stroke is and the stroke's effect on his grandfather, now and in the future.

My Grandpa Had a Stroke provides age-appropriate explanations of a stroke, its short- and long-term consequences, and its treatment, including rehabilitation. It deals simply and compassionately with a child's complex range of feelings when a loved one becomes disabled, and as Ryan adapts to his changing relationship with his grandfather, young readers too will be able to better understand their own emotions regarding any disabled loved ones in their own lives....

THIS EDITION IS INTENDED FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. When 13-year-old Joelle, a star baseball player, moves to a new town where the only option for girls is softball, she starts an all-girl baseball league against the wishes of her school coach...

Thirteen-year-old T.J. always believed that her twin sister and her mother were dead because that s what her father had told her. But Mom and Sam are very much alive. And now they want T.J. to be part of their family.

Life with Joe, her troubled but well-intentioned father, is all T.J. has ever known. Joe s erratic lifestyle has meant lying to social workers and searching through garbage cans for food. But T.J. loves him and the grandmother who has provided stability in her life. When T.J. reluctantly visits her mom and Sam for the first time, she is stunned by how similar she is to her twin sister in many ways, even though their lives have been very different. But while she is drawn to her new family, she is also wary of becoming attached to them and hurting her father s feelings. When Joe suffers a debilitating accident and tries to ensnare T.J. in another web of lies, however, her loyalties are finally tested. Now she must confront the truth about her family, even if it hurts the people she loves.

In this thought-provoking companion to the popular DO YOU KNOW THE MONKEY MAN?, author Dori Hillestad Butler has created a highly readable, complex portrait of a family in crisis. Her skillful portrayal of T. J., a conflicted adolescent struggling with her identity and reacting to family pressures, will resonate with readers....