Authors: Chris Crutcher.
Mass Market Paperback, 224 pages
Publisher: Laurel Leaf
Publication Date: 2002-12-10


Reviews :

    There’s bad news and good news about the Cutter High School swim team. The bad news is that they don’t have a pool. The good news is that only one of them can swim anyway. A group of misfits brought together by T. J. Jones (the J is redundant), the Cutter All Night Mermen struggle to find their places in a school that has no place for them. T.J. is convinced that a varsity letter jacket–exclusive, revered, the symbol (as far as T.J. is concerned) of all that is screwed up at Cutter High–will also be an effective tool. He’s right. He’s also wrong. Still, it’s always the quest that counts. And the bus on which the Mermen travel to swim meets soon becomes the space where they gradually allow themselves to talk, to fit, to grow. Together they’ll fight for dignity in a world where tragedy and comedy dance side by side, where a moment’s inattention can bring lifelong heartache, and where true acceptance is the only prescription for what ails us....

    T. J. Jones is black, Japanese, and white; his given name is The Tao (honest!), and he's the son of a woman who abandoned him when she got heavily into crack and crank. As a child he was full of rage, but now as a senior in high school he's pretty much overcome all that. With the help of a good therapist and his decent, loving, ex-hippie adoptive parents, he's not only fairly even-keeled, he has turned out to be smart and funny.

Injustice, however, still fills him with fury. So when big-deal football star Mike Barbour bullies brain-damaged Chris Coughlin for wearing his dead brother's letter jacket, T.J. hatches a scheme for revenge. He assembles a swim team (in a school with no pool) made up of the most outrageous outsiders and misfits he can find and extracts a conditional promise of those sacred letter jackets from the coach. After weeks of dedicated practice at the All Night Fitness pool, the seven mermen get good enough not to embarrass themselves in competition. The really important thing, though, turns out to be the long bus rides to meets, a safe place to share the hurts that have made them who they are. Meanwhile, T.J.'s father, who has taken in a battered little girl to ease his lifelong guilt over his role in the accidental death of a baby, tangles with another bully--her stepfather--and his growing murderous rage.

Chris Crutcher, therapist and author of seven prize-winning young adult books, here gives his many fans another wise and compassionate story full of the intensity of athletic competition and hair-raising incidents of child abuse. (Ages 12 and older) --Patty Campbell...

Authors: Paul Amdahl.
Paperback, 128 pages
Publisher: Clearwater Publishing
Publication Date: 2000-12-01


Reviews :

    A fishing book for kids...

Authors: Tricia Rayburn.
Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Aladdin
Publication Date: 2007-04-24


Reviews :

    Maggie looked down and barely saw her toenails peeking out from the shadow of her stomach. She closed her eyes and slowly stepped onto the scale. Once she finally opened her eyes, Maggie almost fell off the scale.

Maggie Bean's having a tough year. Since her dad lost his job he spends more time watching TV than talking to his family, and her mom's totally stressed about money. So Maggie focuses on what she does best: keeping up her straight-A average and eating chocolate.

Lots and lots of chocolate.

But everything changes when Maggie gets a chance to try out for the synchronized swim team. Becoming a Water Wing has always been Maggie's dream -- who wouldn't want to have an instant circle of friends and wear that cute silver bathing suit? As a Water Wing, maybe she'll start believing she's more than just a socially awkward bookworm. Maybe people will see past the extra weight she's recently gained to the funny, cool girl hiding underneath. And maybe, just maybe, Peter Applewood will finally notice her.

It all depends on Maggie Bean, who thinks she knows who she is, but is about to find out for sure....

Authors:
Hardcover, 40 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Publication Date: 2004-02-24


Reviews :

    What I need for a good day's fishing is in here somewhere....

What's the secret to a good day's fishing?

Bright sun.

Cool breeze.

Favorite rod and reel.

Tackle box with bobbers,

hooks, and sinkers.

But we haven't gotten

to the secret...yet.

James Prosek, best-selling author of Trout and Fly-Fishing the 41st,tells the story of a good day's fishing in this beautiful picture book, illustrated with the author's own gentle watercolors. For those who want to learn more about how to fish, there's a comprehensive glossary of lures and flies in the back of the book. A Good Day's Fishing will make a fisherman or fisherwoman out of anyone -- even a first-timer....

Authors: Tricia Rayburn.
Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Aladdin
Publication Date: 2008-05-06


Reviews :

    She was no longer the boring girl who hid in her bedroom eating mounds of chocolate every night. She was the new and improved Maggie Bean, and she was going to do her best to convince Peter Applewood that she was the girl for him.

At the end of her tumultuous year, Maggie Bean is a very happy, healthy girl. After months of Pound Patrollers attendance, diet, and tough swim workouts, the scale now reads 146. But Maggie isn't resting on her laurels - she's got a busy summer ahead. Not only is she new and improved, but she's decided now is the right time to tell Peter her true feelings....

Authors:
Paperback, 24 pages
Publisher: Candlewick
Publication Date: 1999-08-04


Reviews :

    Maisy's fun and familiar world reflects favorite TV episodes—and the lively adventures young children have every day.

One of four adventures familiar to children who watch Maisy on TV, in MAISY'S POOL, Maisy and her friends splash in a wading pool. As always, toddlers, preschoolers, and parents will find the ordinary extraordinary with Maisy!...

Authors:
Paperback, 40 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: 2002-06-01


Reviews :

    A flock of birds was moving toward me along the river, hovering over something floating on the water. It drifteddownstream, closer and closer, until finally it bumped up against the dock. Though it was covered with leaves and branches, now I could tell that it was a raft. I reached down and pushed some of the leaves aside. Beneath them was a drawing of a rabbit. It looked like those ancient cave paintings I'd seen in books--just outlines, but wild and fast and free.

Nicky isn't one bit happy about spending the summer with his grandma in the Wisconsin woods, but them the raft appears and changes everything. As Nicky explores, the raft works a subtle magic, opening up the wonders all around him--the animals of river and woods, his grandmother's humor and wisdom, and his own special talent as an artist.

...

    Imagine passing a summer drifting up and down a slow-moving river, watching as cranes, turtles, raccoons, otters, and ducks grow accustomed to your presence. Envision days spent poling the raft through lily pads and grasses, glimpsing foxes through the trees on shore. On hot, sticky nights, picture a tent set up on the raft, from which you have an unobstructed view of huge bucks drinking from the moonlit river. Nicky has no idea what he's getting into when his father drops him off for the summer at his grandmother's cottage in the woods. And he's not especially pleased at the prospect. "There's nobody to play with ... She doesn't even have a TV." But this "river rat" is not the normal kind of grandma. Without pushing, she quietly allows Nicky to discover for himself the wonders of river life. Gradually, Nicky's interest in drawing the wildlife he sees brings him closer to his artist grandmother, and to an inner peace that looks as though it will last for a lifetime.

Jim LaMarche draws on his own childhood summer experiences for this lovely, serene story. As the light and weather change through the summer, the river reflects all the beauty of the season. LaMarche has illustrated many remarkable and award-winning picture books, including the magical Little Oh and The Rainbabies. (Ages 4 to 9) --Emilie Coulter ...

Authors: Charles Fuge.
Board book, 32 pages
Publisher: Sterling
Publication Date: 2006-03-28


Reviews :

    Now in board! The ever-popular Wombat’s back in a format that’s just right for the smallest children. Award-winning author and illustrator Charles Fuge—whose Sometimes I Curl Up in a Ball sold 106,000 copies—has created a fun-filled tale about discovering new friends and appreciating others' differences.

Fans of Charles Fuge's Little Wombat will rejoice at the adorable creature's watery exploits, and at the introduction of an appealing new friend for his hero: a Platypus with a funny, fuzzy face who waddles as he walks and swims like a fish. And to swim is what Little Wombat wants to do most of all. But are wombats meant for the water...or is he better off staying on dry land? Every child who has ever eyed the swimming pool nervously will happily follow Little Wombat's success.
“The…illustrations are warm and reflective, and show the growing connection between the pair. They also depict the humor of the struggle as Wombat learns to swim. This story offers a good lesson about friendship [and] is…reassuring...”—School Library Journal
 
Praise for Sometimes I like to Curl Up In a Ball!
"With a repertoire of comic expressions worthy of Nathan Lane...[t]his book from a British duo is silly to the core, but it is also a pointed paean to the power of unscheduled play."--Publishers Weekly

"This book celebrates the world of a preschooler with verve and excitement...Wombat is buoyant and darling, charming and fun."--School Library Journal
 
Charles Fuge has won both the Macmillan Prize and the Mother Goose Award for his first book, Bush Vark's Day Out, and his Sometimes I Curl Up in a Ball was "Highly Commended" for the Kate Greenaway Medal. His other popular titles include I Know a Rhino, My Dad, and It's a Monster Party.

Authors: Stan Berenstain. Jan Berenstain.
Paperback, 32 pages
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: 1998-06-09


Reviews :

    Now young children can read Bear Country tales all by themselves! In the

Berenstain Bears' exciting Step into Reading debut, Brother and Sister can't

wait to go swimming. But first, there are many jobs to do in the Bear Family's

summer house. There are rooms to clean, groceries to put away, closets to air

out, suitcases to unpack, and on and on. Will the cubs ever get to dip their

tootsies in the sea?




...

Authors: Elizabeth Koda-Callan.
Hardcover, 48 pages
Publisher: Workman Publishing Company
Publication Date: 2004-11-01
Edition: Book and Access

Reviews :

    With over 4.1 million copies in print, Elizabeth Koda-Callan's Magic Charm Books is the little series that could. Now, The Silver Slippers takes a dramatic new turn with a fresh redesign featuring a new cover and an irresistible 5" x 6 1³2" trim size--a smaller book for smaller hands, and the perfect stocking stuffer. The look is contemporary, yet as classic as the story inside, with its ageless message of "Good things happen when you believe in yourself." And, of course, nestled inside the cover is a charm on a matching gold or silver chain....