New Chapter Books in Orange

In Pakistan, Amal holds onto her dream of being a teacher even after becoming an indentured servant to pay off her family's debt to the wealthy and corrupt Khan family.

In 1350, a boy with a large hump on his back becomes the servant of a shadowy pilgrim on his way to Rome, who pulls the boy into a dangerous expedition across Europe to gather the seven precious relics of Saint Peter.

After his thievery conviction in 1724, Oliver Cromwell Pitts is sent from England across the Atlantic to America where he is enslaved on a tobacco farm, never giving up on finding his sister, Charity, brought to the colonies on a different ship.

"A rumor that Blackbeard's buried treasure is somewhere near Tupelo Landing causes pirate fever to sweep through town just as clues about Mo's Upstream Mother surface and the Desperado Detectives--aka Mo LoBeau and her best friends Dale and Harm--take on the most important case of Mo's life"--

4 stars

Twelve-year-old Candice Miller is spending the summer in Lambert, South Carolina, in the old house that belonged to her grandmother, who died after being dismissed as city manager for having the city tennis courts dug up looking for buried treasure--but when she finds the letter that sent her grandmother on the treasure hunt, she finds herself caught up in the mystery and, with the help of her new friend and fellow book-worm, Brandon, she sets out...

"The sea is salty and stretches for miles. The waves keep waving. The sand is hot. The gulls are diving. The dolphins are jumping. And the sisters--little sister, big sister, true sisters, secret sisters--are ready for summer."--Page [4] of cover.

When Martina Rivera becomes involved in making cupcakes for the student council bake sale with Bev's help, they get invited to participate in a web-based contest, but balancing that with school and magical stickers may be a challenge.

In 1927 Vermont, eleven-year-old Donut, recently orphaned after the death of her beloved pops, stands to lose everything when she learns her Aunt Agnes plans to move her to Boston, but little does her aunt know that Donut has no intentions of leaving her friends or her home.

In nineteenth-century England, after her father's disappearance Nan Sparrow, ten, works as a "climbing boy," aiding chimney sweeps, but when her most treasured possessions end up in a fireplace, she unwittingly creates a golem.

5 stars

Told in alternating voices, the teacher and students in room 117 find their lives changed over the course of a school year.