A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021) Run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with E. L. Konigsburg’s beloved classic and Newbery Medal­–winning novel From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler ! When Claudia decided to run away, she planned very carefully. She would be gone just long enough to teach her parents a lesson in Claudia appreciation. And she would go in comfort-she would live at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She saved her money, and she invited her brother Jamie to go, mostly because be was a miser and would have money. Claudia was a good organizer and Jamie bad some ideas, too; so the two took up residence at the museum right on schedule. But once the fun of settling in was over, Claudia had two unexpected problems: She felt just the same, and she wanted to feel different; and she found a statue at the Museum so beautiful she could not go home until she bad discovered its maker, a question that baffled the experts, too. The former owner of the statue was Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Without her—well, without her, Claudia might never have found a way to go home.

CALDECOTT HONOR BOOK The Amazing Bone tells the story of Pearl, a pig, who forms a friendship with a talking bone in this timeless picture book by William Steig, the Caldecott and Newbery Medal-winning creator of Shrek! . It's a bright and beautiful spring day, and Pearl, a pig, is dawdling on her way home from school. Most unexpectedly, she strikes up an acquaintance with a small bone. Pearl and the bone immediately take a liking to each other, and before you know it she is on her way home with the bone in her purse, left open so they can continue their conversation. But the trip home turns out to be surprisingly treacherous. Can a pig and a talking bone outwit a band of robbers and a hungry fox? In the world of William Steig, anything is possible.

William's Steig's Abel's Island tells the story of a mouse who gets swept away from his beloved wife — a truly timeless classic about life's simple pleasures. Abel's place in his familiar, mouse world has always been secure; he had an allowance from his mother, a comfortable home, and a lovely wife, Amanda. But one stormy August day, furious flood water carry him off and dump him on an uninhabited island. Despite his determination and stubborn resourcefulness--he tried crossing the river with boats and ropes and even on stepping-stones--Abel can't find a way to get back home. Days, then weeks and months, pass. Slowly, his soft habits disappear as he forages for food, fashions a warm nest in a hollow log, models clay statues of his family for company, and continues to brood on the problem of how to get across the river--and home. Abel's time on the island brings him a new understanding of the world he's separated from. Faced with the daily adventure of survival in his solitary, somewhat hostile domain, he is moved to reexamine the easy way of life he had always accepted and discovers skills and talents in himself that hold promise of a more meaningful life, if and when he should finally return to Mossville and his dear Amanda again. Abel's Island is a 1976 New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year and Outstanding Book of the Year, and a 1977 Newbery Honor Book. It was adapted to a short animated film directed by Michael Sporn in 1988.

"The Newbery-winning author of Holes fulfills a need the world probably didn't even know it had . . . for smart and puzzle-minded teens . . ."— Booklist The summer after junior year of high school looks bleak for Alton Richards. His girlfriend has dumped him, he has no money and no job, and his parents insist that he drive his great-uncle Lester, who is old, blind, very sick, and very rich, to his bridge club four times a week and be his cardturner. But Alton's parents aren't the only ones trying to worm their way into Lester Trapp's good graces. There is Trapp's longtime housekeeper, his alluring young nurse, and the crazy Castaneda family. Alton soon finds himself intrigued by his uncle, by the game of bridge, and especially by the pretty and shy Toni Castaneda, as he struggles to figure out what it all means, and ultimately to figure out the meaning of his own life.

Set in the world of the Newbery Honor-winning Ella Enchanted, this tale by beloved author Gail Carson Levine stars a clever heroine who is determined to defy expectations—and outwit a fairy’s curse. Evie is happiest when she is healing people, diagnosing symptoms and prescribing medications, with the help of her devoted friend (and test subject) Wormy. So when Wormy unexpectedly proposes to her, she kindly turns him down; she has far too much to do to be marrying anyone. And besides, she simply isn’t in love with him. But a certain meddling fairy named Lucinda has been listening in, and she doesn’t approve of Evie’s rejection. Suddenly, Evie finds herself transformed from a girl into a hideous, hungry ogre! Stuck in this new and confusing form, Evie now has only sixty-two days to accept another proposal—or else be stuck as an ogre forever.

The Newbery Honor-winning book from the author of Summer of My German Soldier Philip Hall is the cutest, smartest boy in the sixth grade, and Beth Lambert loves him. The fact that he beats her in classwork, sports, and almost everything else doesn't bother Beth at first. Then she realizes that Philip might be best because she's letting him beat her. Beth knows that she deserves to be Number One--and she's going to prove it! This funny, universal story of a girl learning that she matters in the world has delighted readers for over twenty years. A New York Times Outstanding Book An ALA Notable Book Kirkus Choice Award

“Vivid and moving. I loved it.” —Rebecca Stead, Newbery-winning author of When You Reach Me Julia and Eliza are best friends, so when Julia’s mom is sent to serve in Iraq, it makes perfect sense for her to spend the summer with Eliza and her parents. Any other time, Julia would be thrilled to be there. But on top of worrying about her mom, Julia develops her first real crush. The gap between Julia and Eliza keeps widening—until Eliza does something drastic to win back her best friend. In her follow-up to the award-winning Anything But Typical , Nora Baskin Raleigh has written a powerful, touching story about friendship, first love, and how the people who are farthest away from us are sometimes the ones we need the most.

Two girls become fast friends practicing witchcraft together. Just when they think they've perfected their special flying potion, Jennifer and Elizabeth quarrel over the main ingredient. Will it take a magic spell to make them friends again? A Newbery Medal winner.

From the editors of From One Experience to Another comes a new collection featuring celebrated writers for young adults. Contributors include Newbery Medal winners Jerry Spinelli and Betsty Byars, Paul Zindel, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and Jon Scieszka, author of The Stinky Cheese Man & Other Fairly Stupid Tales, a New York Times "Notable Book of the Year." Other authors include T.A. Barron, Tamora Pearce, Mary Ann McGuigan, Lois Metzger, Mel Glenn, Joyce Hansen, Rich Wallace, Joan Abelove and Eleanora E. Tate.

Born into slavery, adopted as an infant by a princess, and raised in the palace of mighty Pharaoh, Moses struggles to define himself. And so do the three women who love him: his own embittered mother, forced to give him up by Pharaoh's decree; the Egyptian princess who defies her father and raises Moses as her own child; and his headstrong sister Almah, who discovers a greater kinship with the Egyptian deities than with her own God of the Hebrews. Told by Moses and his sister Almah from alternating points of view, this stunning novel by Newbery Honor-author Julius Lester probes questions of identity, faith, and destiny.