Like every other kid in his class, Joe Stoscack has to write a report on an African American who's made an important contribution to society.  Unlike every other kid in his class, Joe has a special talent.  With the help of his baseball cards, he can travel through time.  So for his report, Joe decides to go back to meet one of the greatest baseball players ever, Jackie Robinson, to find out what it was like to be the man who broke baseball's color barrier.  Joe plans on writing a prize-winning report, but he doesn't plan on a trip that will for a short time change the color of his skin-and forever change his view of history and his definition of courage.

Wayside School was supposed to be built with 30 classrooms all next to each other in a row.  Instead, it is an architectural accident that was built sideways.  The classrooms were stacked one on top of the other, 30 stories tall!  This book includes some hilarious and fun stories about the school, the teachers, and the students.  

Ten year old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father-the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.  Once he decides to hit the road and find this mystery man, nothing can stop him. 

People are always daring Billy to do zany things.  But Billy may have bitten off more than he can chew when he takes his friend Alan's bet that Billy can't eat 15 worms in 15 days.  If Billy wins, Alan has to fork over fifty dollars.  Billy wants the money to buy a used minibike, so he's ready to dig in.  He sets up mustard and ketchup, salt and pepper, and sugar and lemon to disguise the disgusting taste.  Good news for Billy-once he gets going, he finds himself actually getting hooked on those juicy worms.  Bad news for Billy-Alan is busy cooking up schemes to make Billy worm out of the bet.  Will Billy keep up his wormy work for 15 days?

Did you know that James West invented the microphone in your cell phone?  That Fred Jones invented the refrigerated truck that makes supermarkets possible?  Or that Dr. Percy Julian synthesized cortisone from soy, easing untold people's pain?  These are just some of the black inventors and innovators scoring big points in this dynamic look at several unsung heroes who share a desire to improve people's lives. 

Fourth graders are tough.  They aren't afraid of spiders.  They say no to their moms.  They push first graders off the swings.  And they never, ever cry.  Suds knows that now he's in fourth grade, he's supposed to be a rat.  But whenever he tries to act like one, something goes wrong.  Can Suds's friend Joey teach him to toughen up...or will Suds remain a fourth grade wimp?

Although he faces responsibility bravely, 13 year old Matt is more than a little apprehensive when his father leaves him alone to guard their new cabin in the wilderness.  When a renegade white stranger steals his gun, Matt realizes he has no way to shoot game or protect himself.  When Matt meets Attean, a boy in the Beaver clan, he begins to better understand their way of life and their growing problem in adapting to the white man and the changing frontier.

Tricia can't stand her rotten redheaded older brother Ritchie, who can do everything better than she can.  When her grandmother tells her a wish made on a shooting star will come true, she knows exactly what to wish for.

An entertaining book about the quick wit of Peter Hatcher and the hilarious antics of mischievous Fudge.

A stirring, dramatic story of a slave who mails himself to freedom by a Jane Addams Peace Award-winning author and a Coretta Scott King Award-winning artist.