Youth Collection - Bullying

Henry Bunks lives in crowded Miami in the 1950s. A nearby canal -- an entrance to what will become the Florida Everglades -- provides respite from his chaotic life in an uncaring family. Henry meets and befriends an alligator hunter and stows away on his boat. The hunter, an enigmatic character, is at once an outlaw and a father figure to Henry. In the watery wilderness, the man and boy meet a wildlife photographer, a botanist, and a park ranger, and Henry is thrust into a race to save a human life. First published in 1959, this story combines great adventure with a boy's first experience of adults who are neither totally bad nor totally noble.

Future rock star or friendless misfit? That's no choice at all. In this acclaimed novel, twelve-year-old Apple grapples with being different; with friends and backstabbers; and with following her dreams. Publishers Weekly called Blackbird Fly "a true triumph," and the Los Angeles Times Book Review said, "Apple soars like the eponymous blackbird of her favorite Beatles song." Apple has always felt a little different from her classmates. She and her mother moved to Louisiana from the Philippines when she was little, and her mother still cooks Filipino foods and chastises Apple for becoming "too American." When Apple's friends turn on her and everything about her life starts to seem weird and embarrassing, Apple turns to music. If she can just save enough to buy a guitar and learn to play, maybe she can change herself. It might be the music that saves her . . . or it might be her two new friends, who show her how special she really is.

Blubber is a good name for her, the note from Wendy says about Linda. Jill crumples it up and leaves it on the corner of her desk. She doesn't want to think about Linda or her dumb report on the whale just now. Jill wants to think about Halloween. But Robby grabs the note, and before Linda stops talking it has gone halfway around the room. That's where it all starts. There's something about Linda that makes a lot of kids in her fifth-grade class want to see how far they can go -- but nobody, least of all Jill, expects the fun to end where it does.

With her friends and familia by her side, Gabi is ready for anything--sort of. Maritza Gabriela Morales Mercado (Gabi for short) has big problemas. Her worst enemy, Johnny Wiley, is driving her crazy. He makes fun of her name. He picks on her friends. And now Gabi has to spend an entire month working with him on a school project! Gabi is so upset she can't even talk straight. Her English words keep getting jumbled up with her Spanish words. Now she's speaking a crazy mix of both, and no one knows what she's saying! Will Gabi ever make sense again? Or will she be tongue-tied forever?

Sylvie Scruggs faces hockey sticks and mean-girl tricks - and still comes out on top. Sylvie Scruggs is finally in fourth grade, and that means she's old enough to join her town's junior ice-hockey team. Sylvie is thrilled to discover her years of skating pay off, as she quickly becomes one of the best players on the squad. But someone else is still better: Jamie Redmond, a fifth-grader who notoriously doesn't like fourth-graders. And, it turns out, she really doesn't like Sylvie. Then someone starts pranking Sylvie at practice, loosening the top of her water bottle and replacing her special lotion with mayonnaise. Sylvie knows it must be Jamie, trying to psych her out and keep her from being selected as team captain. She enlists her friends Miranda, Josh, and Georgie to prove Jamie's guilt once and for all . . . but can they catch the mean girl before Sylvie has a meltdown of her own?

Dani's been trying her best to stay happy ever since her best friend Ella moved away. But when some girls in Dani's class start being cruel to her, it starts a chain of rather unhappy events.

Getting picked on by creeps at your school? Wish you had a special friend? Meet Ricky Ricotta and his giant flying Robot! Young readers will cheer as Ricky and his enormous flying Robot friend soar through the air and battle the diabolical Dr. Stinky, an evil scientist who threatens to take over the world!

What do you do if you're buried in an avalanche? Roxie Warbler knows what to do in all kinds of situations. And she's learned it all from her favorite book: Lord Thistlebottom's Book of Pitfalls and How to Survive Them. But there's one situation Roxie doesn't know how to handle and that's dealing with Helvetia's Hooligans, the meanest band of bullies in school. Then Roxie and the hooligans are stranded together on a desert island, the hideout of a couple of criminals on the lam. Can five kids, armed with only a load of survival tactics and a little bit of teamwork, vanquish the villains and find their way home?

Growing up in the shadows cast by two world wars, Annabelle has lived a mostly quiet, steady life in her small Pennsylvania town. Until the day new student Betty Glengarry walks into her class. Betty quickly reveals herself to be cruel and manipulative, and while her bullying seems isolated at first, things quickly escalate, and reclusive World War I veteran Toby becomes a target of her attacks. While others have always seen Toby's strangeness, Annabelle knows only kindness. She will soon need to find the courage to stand as a lone voice of justice as tensions mount.

Following little Shannon's life from kindergarten through fifth grade, Real Friends captures the emotional roller coaster ride of friendship, from navigating the tricky waters of cliques and bullies to her never-ending struggle to stay in "The Group." Shannon's honest and heartfelt story reminds us of how hard it was to learn what real friends are--and why finding them is worth the journey.

Longing to be one of the popular girls in her new town, Kammie Summers has fallen into a well during a (fake) initiation into their club. Now Kammie's trapped in the dark, counting the hours, waiting to be rescued. (The Girls have gone for help, haven't they?) As hours pass, Kammie's real-life predicament mixes with memories of the best and worst moments of her life so far, including the awful reasons her family moved to this new town in the first place. And as she begins to feel hungry and thirsty and light-headed, Kammie starts to imagine she has company, including a French-speaking coyote and goats that just might be zombies.

Twelve-year-old Shane Woods is just a regular boy. He loves pitching for his baseball team, working on his graphic novel, and hanging out with his best friend, Josh. But Shane is keeping something private, something that might make a difference to his friends and teammates, even Josh. And when a classmate threatens to reveal his secret, Shane's whole world comes crashing down. It will take a lot of courage for Shane to ignore the hate and show the world that he's still the same boy he was before. And in the end, those who stand beside him may surprise everyone, including Shane.

A bright, bold debut about a girl who was born a boy, but refuses to let that stand in the way of her dream. More than anything else, George wants to play Charlotte in her fourth-grade class's production of Charlotte's Web. The problem is, her teacher won't let her, because George is a boy. But George isn't about to let that squash her dream. With the help of her best friend, George must learn to stand up for her wish - and brave a few bullies along the way. Transcending all categories and genres,George is a pertinent and poignant middle-grade read for kids of all backgrounds.

When 10-year-old Liam's family moves to be near his grandmother who is suffering from dementia, he's left to navigate his new neighborhood, school and grandmother's illness all by himself; His mom regularly loses herself in a bottle of wine, and his sister sneaks out to who knows where shortly after "wine o'clock"—as they've come to call it—strikes. Life it isn't easy. The one place he seems to find solace is a rundown church where he finds an over-sized gargoyle that keeps drawing him in. After learning that they were created to protect people from demons and evil spirits, he can't seem to shake the image of the old stone bird and its presence weaves itself into the stories Liam tells himself and others, so much so that Liam starts to believe that it might be alive. Shy Liam's only means of confidence during shared story time is to tell tales of the gargoyle. His classmate mock him at first but are soon are captivated by his storytelling, and his teacher's slight nods of encouragement fuel Liam's belief in the bird and lead him to think that she knows a thing or two about the old bird herself. As his home life gets harder and the bullies more relentless the gargoyle seemingly brings Liam's stories to life-swooping in to protect and defend him in the most unexpected ways. But is the old stone bird really alive, or is it just Liam's imagination finding ways to help him through a difficult time?