conduct of life

Presents stories--including several by celebrities such as Shaquille O'Neal, Shannon Miller, and Kathy Ireland--of inspiration for children on such topics as love, friendship, family, attitude and perspective, and overcoming obstacles.

Well-known works including fables, folklore, fiction, drama, and more, by such authors as Aesop, Dickens, Tolstoy, Shakespeare, and Baldwin, are presented to teach virtues, including compassion, courage, honesty, friendship, and faith.

In 1599 England, twelve-year-old lying, thieving Will Sparrow runs away, meets many colorful characters on the road, and then reluctantly joins a traveling "oddities" exhibit, where he learns to see beyond appearances.

"George 'Suds' Morton competes with his third-grade classmates to earn the first 'halo' of the year for good behavior, but being good turns out to be more stressful than he anticipated"--Provided by publisher.

Third-grader EllRay is becoming famous for messing up, and when his little sister accidentally kills EllRay's class goldfish, and then he forgets his teacher's read-aloud book at home, it only makes matters worse.

Relates in comic strip style the adventures of the often selfish and self-absorbed Hamster and his affectionate friends Mole, Hedgehog, Snail, Squirrel and Rabbit as they ponder aspects of life and prepare to celebrate Hamster's birthday.

In rural Pennsylvania in 1958, when thirteen-year-old Luna's best friend Mason dies, she decides to move in with his mentally disabled mother and care for her as Mason did.

Stosh travels back to 1969 to try to prevent the untimely death of Roberto Clemente, a legendary baseball player and humanitarian, but upon his return to the present, he meets his own great-grandson who takes him into the future, and what he finds there is more shocking than anything he has encountered in his travels to the past.

Twelve-year-old Rob does not like to read and stuffs most of the books his parents give him into his closet with the rest of his junk, but when he finds a funny little creature behind the door that seems to be a cross between Willy Wonka and Frankenstein, he begins to see that reading can be an adventure.

Tara, a self-proclaimed shrinking violet, tries to break out of her shell by stealing the school mascot, a goat, but she gets caught and is shipped off for the summer to stay with relatives in the quirky town of Willow Falls, which she decides is as good a place as any to reinvent herself.