Patricia Reilly Giff

Water Street

Brooklyn, 1875: Bird Mallon lives on Water Street where you can see the huge towers of the bridge to Manhattan being built. Bird wants nothing more in life than to be brave enough to be a healer, like her mother, Nory, to help her sister Annie find love, and to convince her brother, Hughie, to stop fighting for money with his street gang. Read more...

Hardcover | Hardcover Library Binding

Willow Run

Meggie Dillon’s life has been turned upside down by World War II. Her older brother Eddie enlisted and was shipped off to fight in Europe. And people say that anywhere else Grandpa would be turned in because he’s German, and people might think he’s a spy. Is it true? Could Grandpa be taken away? Read more...

Hardcover | Hardcover Library Binding

All the Way Home

It's August 1941, and Brick and Mariel both love the Brooklyn Dodgers. Brick listens to their games on the radio in Windy Hill, in upstate New York, where his family has an apple orchard; Mariel, once a polio patient in the hospital in Windy Hill, lives in Brooklyn near the Dodgers' home, Ebbets Field. Read more...

Hardcover | Hardcover Library Binding | Paperback

Fourth-Grade Celebrity

Tired of being compared with her popular older sister, Casey decides she will make herself over. Read more...

The Gift of the Pirate Queen

Grace O'Malley is doing just fine taking care of her father and younger sister, Amy. She certainly doesn't want her cousin Fiona from Ireland to move in and take over. Grace has enough to worry about, what with Amy's diabetes and her own problems at school with her teacher. Read more...

A House of Tailors

Sewing! No one could hate it more than Dina Kirk.

Endless tiny stitches, button holes, darts. Since she was tiny, she's worked in her family's dressmaking business, where the sewing machine is a cranky member of the family. Read more...

Hardcover | Hardcover Library Binding
Audio Cassette | Downloadable Audiobook | eBook

Lily's Crossing

Every summer Lily and her father go to her family's house in Rockaway, near the Atlantic Ocean. But the summer of 1944 is different. World War II has called Lily's father overseas, Lily's best friend Margaret had to move with her family to a wartime factory town, and Lily is forced to live with her grandmother. Read more...

Praise:

"Details . . . are woven with great effect into a realistic story of ordinary people who must cope with events beyond their comprehension." --Starred, The Horn Book Magazine

"Set during World War II, this tenderly written story tells of the war's impact on two children, one an American and one a Hungarian refugee. Giff's well-drawn, believable characters and vivid prose style make this an excellent choice." --School Library Journal

Newbery Honor Winner

Hardcover | Paperback
Audio Cassette | Downloadable Audiobook | eBook

Maggie's Door

Maggie's Door is the story of the journey from Ireland to America told by both Nory and her neighbor and friend Sean Red Mallon, two different stories with the same destination--the home of Nory's sister Maggie, at 416 Smith Street, Brooklyn, America. Read more...

Hardcover | Hardcover Library Binding
Audio Cassette | Downloadable Audiobook | eBook

Nory Ryan's Song

Nory Ryan's family has lived on Maidin Bay on the west coast of Ireland for generations, raising a pig and a few chickens, planting potatoes, getting by. Every year Nory's father goes away on a fishing boat and returns with the rent money for the English lord who owns their cottage and fields . . . Read more...

Praise:

"Newbery Honor winner Giff weaves wisps of history into this wrenching tale of an Irish family sundered by the Great Potato Famine . . . Riveting." --Starred, Kirkus Reviews

"Giff brings the landscape and the cultural particulars of the era vividly to life and creates in Nory a heroine to cheer for. A beautiful, heart-warming novel that makes a devastating event understandable." --Starred, Booklist

Hardcover | Paperback | Audio Cassette

Pictures of Hollis Woods

Hollis Woods has been in so many foster homes she can hardly remember them all. She even runs away from the Regans, the one family who offers her a home. Read more...

Newbery Honor Winner

Hardcover | Hardcover Library Binding | Paperback
Audio Cassette | Downloadable Audiobook

Praise for the Kids of the Polk Street School series:

"Humor and trials are portrayed through realistic characters and situations and natural dialogue." --School Library Journal

"An affectionate picture of lower elementary students making their way through the ups and downs of classroom life." --Booklist

"An easy-to-read chapter book for fans of the series, as well as for those planning a visit." --School Library Journal

All About Stacy

Stacy can't wait to start her new class project, making an "About-Me" box. Into it will go special things that she likes. Jiwon's putting a scrap of her old baby dress in her About-Me box. Eddie's putting pictures of food in his. But Stacy can't think of one thing to put in hers. Read more...

B-E-S-T Friends

Horrible! That's what Stacy thinks the new girl Annie is. And having to be Annie's partner in class is horrible too. Annie stores her snack in the wrong place, and she has no front teeth. Her whistling scares away the birds outdoors. Read more...

The Beast and the Halloween Horror

Halloween should be fun, but Beast is in big trouble. He was working really hard on his spelling homework when Ms. Rooney read The Halloween Horror to the class. Then she told the students to write to the author. Read more...

The Beast in Ms. Rooney's Room

It's September again. What does it mean for Richard "Beast" Best to be left back? It means being teased by his old friends while he's stuck facing the same old teacher in the same old classroom. He even has to take a special reading class with "babies" like Emily Arrow and Matthew Jackson. Read more...

The Candy Corn Contest

It's almost Thanksgiving, and Richard Best can't stop thinking about Ms. Rooney's Candy Corn contest. Whoever can guess the exact number of yellow-and-orange candies in the jar on Ms. Roney's desk gets to keep them all. Read more...

The Case of the Cool Itch Kid

Dawn Bosco's on her way to summer camp. She can't wait for the fun to begin, but when her shell mirror and a favorite pin disappear, it's time for the Polka Dot Private Eye to investigate. Read more...

December Secrets

Emily is stuck with crybaby Jill Simon as her "secret Pal" to be kind to for the whole month of December. Read more...

Emily Arrow Promises to Do Better This Year

Ms. Rooney asks her students to make New Year's resolutions and Emily promises "to do better"--at everything. But can she keep such a challenging resolution? Read more...

Fancy Feet

"Little kids don't go to jail."

At least Stacy's hoping they don't! It's not easy to be good all the time. Stacy just had to try on the beautiful gold shoes her friend Jiwon brought to school to sell in the class store. Read more...

Fish Face

Emily Arrow may be a poor reader, but she's terrific in math and is also the fastest runner in her class. In October school gets even better when a newcomer from Florida, Dawn Tiffanie Bosco, joins the class and sits next to her. Read more...

Garbage Juice for Breakfast

Dawn Bosco can't wait! Her camp counselor, Miss Perry, has just handed out clues for a treasure hunt. Dawn's itching to put on her Polka Dot Private Eye hat and find the hidden treasure. But her friend Lizzie Lee's hot on the trail. too! Read more...

In the Dinosaur's Paw

It's the first day back to school after winter vacation, and Richard Best is off to a bad start. Who ever heard of a January without any snow? And as usual, he has already forgotten something--the ruler Ms. Rooney had told him to bring for dinosaur day. Read more...

Lazy Lions, Lucky Lambs

The children in Ms. Rooney's room are supposed to be writing about real people, but writing is Beast's worst subject. Read more...

Look Out, Washington D.C.!

Wow! Washington, D.C.! Ms. Rooney's whole class gets to go on a two-day trip to the nation's capital. They'll see all kinds of great sights--the Washington Monument, the National A rand Space Museum, the zoo, and lots more· Emily Arrow can hardly wait. Read more...

Monster Rabbit Runs Amuck!

It's springtime and it's almost Richard "Beast" Best's birthday. His sister, Holly, is even giving him a surprise party. Or so he thinks. But what will she do when she finds out that Beast has squashed her egg-carton jewelry box? Read more...

Next Stop, New York City!

Bright lights, big city--Ms. Rooney's class is heading for NYC! They'll see dinosaurs at the American Museum of Natural History and they'll visit the Bronx Zoo, the Statue of Liberty, and many more sights. They'll even be in a Flag Day parade. Read more...

Pickle Puss

It's August, and Emily has big plans at the library. She's going to read lots of books and tack a paper fish next to her name for each one. Then Dawn Bosco says she can read more books than Emily. Read more...

Purple Climbing Days

What's worse than a blue Monday? For Richard "Beast" Best, it's a purple Monday spent climbing a fat brown rope with fat brown knots. Read more...

Say "Cheese"

Hurray, it's June! The last month of school!

Emily Arrow and the other children in Ms. Rooney's room are excited about the class picnic at the park. Mrs. Stewart, the student teacher, is even going to take class pictures. Read more...

Snaggle Doodles

April is invention month. "We're going to make our own inventions," says Ms. Rooney, "and work together in groups."

Though Emily Arrow knows it's important for each group to think, listen, and share, she still wishes she were the leader of her invention group. Read more...

Spectacular Stone Soup

"You never help people," Jiwon says.

Her friend is right. Stacy can't remember the last time she'd helped anyone! Now Mrs. Zachary wants her class to be people-helpers and prepare a Spectacular Stone Soup together. Read more...

Sunny-Side Up

Summertime. It's hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk. Richard "Beast" Best and Matthew Jackson can't wait to dive into Emily Arrow's cool blue pool. But when they get there, Mrs. Arrow tells them that Emily has gone off to summer school. Read more...

The Valentine Star

February is fun.

It's time for everyone in Ms. Rooney's room to make cards for the Valentine box. Emily Arrow couldn't be happier when Dawn Bosco gives her some colored stars to decorate her cards. She plans to make a special one for Ms. Vincent, the new student teacher. Read more...

Watch Out! Man-Eating Snake

Stacy Arrow's first day of school isn't going well at all. She was only trying to help when she told Jiwon, the girl with the black hair, that her drawing of herself looked like a cow. And she didn't mean to scare her with stories about man-eating snakes. Read more...

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