Laura Amy Schlitz is the 2007 Newbery Award winner. But she didn't win it for this book, The Bearskinner. Read it anyway!!! You'll find it in the 300's of the juvenile nonfiction section because it's a retelling of a Brothers Grimm tale. And what a beauty! Well written, breathtakingly illustrated, it's a story that you will remember because it is profound. A soldier, uniform is rags, walks through a forest in the winter's cold. Who should pop up but the devil himself, offering a deal that seems to be the answer to all the soldier's dreams. The soldier accepts and must live with the deal and it's rules for the next seven years. What is the deal? What are the rules? Does the soldier lose his soul? Read The Bearskinner and find out.
Faker By Gordon Korman New York: Scholastic Press, 2024. Fiction. 214 pages. 12-year-old Trey is used to starting over at a new school -- he has the routine perfectly memorized: make new friends, introduce his dad to the wealthy parents of his new friends, and "Houdini" themselves out of there before they get caught running their latest scam. Trey's dad is a master con artist, and Trey has just been promoted to full-partner. Their new scheme for the next big score brings them to the affluent suburb of Boxelder, TN where Trey's dad has cooked up a fake electric car company for investors to buy into. The only problem is that Trey is starting to grow tired of moving around and never putting down roots, especially after forming a fast friendship with Logan and developing a crush on Kaylee, a socially conscious girl in his class. As Trey longs for a normal life, is there any way he can convince his dad to get out of the family business? Gordon Korman is a perennial favorit...
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