New Releases by Nora Raleigh Baskin

Mystery and adventure collide in this humorous and heartfelt multiverse adventure from beloved, award-winning authors Wendy Mass and Nora Raleigh Baskin. Twelve-year-old Piper’s life has always been unusual: her parents are clockmakers whose inventions are anything but ordinary, and she’s the only kid she knows with a robotic talking dog. But her life takes a turn for the truly bizarre when she discovers her parents are in jeopardy and the key to saving them is a book full of strange equations. When Raisa and Lev travel through the portal to Piper’s world, Raisa can finally prove that her mother’s multiverse project worked. Now, she just needs the book containing her mother’s equations to get back to her world…if only she can find it! As Raisa and Piper adventure to the bounds of the multiverse, they’ll need to discover their place in the world if they ever want to find their way back home.

When chance, or fate, throws two twelve-year-olds together on board a scientific research ship at the edge of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, it’s not all smooth sailing! Jeremy “JB” Barnes is looking forward to spending the summer before seventh grade hanging on the beach. But his mother, a scientist, has called for him to join her aboard a research ship where, instead, he’ll spend his summer seasick and bored as he stares out at the endless plastic, microbeads, and other floating debris, both visible and not, that make up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Miles and miles away, twelve-year-old Sidney Miller is trying to come up with an alternate activity worthy of convincing her overprotective parents that she can skip summer camp. When Jeremy is asked to find the contact information for a list of important international scientists and invite them to attend a last-minute Emergency Global Summit, he''s excited to have a chance to actually do something that matters to the mission. How could he know that the Sidney Miller he messages is not the famous marine biologist he has been tasked with contacting, but rather a girl making podcasts from her bedroom—let alone that she would want to sneak aboard the ship? Nora Raleigh Baskin and Gae Polisner''s Consider the Octopus is a comedy of errors, mistaken identity, and synchronicity. Above all, it is a heartfelt story about friendship and an empowering call to environmental protection, especially to our young people who are already stepping up to help save our oceans and our Earth.

An endearing story of love and grief as one girl follows the clues in a scavenger hunt left behind by her best friend, perfect for fans of Bridge to Terabithia and Nine, Ten. WHEN YOU''VE LOST WHAT MATTERS MOST, HOW DO YOU FIND YOUR WAY BACK HOME? Joy Fonseca is dreading her 13th birthday, dreading being reminded again about her best friend Lukas''s senseless death on this day, one year ago -- and dreading the fact he may have heard what she accidentally blurted to him the night before. Or maybe she''s more worried he didn''t hear. Either way, she''s decided: she''s going to finally open the first clue to their annual birthday scavenger hunt Lukas left for her the morning he died, hoping the rest of the clues are still out there. If they are, they might lead Joy to whatever last words Lukas wrote, and toward understanding how to grab onto the future that is meant to be hers. "I truly loved it! Baskin and Polisner seamlessly unfold one touching relationship after another in this gorgeous story about everlasting friendship. This tender tale is indelibly etched on my heart." --Leslie Connor, author of the National Book Award finalist The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle "Polisner and Baskin''s brief tale of two quite distant friends magically manages to bridge an uncrossable gap. Seven Clues to Home is both a charming mystery and a real meditation on the complexities of the young heart in love." --Tony Abbott, Edgar Award-winning author of Firegirl and The Great Jeff "I read this whole book with a lump in my throat. A perfect gem." --Wendy Mass, New York Times bestselling coauthor of Bob

From the critically acclaimed author of Anything But Typical comes a “tense…and thought-provoking” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) look at the days leading up to the tragic events of September 11, 2001, and how that day impacted the lives of four middle schoolers. Ask anyone: September 11, 2001, was serene and lovely, a perfect day—until a plane struck the World Trade Center. But right now it is a few days earlier, and four kids in different parts of the country are going about their lives. Sergio, who lives in Brooklyn, is struggling to come to terms with the absentee father he hates and the grandmother he loves. Will’s father is gone, too, killed in a car accident that has left the family reeling. Naheed has never before felt uncomfortable about being Muslim, but at her new school she’s getting funny looks because of the head scarf she wears. Aimee is starting a new school in a new city and missing her mom, who has to fly to New York on business. These four don’t know one another, but their lives are about to intersect in ways they never could have imagined. Award-winning author Nora Raleigh Baskin weaves together their stories into an unforgettable novel about that seemingly perfect September day—the day our world changed forever.

Ruby’s mom is in prison, and to tell anyone the truth is to risk true friendship in this novel that accurately and sensitively addresses a subject too often overlooked—from the author of The Summer Before Boys. Eleven-year-old Ruby Danes is about to start middle school, and only her aunt knows her deepest, darkest, secret: her mother is in prison. Then Margalit Tipps moves into Ruby’s condo complex, and the two immediately hit it off. Ruby thinks she’s found her first true-blue friend—but can she tell Margalit the truth about her mom? Maybe not. Because it turns out that Margalit’s family history seems closely connected to the very event that put her mother in prison, and if Ruby comes clean, she could lose everything she cares about most.

What if destiny leads you to your soul mate, but the laws of time conspire to keep you apart? If her parents had never divorced, Laura wouldn’t have to live in the shadow of Bruce, her mom’s unpredictable boyfriend. Her mom wouldn’t say things like "Be groovy," and Laura wouldn’t panic every weekend on the way to Dad’s Manhattan apartment. But when Laura spots a boy on a facing platform, lifting a camera to his face, looking right at her, Laura feels anything but afraid, and she can’t forget him. Jonas, meanwhile, thinks nonstop about the pretty hippie girl he glimpsed on the platform — trying to comprehend how she vanished, but mostly wondering whether he will see her again in a city of millions — and whether if he searches, he would have any chance of finding her. In a lyrical meditation on love, Nora Raleigh Baskin explores the soul’s ability to connect, and heal, outside the bounds of time and reason.

Unlike most children faced with the prospect of having a stepmother, Gabby Weiss isn''t the slightest bit resistant to the idea. In fact, she wishes her father would hurry up and marry someone who knows about womanhood; someone who understands her worries about everything that is happening (or worse, not happening) to her body. For a while, it seems like Cleo, her father''s girfriend, might fulfil this role. But when things fall apart, Gabby has to find her own solution. She decides to travel to the last place she saw her mother to try and reconstruct a memory of her. But what she finds there is something even better.

The award-winning author of Anything But Typical “delivers an honest message about surviving bad situations and remaining true to oneself and one’s friends” (Publishers Weekly) in this insightful exploration of middle school bullying from multiple perspectives. Elizabeth Moon grew up around dogs. Her mom runs a boarding kennel out of their home, so she’s seen how dogs behave to determine pack order. Her experience in middle school is uncomfortably similar. Maggie hates how Elizabeth acts so much better than everyone else. Besides, she’s always covered in dog hair. And she smells. So Maggie creates a fake profile on a popular social networking site to teach Elizabeth a lesson. What makes a bully, and what makes a victim? It’s all in the perspective, and the dynamics shift. From sibling rivalries to mean girl antics, the varying points of view show the many shades of gray in this illuminating novel from the award-winning author of Anything But Typical—because middle school is anything but black and white.

A lyrical and deeply moving portrait of grief, blame, and forgiveness, and of finding the courage to confront your ghosts — one truth at a time. As soon as she was under, Maggie heard the quiet, though every sound was amplified in her ears and in her brain...Sound, like shame, travels four times faster under the water. Though only a sophomore, Maggie Paris is a star on the varsity swim team, but she also has an uncanny, almost magical ability to draw out people’s deepest truths, even when they don’t intend to share them. It’s reached a point where most of her classmates, all but her steadfast best friend, now avoid her, and she’s taken to giving herself away every chance she gets to an unavailable — and ungrateful — popular boy from the wrestling team, just to prove she still exists. Even Maggie’s parents, who are busy avoiding each other and the secret deep at the heart of their devastated family, seem wary of her. Is there such a thing as too much truth?

Jason Blake é um autista de doze anos vivendo em um mundo neurotípico, de "pessoas normais". Para ele, quase sempre é apenas uma questão de tempo até que alguma coisa dê errado.Mas Jason acaba encontrando um pouco de compreensão quando cruza com Phoenixbird, uma garota que publica histórias no mesmo website que ele.Jason pode ser ele mesmo quando escreve, e imagina que Phoenixbird, cujo nome descobre ser Rebecca, pode se tornar sua primeira amiga de verdade.Mas tanto quanto ansioso por conhecê-la, Jason está apavorado com a possibilidade de que, quando isso acontecer, Rebecca não seja capaz de enxergá-lo como realmente é, indo além das aparências.

Twelve-year-old best friends and relatives, Julia and Eliza are happy to spend the summer together while Julia''s mother is serving in the National Guard in Iraq but when they meet a neighborhood boy, their close relationship begins to change.

I put my fingers up to my throat and touched the pointy Star of David, my grandmother''s necklace, a delicate chain made up of countless tiny links. If I wear this, will people think I am Jewish? Is that what I want to be? Seventh-grader Caroline Weeks has a Jewish mom and a non-Jewish dad. When Caroline''s nana dies around the same time that Caroline''s best friend, Rachel, is having her bat mitzvah, Caroline starts to become more interested in her Jewish identity.

Told from the first-person perspective of an autistic boy, Nora Raleigh Baskin’s novel is an enlightening story for anyone who has ever worried about fitting in. Jason Blake is an autistic twelve-year-old living in a neurotypical world. Most days it''s just a matter of time before something goes wrong. But Jason finds a glimmer of understanding when he comes across PhoenixBird, who posts stories to the same online site as he does. Jason can be himself when he writes and he thinks that PhoneixBird-her name is Rebecca-could be his first real friend. But as desperate as Jason is to met her, he''s terrified that if they do meet, Rebecca wil only see his autism and not who Jason really is. By acclaimed writer Nora Raleigh Baskin, this is the breathtaking depiction of an autistic boy''s struggles-and a story for anyone who has ever worried about fitting in.

Natalie, almost sixteen, sneaks away from her Connecticut home and takes the bus to Florida, looking for the mother who abandoned her father and her when she was ten years old.

Thirteen-year-old Mia Singer thought that she had it all under control. Sure, her grades were slipping a little bit (well, really, more than a little), and she couldn''t explain her occasional compulsion to shoplift. The sudden death of a classmate affects Mia in a way she can''t quite define, but then she goes one step too far. Her parents place her in an "alternative" boarding school. Away from her parents and surrounded by trees, space, and students whose problems she can''t completely comprehend, Mia has no choice but to learn about herself. With insight and sympathy, Nora Raleigh Baskin focuses on the universal feeling of being a misfit, showing that sometimes the path home is as unexpected as it is challenging.

With accurate portrayals of the action, drama, and fun that take place on and off the basketball court, Baskin focuses on the teamwork, fears, loyalty, and, most of all, the friendship between a team''s members.

After years of being shuffled from town to town and back and forth between her divorced parents, twelve-year-old Leah, now living permanently with her father and stepmother, finds it difficult to adjust to her new situation and the circumstances that made it possible.

Twelve-year-old Gabby feels that she needs a mother to help her grow into a woman, so when things between her father and his latest girlfriend do not work out, Gabby sets off for the last place she remembers seeing her own mother. Reprint.