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Edward Eager has been delighting young readers for more than 40 years with stories that mix magic and reality Half Magic, the most popular of his tales about four children who encounter magical coins, time-travel herb gardens, and other unlikely devices, is a warm, funny, original adventure. The title refers to a coin that the children find. Through a comical series of coincidences, they discover that the coin is magic. Well, it's not totally magic--it's only (you guessed it) half magic. That means there's a certain logic to the wishes one must make to generate a desired outcome. Imagine the results emerging from inaccurate efforts: half invisible, half rescued, half everything! Half Magic is never too cute, and with just enough emotion to complement the magic, this classic is sure to hold a special place in any child's library. If you love Half Magic, its sequels--Knight's Castle, The Time Garden, and Magic by the Lake--have also been reissued in lovely hardcover editions, complete with N.M. Bodecker's original illustrations and covers by Quentin Blake. (Ages 8 to 12).
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In the course of the year recorded in Bridget Jones's Diary, Bridget confides her hopes, her dreams, and her monstrously fluctuating poundage, not to mention her consumption of 5277 cigarettes and "Fat units 3457 (approx.) (hideous in every way)." In 365 days, she gains 74 pounds. On the other hand, she loses 72! There is also the unspoken New Year's resolution--the quest for the right man. Alas, here Bridget goes severely off course when she has an affair with her charming cad of a boss. But who would be without their e-mail flirtation focused on a short black skirt? The boss even contends that it is so short as to be nonexistent.

At the beginning of Helen Fielding's exceptionally funny second novel, the thirtyish publishing puffette is suffering from postholiday stress syndrome but determined to find Inner Peace and poise. Bridget will, for instance, "get up straight away when wake up in mornings." Now if only she can survive the party her mother has tricked her into--a suburban fest full of "Smug Marrieds" professing concern for her and her fellow "Singletons"--she'll have made a good start. As far as she's concerned, "We wouldn't rush up to them and roar, 'How's your marriage going? Still having sex?'"

This is only the first of many disgraces Bridget will suffer in her year of performance anxiety (at work and at play, though less often in bed) and living through other people's "emotional fuckwittage." Her twin-set-wearing suburban mother, for instance, suddenly becomes a chat-show hostess and unrepentant adulteress, while our heroine herself spends half the time overdosing on Chardonnay and feeling like "a tragic freak." Bridget Jones's Diary began as a column in the London Independent and struck a chord with readers of all sexes and sizes. In strokes simultaneously broad and subtle, Helen Fielding reveals the lighter side of despair, self-doubt, and obsession, and also satirizes everything from self-help books (they don't sound half as sensible to Bridget when she's sober) to feng shui, Cosmopolitan-style. She is the Nancy Mitford of the 1990s, and it's impossible not to root for her endearing heroine. On the other hand, one can only hope that Bridget will continue to screw up and tell us all about it for years and books to come. --Kerry Fried.
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The social minefields most privileged middle-school girls drive the over-the-top drama in this addictive new book, set in suburban New York City's Westchester County. Massie Block: With her glossy brunette bob and Whitestrip smile, Massie is the uncontested ruler of The Clique and the rest of the social scene at Octavian Country Day, an exclusive private school in Westchester, New York. Dylan Marvil: Massie's second in command who divides her time between sucking up to Massie and sucking down Atkins shakes to try to get rid of the extra fifteen pounds that won't seem to leave her hips alone. Alicia Rivera: As sneaky as she is beautiful, Alicia floats easily under adult radar because she seems so 'sweet.' Would love to take Massie's throne one day. Just might do it. Kristen Gregory: She's been dying to fit in ever since her parents went broke. She's smart, hardworking and will insult you to tears faster than you can say 'scholarship kid.' And then there's Claire Lyons, the new girl in two-year old GAP overalls from Florida, who is clearly not Clique material. The only problem is that Claire's family is staying in the guest house on the Blocks' massive estate while they look for a new home! Claire's future looks worse than a bad Prada knockoff. But with a little luck and a lot of scheming, Claire might just come up smelling like Chanel Mademoiselle.....
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In this classic frontier adventure, Lois Lenskireconstructs the real life story of Mary Jemison, who was captured in a raid as young girl and raised amongst the Seneca Indians Meticulously researched and illustrated with many detailed drawings, this novel offers an exceptionally vivid and personal portrait of Native American life and customs.

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With his lush, gorgeous collages, Eric Carle hardly needs to write a word to make his picture books appealing Rooster's Off to See the World, in fact, may have been more successful as a wordless book. Rooster wakes up one morning and decides he wants to travel. Off he goes, picking up companions along the way (two cats, three frogs, four turtles, etc.). When night falls, the critters become cold and lonely and hungry, and, group by group, return home. It seems the message here is, "there's no place like home"; reassuring for toddlers, to be sure, but somehow a bit sad and disappointing, too. This small board-book edition is crowded with Carle's trademark illustrations, stunning in color and form--but also with wordy text and counting graphics in the upper right corner of each spread. The adding and subtracting element is an attractive and clever feature, but ultimately, it's a little too much. This said, children and adults will probably be so mesmerized by Carle's colorful collages, the rest won't matter. (Baby to preschool) --Emilie Coulter.
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Fourteen-year-old Georgia Nicolson is back in British author Louise Rennison's irreverent, laugh-out-loud sequel to the Michael L. Printz Honor Book Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging. Written in diary form, these truly hilarious books chronicle the often minute-by-minute, very dramatic, and significant flip-flops of a teenager's psyche.

7:18 p.m.
My eyes are all swollen up like mice eyes from crying. Even my nose is swollen. It's not small at the best of times, but now it looks like I've got three cheeks. Marvelous. Thank you, God.

9:00 p.m.
I'll never get over this.

9:10 p.m.
Time goes very slowly when you're suicidal.

What tragedy has her so distraught? Her parents have told her she's moving to New Zealand just when she's managed to snog (kiss--look it up in the glossary) the SG (Sex God, a.k.a Robbie). This is of course not the only source of drama in Georgia's eventful life. Her half Scottish wildcat, Angus, who is the size of a small Labrador, herds the poodles next door and terrorizes the neighborhood. Her little sister, Libby, who is slightly mad, stores her "pooey knickers" and her scuba-diving Barbie doll in Georgia's bed. Her mother (from whom she inherited her orangutan eyebrow gene and possibly her "gigantic basoomas") is clearly inhabiting Earth solely to make her life miserable, and even her best friend Jas is "half girl, half turnip."

Despite the fact that she's spared from going to "Kiwi-a-gogo land," things don't get much better for Georgia. She's suspended for a childish prank right before her dad returns from New Zealand, she falls in love with the SG who dumps her for being too young, and Dave, the "red-herring" boyfriend she's using to make the SG jealous calls her a "heartless whatsit." And, she continues, "the spot on my bum is probably a boil. I wonder what Buddha would do now?" Rennison's comedic timing is brilliant. Adolescent angst ("I hope I am not driven to the brink of madness by grief") vanishes less than an hour later ("Angus can fetch sticks!!!") and sometimes even sooner. (Warning: Do not read this book while riding a train or bus unless you don't care what people think of intermittent explosive laughter. Seriously.) (Ages 12 and older) --Karin Snelson.
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When California Morning Whipple's widowed mother uproots her family from their comfortable Massachusetts environs and moves them to a rough mining camp called Lucky Diggins in the Sierras, California Morning resents the upheaval. Desperately wanting to control something in her own life, she decides to be called Lucy, and as Lucy she grows and changes in her strange and challenging new environment. Here Karen Cushman helps the American Gold Rush spring to colorful life, just as she did for medieval England in her previous two books, Catherine, Called Birdy and The Midwife's Apprentice, which won Newbery Honor status and a Newbery Medal respectively. For ages 8-12..
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