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Knopf/Random House
The Crime: The murder of John Johnson, beloved baseball coach. The Accused: 18-year-old Jeremy Long, who hasn’t spoken a single word in 12 years. Witness for the Defense: 16-year-old Hope Long, the only person who believes her brother is innocent. Other Suspects: The police have none. But Hope’s list is growing. “From acclaimed author Dandi Daley Mackall comes a gripping murder mystery and a dark yet powerfully redemptive story of love, secrets, and silence.” This…well-written mystery…works as a suspense novel but is also an interesting glimpse into the behaviors of those that are considered “other” in our society. –Random Acts of Reading WINNER of the Edgar Award 2012! |
Dutton/Penguin
And 1 girl If only guys were more like loyal, loving dogs…. Bailey Daley unfolds the tales of Adam and Eve and Shirley, the three dogs she’s won, and the three loves she’ll never forget. “My mother says that falling in love and getting dumped is good for you because it prepares you for the real thing, like it gets you ready for true love and all, but I’m thinking it’s more like climbing up the St. Louis Arch and falling off twice. Does that first fall really get you ready for the second?” Reviews: “I absolutely loved this book….The stories are compelling!...I loved the message and the writing….” 5 Stars TeensReadToo, Marta Morrison, 2010 “If I were pitching…to a movie producer, this wouldn't be a bad way to begin. ‘Girl walks into a diner with three dogs. She's in a prom dress, she's soaking wet, and each dog is from a different boyfriend.’ Best description of this one? "A Diane Lane movie for YA." Sold! It's My Boyfriends' Dogs by Dandi Daley Mackall. Fuse 8 blogger for SLJ “Librarian Preview” Elizabeth Bird |
For anyone who ever wanted to write… Laney is used to being bullied and teased for being a “hillbilly.” So when a new target for bullying comes to school, she hopes things will change. She just never expected life to change so dramatically. As the story unfurls, the reader experiences character, setting, dialogue, plotting, climax, and all the parts of writing vital to becoming a writer. "Laney is an engaging narrator. Particularly delightful is the way in which she tells the story. Each chapter has a title that is related to the narrative, such as Rising Action, Suspense, Dialogue, etc. ... Her explanation of how to write a book is just as interesting as the events that she's describing. Best of all, none of this detracts from the novel's emotional core. Thoroughly enjoyable and unexpectedly wry, this book is as intelligent as it is succinct." Elizabeth Bird, NY Public Library, in School Library Journal Finalist for William Allen White |
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Harcourt/Houghton
This story parallels the author's experiences before "The Wall" came down. "Modern Communism is rarely depicted in children's literature, and never before this well." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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Tyndale House
“Lovely and refreshing!” Romantic Times “Top Pick” 4.5 of 5 stars |
Dreams of a Dancing Horse Ill. by Guy Francis
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Dutton/Penguin
Mary Jane Ettermeyer hears voices in her head, but they're all hers-and she's going to need every single one of them to get through life, now that she's fallen hard for the amazing Jackson House..
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Tyndale House
Then a stranger comes to town. Does he have what she's looked for all her life? Could she really be a part of "something bigger?" Could love be something other than what she's always known? Controversy swirls around Josh Davidson, a former construction worker. Even CNN's covering his story. Maggie's caught in the middle, between hope and horror, as the world watches. Maggie's Story is a contemporary look at the compelling story of Mary Magdalene. What if it happened today?
5 Stars-TeensReadToo “Mackall does an admirable job of getting inside Maggie's heart and mind, and the vulnerability she brings to this biblical character is compelling. |
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3 guys * 3 dogs * 3 love stories 
The year 1978 has been a pretty good one for Eva Lott. She has a terrific best friend, she's dating the best-looking guy in school, and she just made the varsity swim team. So when her widowed dad says it's time for them to move, she's not exactly thrilled. And when he tells her that he intends to move to Communist Poland to help with a radical underground movement. . . Well, it's all downhill from there.
Emma is stuck in Hamilton, Missouri, while her best friend, Mattie, and her brother, Jake, head to the West Coast for college. To stay in touch while they're gone, Emma makes Jake and Mattie promise to send a postcard back to her once a week. Each postcard has to have a new Love Rule uncovered that week. In the process, Jake and Mattie discover that love was right under their noses.
Fred the plow horse is born with a dancing tune in his heart. When he hears music, he just has to dance-even if it means overturning the plow and wreaking havoc! When Fred gets kicked off the farm, he must find a new home for himself-a place where a dancing horse might truly fit in. This feisty horse gallops hooves-first into the Animal Tales series-and into the hearts of young readers who are graduating from chapter books. Black-and-white line art dances off the page to bring Dandi Mackall's whimsical characters to life.
Maggie Dale's on a fast track to nowhere...stuck at a dead-end job in podunk Ohio.TEEN SERIES FICTION
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Tyndale House—Bestselling series Winnie Willis loves horses just like her mother did. She's a teen-aged horse whisperer, gifted in gentling horses instead of breaking them. Meet: *Catman Coolidge, a throw-back to the 60's. The Catman knows as much about cats as Winnie knows about horses. *Eddy Barker, who can talk a dog into just about anything. *Lizzy, who loves lizards and all things creepy crawly; & Hawk--who knows all kinds of trivia about birds.
Wild Thing: “I have to have that horse. And I'll do whatever it takes to get her." Eager Star: Winnie sets up her official business for gentling problem horses, but her first customer is a big problem--a human problem. Not only will she have to train Eager Star to win the barrel race, but she'll have to figure out a way to handle Grant, Eager Star's teenaged owner. Bold Beauty: Winnie falls hard for a hunter that's being mishandled by the too-sterile Spidell's Stable-Mart. But taking over training of the fearful jumping horse will take Winnie to the limits of her own confidence. Midnight Mystery: Winnie joins the circus! But when she’s called in to gentle Midnight Mystery, the famous circus stallion, she and Catman soon discover foul play. Unhappy Appy: Something's wrong with Hawk's Appaloosa, and something's wrong with the Appy's owner, who's supposed to be Winnie's friend. Gift Horse: A mysterious horse shows up in Winnie's pasture, and suddenly Winnie is caught up in a life-and-death struggle with the old mare...and a foal on the way. Friendly Foal: A newborn filly has lost her mother, and it's up to Winnie to help this foal adjust to her new world. But Winnie has met her match in the foal who refuses to trust...and time is running out for both of them. Buckskin Bandit: Note to Self: Sometimes life is so unfair. When an abused buckskin disappears from the rundown Happy Trails stable, Winnie sets out to investigate |
Simon & Schuster
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Longer Chapter Books BACKYARD HORSES
Backyard horses are the opposite of show horses. They don’t have registration papers to prove they’re purebred, and they might never win a trophy or ribbon at a horse show. Backyard horses aren’t boarded in stables. You can find them in pastures or in backyards. They may be farm horses, fun horses, or simply friends. Backyard horses are often plain and ordinary on the outside . . . but frequently beautiful on the inside. CHASING DREAMS NIGHT MARE |
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Starlight Animal Rescue: Where problem horses are trained and loved, where abandoned dogs become heroes, where stray cats become loyal companions. And where people with nowhere to fit in find a place to belong.
RUNAWAY - I've run away seven times-never once to anything, just away from. Maybe that's why they call me a "runaway," and not a "run-to." Dakota Brown used to love all things "horse" until she lost everything, including hope. The minute she sets foot on her foster parents' farm-Starlight Animal Rescue-she plans her escape. But can an "impossible" horse named Blackfire and this quirky collection of animal lovers be the home she's always dreamed of? MAD DOG - If the world had any idea how mad I, Wesley "Mad Dog" Williams, am at it, the sun would be too scared to show its ugly face around here. Wes Williams, aka Mad Dog, hales from Chicago and is looking to return-just as soon as his mother gets out of rehab. In the meantime, he's stuck at Starlight Animal Rescue, where his WILD CAT - "Kat" Coolidge can work miracles with abandoned cats and rescued animals, but her struggles with classmates and cancer may be more than she can handle. DARK HORSE - The characters in Winnie the Horse Gentler have been emailing animal tips to their friends at Starlight Animal Rescue all along. But when a horrible fire devastates the rescue, it's time for a real-life visit from Winnie, Catman, and Wild Thing.
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"Let her try to help your horse, mister!" yelled Maggie. "Sarah Coop can talk a horse into anything!" Sarah "Scoop" Coop is a teenaged horse whisperer who knows horses better than anything, including herself. She lives for her mixed-breed mare, Orphan, stabled at her grandad's defunct stable. An orphan herself, Scoop struggles to get by with her aunt and her brother. But when Grandad becomes ill, Scoop's life is turned upside down and she'll have to do whatever it takes to hold onto her horse and everything that matters.
Horse Cents-Something is going on with Buckingham's British Pride, Carla Buckingham's Saddle Horse. Could he be responding to how anxious Carla seems these days? Horse Whispers in the Air - As Scoop struggles to understand the new mare, Grandad sinks deeper into his Altzheimer's and farther away from her. They've never gotten along when he was well, and now he doesn't recognize her. Is it too late for both of them? A Horse of a Different Color Taming problem horses is big business," said Mr. Snyder at the bank. "You're a businesswoman now, Scoop. Act like one! They say everybody gets 15 minutes of fame in this life. You and Horsefeathers could sure use yours now." All the King’s Horses One month before sophomore year begins, Scoop volunteers to work with some newly donated horses at the Horsefeathers Stable.
Home Is Where Your Horse Is When Scoop meets the beautiful and glamourous Twila Twopennies and is invited to help out at her lavish stables, Scoop imagines that Twila is the mother who gave her up for adoption fifteen years earlier. A Horsefeathers Mystery Disaster after disaster strikes. Scoop, Maggie, Travis, and B.C. rush to solve the mystery before Horsefeathers' reputation-and its future - are ruined. |
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The One Year Devotional for Animal Lovers: Cool Things Animals Show Us about Our Creator
* With back-and-forth trips from flowers to hive, the total distance honeybees travel to produce a pound of honey equals traveling around the world twice. * A cat can’t see what’s under her nose. Whiskers and smell help keep cats from bumping into things. * The kookaburra eats mice, rats, crabs, insects, and a few reptiles, like yummy snakes and tasty lizards—and it still manages to laugh. * Most dogs have at least 100 different expressions, thanks to their expressive ears. But pit bulls and bulldogs only have about 10 facial expressions. Maybe that’s why they’re so misunderstood by other dogs, who figure that with those mugs, the dogs must be looking for a fight. * You can tell a whale’s age by counting the number of rings in its earplugs. (Children should not try this at home.) |
BLOG ON!
Grace Notes - Gracie Doe, a keen observer of human nature, prefers to blog-keep an online journal on her anonymous website--about her classmates at Big Lake High. Storm Rising - Storm Novelo, most likely to be liked and the center of attention wherever she goes, is a fake, hiding the emptiness that makes her quit everything she begins with such enthusiasm-including the blog.
Upsetting Annie - Annie Lind has a great life until her cousin comes to live with her. Though Annie hopes Shawna can be the sister she never had, she finds instead that her cousin is cuter, more popular, and a better cheerleader. Grace Under Pressure - Gracie's always been good at handling everything herself, but pressures at school and personal disappointments prove almost more than she can bear in this fifth book in the Blog On!
Storm Warning - Storm Novelo can't understand why she's messing up more now than ever before.
Click Here for Dandi's Top Five Internet-Safety Tips For Parents |
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Kyra's Story: Degrees of Guilt
What's the real story? There's always more than one point of view |
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Sierra's Story: Degrees of Betrayal
I ought to know. My senior year should have been the best ever. But instead of living the good life at Highview High, the only memories I'm making are in a hospital bed. All because my boyfriend and best friend betrayed me. They'll get what they deserve...I'll make sure of it. |
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Career Skills 
How are you getting along with people? Each year thousands of highly skilled people and former students fail to fit into corporate teams. Their individual skills are strong, but they can't function as part of a team. And in the modern workforce, only people with strong team skills will be able to make it. Those without these skills will find themselves looking for another job. 
The kind of person you are matters to your employer. One of the most important things you can do right now for your career is to develop the character qualities employers want. How responsible are you? Are you the kind of person others count on? Have you developed good habits like working hard, striving for excellence, acting like a professional? It's never too early or too late for self-development. 
There are not many things we can count on in this changing world. But one thing is for certain: We'll always have problems to solve. No matter where your career leads, you'll move faster and higher up the ladder of success if you're perceived as an effective problem-solver. |
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Based on research and Dandi's experiences with her own horses, Horse Files contains observations and facts horses probably wish humans understood. This book is all about building the right kind of relationship with horses, becoming friends. Sections include: The Nature of Horses, The Art of Communication, Sizing Up Horses, Friendship from the Ground Up, Friendship in the Saddle, Trouble in Paradise.
only friend is his dog, Rex. As Wes schemes to get his old life back, will Rex 
and the other shelter dogs be able to rescue him . . . before his anger makes him go too far?
Horsefeathers – “Let her try to help your horse, mister!" yelled Maggie. "Sarah Coop can talk a horse into anything!"
Horse Angel When someone plays a nasty Halloween trick at Horsefeathers' Stables, Scoop gets a bad case of the "what if's."
Love, Annie
blog, considers herself an expert when it comes to love.
Just Jazz
see nothing. But if she doesn't come up with a commercially successful "masterpiece" soon, her parents may make her drop what they consider an unprofitable hobby.
Jazz Off-key
show for Big Lake's Spring Fling celebration-she's ecstatic...until Kendra, her special needs sister, ruins her paintings by trying to make them happier and more colorful.
Sammy's dead . . . they each played a part. Kyra, his twin sister. Miranda, the girl he loved. And Tyrone, a friend from school.
Revenge is best when served slowly.