From award-winning author Deborah Hopkinson comes an utterly charming, deftly crafted mystery about an intrepid young girl's quest to foil a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I. Emilia Bassano is a girl who relishes the music of words. Although she plays the lute and writes poetry, Emilia nurtures a dream: to hear her words come alive on stage. Emilia wants to write soliloquies for heroes and kings and queens of old, fashion fierce villains to make audiences howl, and try her hand at comedy and romance. Most of all, she wants to create unforgettable women characters. On one of her trips to the theater, an unfortunate series of events leaves her penniless, with no way of watching the show. That is until a boy by the name of Will Shakespeare helps her sneak in to see the play. They realize they're both aspiring playwrights and Emilia convinces Will to join her in her efforts to win a playwriting competition at the palace of Queen Elizabeth I. However, when Emilia accidentally uncovers a plot to kill the queen, she is given the job of traveling to the castle where Mary Queen of Scots is being held captive, to discover who is responsible for the plan to murder Queen Elizabeth--and to thwart it! Can Emilia and her friends stop the plans of a disguised murderer on the loose? This delightful mystery is a marvel of incisive wit and extraordinary craft from the beloved, award-winning author Deborah Hopkinson.

Butterflies Belong Here is a powerful story of everyday activism and hope. In this moving story of community conservation, a girl finds a home in a new place and a way to help other small travelers. This book is about the real change children can make in conservation and advocacy-in this case, focusing on beautiful monarch butterflies. * From Deborah Hopkinson and Meilo So, the acclaimed team behind Follow the Moon Home * An empowering, classroom-ready read * The protagonist is a girl whose family has recently immigrated to the United States. I know what to look for: large black-and-orange wings with a border of small white specks, flitting from flower to flower, sipping nectar. But though I looked hard, I couldn't find even one. I wondered if monarch butterflies belonged here. I wondered if I did, too. Butterflies Belong Here is proof that even the smallest of us are capable of amazing transformations. * Equal parts educational and heartwarming, this makes a great gift for parents and grandparents, as well as librarians, science teachers, and educators. * Those interested in beautiful butterflies and everyday activism will find this lovely book both motivating and inspiring. * Perfect for children ages 5 to 8 years old * Add it to the shelf with books like Thank You, Earth: A Love Letter to Our Planet by April Pulley Sayre, The Honeybee by Kirsten Hall, and Greta and the Giants: Inspired by Greta Thunberg's Stand to Save the World by Zoe Tucker

This is a comprehensive and accessible picture book biography of Marie Curie, the groundbreaking scientist and two-time Nobel Prize winner, from an acclaimed author and illustrator duo. Before Marie Curie was the first woman in France to earn the highest degree in physics, before she discovered two new radioactive elements, and became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize (and then the first person to win two!)— she was a little girl named Marie Sklodowska who dreamed of being a scientist—and was determined to make that dream come true. This is an accessible and compelling homage to Marie Curie, whose life and legacy continue to inspire to this very day.

Apples, ho!

When Papa decides to pull up roots and move from Iowa to Oregon, he can't bear to leave his precious apple trees behind. Or his peaches, plums, grapes, cherries, and pears. Oh, and he takes his family along too. But the trail is cruel -- first there's a river to cross that's wider than Texas...and then there are hailstones as big as plums...and there's even a drought, sure to crisp the cherries. Those poor pippins! Luckily Delicious (the nonedible apple of Daddy's eye) is strong -- as young 'uns raised on apples "are" -- and won't let anything stop her father's darling saps from tasting the sweet Oregon soil.

Here's a hilarious tall tale -- from the team that brought you "Fannie in the Kitchen" -- that's loosely based on the life of a real fruiting pioneer.

Apple Facts

More than 7,500 varieties of apples are grown throughout the world.

About 2,500 varieties grow in the United States.

The apple variety Delicious is the most widely grown in the United States.

Apples are part of the rose family.

The science of fruit growing is called pomology.

Fresh apples float. That's because 25 percent of their volume is air.

Cut an apple in half, across the core, and you'll see a star shape.

It takes apple trees four to five years to produce their first fruit.

It takes about thirty-six apples to make one gallon of apple cider.

A Band of Angels is fiction, but it is based on real events and people. The character of Ella was inspired by Ella Sheppard Moore, who was born February 4, 1851, in Nashville, Tennessee. Her father was able to free himself and young Ella from slavery, but before he could buy freedom for Ella's mother she was sold away. Ella was raised in Cincinnati, where she took music lessons. At fifteen, she was left penniless when her father died. She arrived at Fisk School in 1868 with only six dollars.

Fisk was opened in 1866 as a school for former slaves and began offering college classes in 1871. That year, in a desperate attempt to save Fisk from closing, a music teacher named George White set out with a group of students on a singing tour to raise money. Although at first they only sang popular music of the day, they soon became famous for introducing spirituals to the world.

Ella Sheppard was the pianist for the Jubilee Singers on their historic concert tours, which raised enough money to save the school and build Jubilee Hall, the first permanent structure in the South for the education of black students. Ella later married George Moore, had three children, and located her mother and a sister. She died in 1914. Today her great-granddaughter is a librarian at Fisk University who shares the history of the Jubilee Singers with visitors.

Although none graduated from Fisk, the original Jubilee Singers were recognized with honorary degrees in 1978. Today, Jubilee Singers at Fisk University continue to keep alive a rich musical tradition that includes such songs as "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "Many Thousand Gone," and "Go Down, Moses."

Acclaimed activist Philippe Cousteau and renowned author Deborah Hopkinson team up to offer a story of the powerful difference young people can make in the world. Meet Viv, who has a new home and a new school by the sea, and follow her as she finds her way in a new place and helps bring together a whole community to save the sea turtles of the South Carolina coast.

John Adams didn't enjoy traveling. He much preferred to stay home with his wife and children. But John Adams also had a dream: He wanted to see the thirteen colonies free from English rule. He wanted to see the creation of a new country -- the United States of America. John Adams did whatever was needed to make his dream come true.

Photographs and text document the experiences of five individuals who came to live in the Lower East Side of New York City as children or young adults from Belarus, Italy, Lithuania, and Romania at the turn of the twentieth century.

"A delightful combination of race-against-the-clock medical mystery and outwit-the-bad-guys adventure." --"Publishers Weekly, "Starred
Eel has troubles of his own: As an orphan and a "mudlark," he spends his days in the filthy River Thames, searching for bits of things to sell. He's being hunted by Fisheye Bill Tyler, and a nastier man never walked the streets of London. And he's got a secret that costs him four precious shillings a week to keep safe. But even for Eel, things aren't so bad until that fateful August day in 1854--the day the deadly cholera ("blue death") comes to Broad Street.
Everyone believes that cholera is spread through poisonous air. But one man, Dr. John Snow, has a different theory. As the epidemic surges, it's up to Eel and his best friend, Florrie, to gather evidence to prove Dr. Snow's theory--before the entire neighborhood is wiped out.
"Hopkinson illuminates a pivotal chapter in the history of public health. . . . Accessible . . . and entertaining." --"School Library Journal, "Starred
"For readers] who love suspense, drama, and mystery." --"TIME for Kids"

"From the Hardcover edition."

Heroes and Villains, the seventh volume in Jon Scieszka's Guys Read Library of Great Reading, is chock-full of adventure featuring an array of characters-with and without capes. Featuring ten all-new, original stories that run the gamut from fantasy to comics to contemporary adventure to nonfiction, and featuring eleven of the most acclaimed, exciting writers for kids working today, this collection is the perfect book for you, whether you use your powers for good-or evil. Authors include Laurie Halse Anderson, Cathy Camper and Raul Gonzalez, Sharon Creech, Jack Gantos, Christopher Healy, Deborah Hopkinson, Ingrid Law, Pam Munoz Ryan, Lemony Snicket, and Eugene Yelchin, with illustrations by Jeff Stokely.

The unbeatable team of Deborah Hopkinson and James E. Ransome present a riveting brick-by-brick account of how one of the most amazing accomplishments in American architecture came to be. Join a young boy as he watches the Empire State Building being constructed from scratch, then travels to the top to look down on all of New York City in 1931. Hopkinson, a master of historical fiction, and Ransome, an award-winning illustrator, dazzle us with this ALA Notable and a "Boston Globe-Horn Book "Honor Book.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen is one of our greatest writers. But before that, she was just an ordinary girl. In fact, young Jane was a bit quiet and shy; if you had met her back then, you might not have noticed her at all. But she would have noticed you. Jane watched and listened to all the things people around her did and said and locked those observations away for safekeeping. Jane also loved to read. She devoured everything in her father's massive library, and before long she began creating her own stories. In her time, the most popular books were grand adventures and romances, but Jane wanted to go her own way . . . and went on to invent an entirely new kind of novel. Deborah Hopkinson and Qin Leng have collaborated on a gorgeous tribute to an independent thinker who turned ordinary life into extraordinary stories and created a body of work that has delighted and inspired readers for generations.