Video game villains and real-life dictators dominate daily life for eleven-year-old Ali

Ali Fadhil has very simple likes and dislikes. It is 1991 in Iraq and all Ali wants to do is read his comics and play football and video games. But President Saddam Hussein has other plans. After he invades neighbouring Kuwait, the U.S. and their allies launch Operation Desert Storm to force him out. Over the next forty-three days, Ali and his family would survive bombings, food shortages and constant fear.

Cinematic and timely, this is the story of how war changed one boy’s destiny forever and would one day bring him face to face with Saddam himself at the UN trial.

Payton and Emma left a trail of chaos in their wake when they "traded faces" just for fun. This time they'll switch places to help each other and their friends out of a ginormous mess Payton is helping out on the middle school musical while Emma puts her brains to use by tutoring--more like "twotoring"--identical twin boys. But when the boys turn out to be double trouble, Payton and Emma's worlds collide and lead to more middle-school mix-ups and mayhem. In the end, Payton and Emma realize that no matter what, they have each other's backs (as well as faces).

Payton and Emma are headed for celebrity status in this L.A. adventure
After their adventures in New York City, identical twins Payton and Emma Mills thought life would go back to normal. But when the girls are asked to star in a Teen Sheen shampoo commercial, they can't resist--especially because the shoot is in Hollywood
Suddenly life isn't so normal, especially when it involves Ashlynn (Payton's camp nemesis), a supercute heartthrob singer, and a cutthroat movie star wannabe.
When a mix-up at the commercial threatens to shut down production, can Payton, Emma, and their twin-switching ways save the day? Or will they have to say good-bye to Hollywood?

"In 1945 the war ended. The Germans surrendered, and the ghetto was liberated. Out of over a quarter of a million people, about 800 walked out of the ghetto. Of those who survived, only twelve were children. I was one of the twelve." For more than fifty years after the war, Syvia, like many Holocaust survivors, did not talk about her experiences in the Lodz ghetto in Poland. She buried her past in order to move forward. But finally she decided it was time to share her story, and so she told it to her niece, who has re-told it here using free verse inspired by her aunt. This is the true story of Syvia Perlmutter-a story of courage, heartbreak, and finally survival despite the terrible circumstances in which she grew up. A timeline, historical notes, and an author's note are included.