Leah's pony was swift and strong. Together they would cross through cornfields and over pastures, chasing cattle as they galloped under summer skies. Then came the year the corn grew no taller than a man's thumb. Locusts blackened the sky. The earth turned to dust. Gone were the cornfields and pastures where Leah and her pony once rode. It was the beginning of the great drought. Now Leah's papa faced losing the family farm. Set in the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, Elizabeth Friedrich's deeply felt story, vividly portrayed through Michael Garland's stunning oil paintings, tells of one child and what she would sacrifice for love of her family.

When Zack meets his second-grade teacher, Miss Smith, he can tell right away that her class will be different. But he has no idea just how different it will be Miss Smith has a knack for telling tales when she reads from her incredible book, the stories literally spring to life Then one day Miss Smith is late for school. The principal takes over and things get out of hand. The classroom is swarming with storybook characters from princesses to pirates to the three little pigs? All it takes is one spectacular teacher.

Packing themselves into an old jalopy-with Daddy, Uncle Vern, and Mama in the front seat and Cassie and her two brothers in the back-they joined the Great Migration from the impoverished Deep South to Chicago, where there was work to be had in the stockyards. Across the kids' laps lay Daddy's prized possession, a six-string guitar. Daddy worked hard to put food on the table, but what he really loved was playing the blues. This evocative tale of the African-American odyssey in search of a better life is also a homage to the uniquely American music that developed from African music and American spirituals, work songs, and folk ballads. In the book's backmatter, Garland relates how he first heard and fell in love with blues music, beginning a lifelong fandom. Portraits and thumbnail biographies of great blues musicians and landmark songs complete this tribute to the great American music and the yearnings that produced it. Fountas & Pinnell Level S

Superpowers and teenage romance collide in the newest SKYBOUND original by SHAWN KITTELSEN (Mortal Kombat 11) and ERIC ZAWADZKI (The Dregs, Eternal)! Gene therapy has saved Americans from disease-only to give birth to Variants: people with powers so unique, the government denies their human rights. But a rebellion has begun... Charlie North is on the run from police when he crosses paths with Jill Kearney. Instant attraction becomes mass destruction when they unlock powers neither knew they had. Now the question isn't about how to use these powers, but how far they're willing to go. Collects HEART ATTACK #1-6