Helen Plum Library

While attending an amusement park under the new ownership of their friend Daisy, Joe and Frank investigate the disappearance of a patron who was last seen riding a hit attraction, an event that has threatened Daisy's family's livelihood

"I was eight when my father brought me to one of the big houses at the top of Esperanza Street and left me with Mary Morelos. 'I haven't the time to fix broken wings,' she said. 'Does he have any trouble with discipline?' My father glanced at me before answering." So begins the story of Joseph, houseboy to the once-wealthy Mary Morelos, who lives in the three-storey Spanish colonial house at the top of Esperanza Street. Through Joseph's eyes we witness...

Nate Wright is a wisecracking 11-year-old who knows he’s destined for greatness. Nate is the star of Big Nate, the daily and Sunday comic strip that made its debut in 1991. Nate’s a sixth-grade chess prodigy, a self-described genius, and the all-time record holder for detentions in school history. He’s often in hot water with his teachers and classmates, but Nate’s winning personality and can-do attitude always make him a big hit...

When their hard-drinking, but loving, father dies in a car accident, teenage brothers Kyle and Klint Hayes face a bleak prospect: leaving their Pennsylvania hometown for an uncertain life in Arizona with the mother who ran out on them years ago. But in a strange twist of fate, their town’s matriarch, an eccentric, wealthy old woman whose family once owned the county coal mines, hears the boys’ story. Candace Jack doesn’t have an...

Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read.

An American classic and great bestseller for over thirty years, A Separate Peace is timeless in its description of adolescence during a period when the entire country was losing its innocence to World War II.
Set at a boys' boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing...

Although he finally agrees that he has too many toys and needs to give them away, there is one toy that Spencer absolutely cannot part with

Sixth grade can be a tension convention for Nate Wright.  His baseball team's just been given the lamest name in Little League history; he's on the verge of becoming know-it-all Gina's personal servant for a day; and Spitsy, the closest thing he has to a dog of his own, is in love with a CAT.  Yup, Nate's up to his ears in stress.  Luckily, the perfect remedy is close at hand:  an empty plastic soda bottle.  All Nate has to do is drum it gently...

The Hardy boys dial a wrong number, get the Pentagon, and suddenly find themselves in a dangerous adventure involving national security Frank and Joe Hardy become involved in a case affecting national security when Joe dials a wrong telephone number and gets the Pentagon. Two words -- "Bombay boomerang"--That the boys hear before the line goes dead plunge them into a whirlpool of danger and intrigue. At the same time, their father is investigating...

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Hisham Matar's Anatomy of a Disappearance.
Libya, 1979. Nine-year-old Suleiman’s days are circumscribed by the narrow rituals of childhood: outings to the ruins surrounding Tripoli, games with friends played under the burning sun, exotic gifts from his father’s constant business trips abroad. But his nights have come to revolve around his mother’s increasingly disturbing bedside...

"Desmond has been waiting his whole life for this day. It is the sixth-grade field trip to Crab Shell Pier, home to the awesomely fantastic Mountain Full of Monsters ride, and Desmond has one goal: convince Tina Schimsky to ride it with him. But once inside the amusement park, Desmond finds that executing his master plan will be no simple feat. Accompanied by his best friend, Ricky, Desmond must outwit both the tyrannical Mr. Needles and the nefarious...