Gary Schmidt

During the 1967 school year, on Wednesday afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker's classroom where they read the plays of William Shakespeare and Holling learns much of value about the world he lives in

"Jack, 12, tells the gripping story of Joseph, 14, who joins his family as a foster child. Damaged in prison, Joseph wants nothing more than to find his baby daughter, Jupiter, whom he has never seen. When Joseph has begun to believe he'll have a future, he is confronted by demons from his past that force a tragic sacrifice"--

Sixth-grader Carter must adjust to the unwelcome presence of a know-it-all butler who is determined to help him become a gentleman, and also to deal with burdens from the past.

"Herc Beal knows who he's named after - a mythical hero - but he's no superhero. He's the smallest kid in his class. So when his homeroom teacher at his new middle school gives him the assignment of duplicating the mythical Hercules's amazing feats in real life, he's skeptical. After all, there are no Nemean Lions on Cape Cod, and not a single Hydra in sight. Missing his parents terribly and wishing his older brother wasn't working all the time, Herc...

With insight and a light touch, best-selling, Newbery Honor-winning author Gary D. Schmidt tells two poignant, linked stories: that of a grieving girl and a boy trying to escape his violent past. Following the death of her closest friend in summer 1968, Meryl Lee Kowalski goes off to St. Elene's Preparatory Academy for Girls, where she struggles to navigate the venerable boarding school's traditions and a social structure heavily weighted toward students...

Wilson is a curious sheep, and after he foolishly climbs into the back of a piano movers' truck, he ends up alone in the big city, far from the farm. But Wilson is also one smart sheep, and soon enough he's finding his way home to his worried owner by recognizing the sounds that he heard while he was trapped in the truck--a jackhammer, a calliope, a hotdog man. And could that be the excited barking of his friend Tippy, the border collie?

Sojourner Truth was born into slavery but possessed a mind and a vision that knew no bounds. So Tall Within traces her life from her painful childhood through her remarkable emancipation to her incredible leadership in the movement for rights for both women and African Americans.

A testament to the power of stories, and how they may bring hope even in times of darkness. "Everyone gathers around, and from her lips to their ears the stories go, and for a little while the camp disappears, and for a little while they are all free." As night falls, the women gather their children to listen to Mara tell her stories. They are stories of light and hope and freedom, stories of despair and stories of miracles, stories of expected...

National Book Award finalist and two-time Newbery Honor-winning author Gary D. Schmidt recaptures the classic tale of one man's spiritual journey in this contemporary retelling of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, masterfully illustrated with watercolors by artist Barry Moser.Here again is the tale of Christian's epic trek from the City of Destruction to the Heavenly Palaces - of the pitfalls that threaten to waylay him and the graces that strengthen...