Showing results by narrator "Eevin Hartsough" in All Categories

Beatrice does her best thinking upside down. Hanging from trees by her knees, doing handstands...for Beatrice Zinker, upside down works every time. She was definitely upside down when she and her best friend, Lenny, agreed to wear matching ninja suits on the first day of third grade. But when Beatrice shows up at school dressed in black, Lenny arrives with a cool new outfit and a cool new friend. Even worse, she seems to have forgotten all about the top-secret operation they planned!

Two brothers are settling down for the night. The littler one, called Faly, doesn’t want to sleep, because his older brother is allowed to stay up later. “I wish I were big … ,” murmurs Faly. But the bigger one, Mahandry, sometimes misses being small. He has to do much of his climbing and exploring without Mama’s help. “I wish I were little … ,” murmurs Mahandry. Luckily, Mama knows how to show both of her sweet little ones that her love for them grows bigger every day, just as they do!

Welcome to Serenity, the town where everyone looks on the bright side—on purpose. To belong in this picture-perfect community, residents must agree to reject negativity by embracing optimism as a way of life. For twelve-year-old Mackenzie Werner, whose feelings manifest as a colorful haze around her body, Serenity promises an escape from bad feelings, mean comments, and the distress of her haze turning into a grumbly grapefruit smog. However, when a documentary filmmaker comes to town and starts asking questions, Mackenzie is overwhelmed by emotion and can’t hold her haze back.

One stray dog. One loving family. One cold winter's night. One Christmas miracle. It was two weeks before Christmas, and a stray dog wandered alone in the snow. When she discovered an open front door, she stepped inside with a hopeful heart, wondering what she would find.

After the incredible events of the last official Winterton Bee, Hope and Gordon Smith have discovered that having an extended family isn’t so bad … and maybe their famous relatives’ lives aren’t so charmed. But Hope is still hiding a secret, and it’s a big one. When Elizabeth Springer goes missing just before the Wintertons’ big Thanksgiving celebration—their first reunion since the spelling bee—Hope knows it’s time to come clean. Especially if it means saving Ms. Springer. But none of the Winterton clan wants to hear it. Worse, they accuse Hope of making up the whole story for attention.

It’s Tally Tuttle’s first day of second grade, and she’s super nervous! She’s new in town and worries that she won’t fit in, so when everyone starts teasing her about her full name, Tallulah, she wishes she could retreat into a shell … Then, all of a sudden, she does! Tally is shocked to discover that she’s turned into a turtle! She’d heard that Mrs. Norrell’s class was special, but she hadn’t expected this.

Evelyn has a constant need for perfection that’s blown some fuses among her robotics teammates, and she’s worried nobody’s taking the upcoming competition seriously. Allie is new to school, and she’s had a history of short-circuiting on teachers and other kids. So when Allie is assigned to the robotics team as a last resort, all Evelyn can see is just another wrench in the works!

Maddie and Chloe have always been best friends—until last year, when Chloe’s popularity and budding fame as an actor left Maddie in the dust one too many times. Their friendship is over, and they’re both ready to move on. But when the girls arrive at theater camp, they discover that the universe isn’t ready to let go of this friendship just yet: They’re cabinmates, and each of them has to spend the summer with her ex-best friend. Is it time to try again, or are they doomed to drift apart for good?

Audrey L and Audrey W were destined to be friends. They both love purple, they have the same stationery, and they have the same name—so of course! But this month, all of Audrey L's joy at finding her first best friend feels a little wobbly. When Room 19 switches seating order, she and Audrey W are separated by a whole classroom—and from where Audrey L's sitting, it looks like Audrey W is having a grand old time with . . . Bettina! Now Bettina's coming with Audrey W to the treehouse. Bettina's joining the Audreys' Talent Show act. Gosh, what ISN'T Bettina involved in these days?

More than anything, Audrey L wants to be the best at something. It always feels like she’s not quite enough—not smart enough, not fast enough, not funny enough. When her beloved Ms. Fincastle announces that a new girl—another AUDREY—is joining the class, Audrey suddenly becomes Audrey L, which makes her feel worse than ever. But what if the two Audreys have more in common than just their name? And how will Audrey L ever figure out how to be her best self if she can’t even be the best Audrey?

Crimson Twill’s new friends from New Wart City, Mauve and Wesley, are coming for a visit! But as soon as they arrive at Crimson’s house in Cackle County, things start to go wrong. At the rotten apple orchard, Crimson’s ripening spell goes horribly awry (what will they do with all that rotten applesauce?). Then, at the broom-straw field, Wesley cuts too much straw and starts to float away. And when the friends try to collect frogs’ breath for their spells (it makes everything wonderfully green and warty), Mauve gets a stinky faceful of it! What on earth is going on?

Ellis, Dante, and Popcorn Bob are on an important top-secret mission in America. (Ellis’s dads are there too. But they don’t know about the mission.) When Popcorn Bob last escaped the clutches of Coraline Corn (the evil owner of Popcorn & Co.), she said that there are more live popcorn kernels in America—just like Bob! Bob can’t wait to meet his family. If they exist.

Autistic seventh-grader Maggie Weir loves spacecraft, but aerospace engineering isn’t the only thing that gives her butterflies: she’s got a secret crush on an eighth grader—the amazing, baton-twirling Tatum Jones. And they’ve just teamed up for an engineering contest! It might be the perfect chance for Maggie to tell Tatum how she feels, except …