Honus & Me by Dan Gutman

For a long while, Joe Stoshack has known there was something special about baseball cards. There's a sort of tingle in his fingers whenever he touches one. It doesn't happen with football cards or basketball cards, or plain old pieces of cardboard - he's checked. Nope, there's something special about baseball cards.

And he just found out what it is.

When old Miss Young - she's over a hundred, but she lives all alone in the house next to Joe and his mom - hires Joe to clean out her attic for $5, she tells him to just throw everything out. He tries not to groan about how much stuff there is as he lugs it all out to the curb - until suddenly one of the boxes breaks and Joe comes face to face with one of the most priceless baseball cards in history - that of Honus "Hans" Wagner.

Suddenly, Joe's got a big dilemma on his hands. He could give the card back to Miss Young - who did tell him to throw everything out and who did say she had no use for money... Or he could keep it, sell it, get $500,000 for it, and bring his family back together. If his parents don't have to fight about money anymore, they don't have to be divorced anymore, do they?

Things only get more complicated when Joe wakes up to find Honus sitting beside his bed, ready to tell him about honesty, being the only ballplayer in 1909 who refused to have his card printed because he thought smoking was bad for kids, and most importantly, baseball.

A Dog on His Own by Mary Jane Auch

Humans can't be trusted.

They just can't. They'll let you down every time.

Like this morning, when K-10 is just minding his own business and two guys trick him, trap him, and take him to the animal shelter.

Which, okay. Isn't entirely all that bad. When you're in, you get two squares a day and a comfy place to sleep where no one can sneak up on you. And K-10 has his own patented technique for getting adopted right quick - he's never spent more than one night at a shelter in his life.

But there's something different about this shelter stay. It all starts with Tucker, the old dog in the cage next to K-10. Now, K-10 himself would rather spend as little time as possible with humans, but some dogs aren't like that. Some dogs actually like living with people. Tucker's one of those kind of dogs - and his time at the shelter is nearly up. K-10 might not have any use for humans, but dogs have got to stick together, so he helps Tucker get adopted by, even K-10 has to admit, a pretty nice old guy.

And then there's Pearl, a tough old lady of a black Lab with an escape plan and a sharp tongue. And Peppy, a high-pitched, high-energy Chihuahua who thinks he's bigger than he is. K-10's a loner, a tough guy, a need-nobody, but... he can't leave those two on their own. They'll get eaten alive out there in the world!

Zucchini Out West by Barbara Dana

Zucchini loves living with Billy.

Billy is a quiet, shy boy who loves animals. He has a list next to his bed of all of the endangered and threatened animal species in the world. He told Zucchini he wants to help shorten that list, to help save the lives of all of those animals, but he isn't sure yet how to do it.

Right now, Billy has two problems. One is his shyness. He never quite gets the courage to ask people questions, and sometimes he'll talk himself out of doing things because he thinks he'll be stupid.

The other problem is Zucchini. Now, Zucchini is Billy's best friend, but he's also a ferret. He's a small tan ferret with a cold nose, a black mask, and black feet, which is where the problem really starts. There are three different kinds of ferrets in the world, and one of them is endangered: the black-footed ferret. It's one of the rarest mammals in the world, and it's illegal to own one. So if Zucchini really is a black-footed ferret, he and Billy won't be able to stay together anymore.

The only way to know for certain is to ask one of the experts on ferrets. Billy has the chance, on a family vacation, to talk to the scientists who study ferrets and ask them questions about saving endangered animals, about ferrets, and about Zucchini in particular. If only he can pull his courage together...