Two Bear Cubs: A Miwok Legend from California's Yosemite Valley by Robert San Souci

Once upon a time, before the world was what it is today, two bear cubs wandered away from Oo-hoo'-mah-tee, Mother Grizzly Bear, and fell asleep on a sun-warmed rock. They were so tired from playing and splashing in the river that they slept for many days and many nights, not realizing that the rock they were sleeping on was growing taller, and bigger, and taller...

When Mother Grizzly Bear goes in search of her two small cubs, it will take the effort of several of her friends - and one unusual hero - to get Older Brother and Little Brother back down on solid earth.

This origin tale of the El Capitan landmark in Yosemite Valley is full of beautiful paintings by Daniel San Souci and details of Miwok life from many years ago.

Surviving Brick Johnson by Laurie Myers

It was a perfectly innocent mistake. In fact, Alex didn't realize it was a mistake until after he'd made it.

See, the guys at the lunch table were doing impressions - Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, that kind of thing. Alex was never quite sure what made him do it, but he did an impression of Brick Johnson, the new transfer student in his class. And everybody laughed.

Everybody except Brick Johnson, that is. Big and mean looking (bigger than skinny Alex, that's for sure!), Brick leaned over the table and said, "At my other school a boy did an imitation of me and..."

And what?!? Alex doesn't know, because a teacher interrupted them right then. And I punched him? And they never saw him again? And I gave him a big hug and a lollipop? (Alex is pretty sure it's not that last one.)

Whatever it might be, Alex is making sure to stay well out of Brick's way - which is tough when it seems that every time he turns around, Brick's in the area. Great! Not even two weeks into his fifth grade year and Alex is already starting to worry that he won't live to be one hundred.

But even while he's running away from Brick, Alex is learning some things about himself and about the other guy that could change the way he thinks about a few things...

Cages by Peg Kehret

It was so easy. Kit had already been examining the bracelet for several minutes, and everyone else was focused on Marcia - braggy, annoying Marcia, who had gotten the lead in the class play when Kit wanted it, who had a father who was willing to buy her expensive jewelry, who had everything Kit wanted in the world.

Kit slipped the bracelet into her pocket, turned away... and her life changed forever.

She had come to the mall to escape her alcoholic step-father and her too-forgiving mother, to escape her disappointment at not getting a role in the play - but when a heavy hand falls on her shoulder, Kit discovers that she's locked herself into a worse cage.

The police are called, and so is her mother. She has to pay a fine and appear before a court committee. It's the most frightening thing that has ever happened to Kit. Now she's lying to her best friend and to everyone else she knows, scared silly that someone is going to find out what happened, and sure that she's lost every chance at the scholarship she needs to go to college.

But there is a bright side as well - like the hours she spends at the Humane Society petting and playing with the dogs, and the friend she makes there, who teaches her that cages aren't always made of chain links and metal poles... and that sometimes you are the one with the key.

Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry

"It happened many years ago, before the traders and missionaries first came to the South Seas, while the Polynesians were still great in numbers and fierce of heart. But even today the people of Hikueru sing this story in their chants and tell it over the evening fires. It is the story of Mafatu, the Boy Who Was Afraid."

Mafatu, whose mother was killed by the sea when he was only three years old and who nearly died at the same time. Mafatu, who ever since has been afraid of the ocean, though the sea surrounds and supports the life of his people. He is the son of the Chief, but how is he to earn his place as a man and one day his people's leader if he sits on the land and does women's work instead of going out onto the sea and fishing?

When he can no longer stand the teasing of the other boys, Mafatu goes out in one of the canoes late one night with only his dog, Uri, and the albatross Kivi for companionship. He is determined to sail out to another island and return with proof of his courage and of his conquering of the sea.

But a wild storm sees Mafatu thrown up on the shores of an uninhabited island with no canoe, no supplies, and no weapons. If he is ever to get home, he will have to find ways to create all of these things from the island and the surrounding ocean. And - is the island truly uninhabited?

The Liberation of Gabriel King by K. L. Going

Gabriel is scared of many things, but mostly he is scared of starting fifth grade. Fifth and sixth graders share the same cafeteria and recess time and that will not bode well for Gabriel.

When he misses his fourth grade class graduation because some fifth grade bullies tie him up, he decides he isn’t going to move up to fifth grade. What he doesn’t count on is his best friend Frita’s determination that he will start fifth grade with her in the fall.

She decides Gabriel needs to be liberated from his fears. In order for him to be liberated, he must face and overcome each of his fears. To start with, she decides he should have a pet spider in order to overcome his fear of them.

Against the backdrop of a small Georgia town in the summer of 1976, the children find out that some things, like spiders, aren’t really that scary, while some things like grown-ups can be very frightening.