Amazing Amanda and the Crazy School Carnival includes comedyand yet realistic life issues. Readers will laugh, giggle, worry, and cheer Amanda's attempts at growth. Amanda is a pre-adolescent girl who deals with body issues, middle-school drama, angst with new girls, coming of age issues such as seeing beyond the surface, handling responsibilities of leadership, and questions about faith. Set in a mid-size central Minnesot...

Spring nears as Amanda's family faces extreme loss and sadness. When Amanda returns to school, she tries to be cheerful, but this pretending exhausts her. On her way home, a near accident gives Amanda another jolt. Her friends and teachers help her to be her real self and make a plan to get through the awful sadness. At Berean Bible church, they are greeted warmly and celebrate Easter. In late spring the sixth grade puts on another fundraiser, the play Our Town. Though she determines t...

When uncovering secrets, Amanda risks losing friendships she has tried so hard to make. In a Central Minnesota town, Beltran Elementary sixth-grader Amanda Hamann determines to solve a crime against her new friend. Someone has put a tortured doll in Linda's locker and Amanda is determined to find out who. Though the principal and Linda tell her to leave the investigation in the principal's hands, she doesn't.When she ends up in the hospital after a sledding acciden...

The Storyville Project is a publication of the nonprofit organization, the Lakes Area Writers Alliance and is a collaboration of creative nonfiction and fiction from our Minnesota-based author/members. Because our members come from all walks of life, you will find a variety of subjects and styles within.The Lakes Area Writers Alliance's goal is to encourage and support our fellow writers.Everyone published in this book, and all who worked to see it...

The Storyville Project is a publication of the nonprofit organization, the Lakes Area Writers Alliance and is a collaboration of creative nonfiction and fiction from our Minnesota-based author/members. Because our members come from all walks of life, you will find a variety of subjects and styles within.The Lakes Area Writers Alliance's goal is to encourage and support our fellow writers.Everyone published in this book, and all who worked to see it...

Bobby's a classic urban teenager. He's restless. He's impulsive. But the thing that makes him different is this: He's going to be a father. His girlfriend, Nia, is pregnant, and their lives are about to change forever. Instead of spending time with friends, they'll be spending time with doctors, and next, diapers. They have options: keeping the baby, adoption. They want to do the right thing.If only it was clear what the right thing was.

Amanda doesn't think she's slow, but everyone else seems to. When she finds a pair of magic earmuffs that allow her to hear fairies, everything changes.A 12,000 word children's fantasy story.

Who wouldn't want a fairy godmother? But when June's puts her under a spell where she cannot tell a lie, the truth is middle school just got a lot harder.The truth hurts. Sixth-grader June Jackson learned that lesson early. (She told her BFF one time she didn’t like her shoes. They fought for a week!) Which is why now June tells people what they what to hear. Who cares about a small fib if it makes her friends and family happy?But when Jun...

After a run-in with her fairy godmother, June must always tell the truth. Which is a lot easier when you’re not dealing with friendship, first love, and the fallout from a big family secret. An enchanting trilogy readers won’t want to miss. Honestly.June’s school musical ended with a surprising finale—her private blog was revealed for everyone to see. Now the whole town knows her real thoughts, and they aren’t too happy.Things only get worse when J...

Welcome to "What Happens Next?" Books!Here kids get to decide where they'd like to see the story go next. Now instead of just one story, children have all kinds of possibilities to choose from. Choose differently and discover a new ending!A new take on a classicWhat happens when you take Hans Christian Andersen's "The Princess and the Pea" and let kids decide what happens next? You might find a queen with even sillier ideas than put...

June can't tell a lie - and that made for a lot of drama even before she joined her school musical! An enchanting middle grade series that readers won't want to miss. Honestly.June has a hard time telling the truth when it isn't what people want to hear. But she's trying to be honest with herself, and auditioning for the school musical is what she really wants -- even if her parents have other ideas.But the drama is brewing offstage, too. On the night of th...

An Amazon Best Children's Book of 2019In the tradition of heartwrenching and hopeful middle grade novels such as Bridge to Terabithia comes Jess Redman's stunning debut about a young boy who must regain his faith in miracles after a tragedy changes his world.Eleven-year-old Wunder Ellis is a miracologist. In a journal he calls The Miraculous, he records stories of the inexplicable and the extraordinary. And he belie...