Great Stone Face

The new Great Stone Face nominees are here! Check them out!

The Mailbox
Shafer, Audrey
When his Vietnam veteran uncle dies of a heart attack, 12-year-old Gabe tells no one because he fears that he will once again become a foster child. The next day he discovers a strange note in his mailbox: "I have a secret. Do not be afraid."




On the Wings of Heroes
Peck, Richard
Davy Bowman's brother and their dad hung the moon. Dad looks forward to Halloween more than a kid, and Davy's brother, Bill, flies B-17s. Davy adores these two heroes and tries his best to follow their lead, especially now. World War II has invaded Davy's homefront boyhood. There's an air raid drill in the classroom, and being a kid is an endless scrap drive. Bill has joined up, breaking their dad's heart. It's an intense, confusing time, and one that will invite Davy to grow up in a hurry.

Igraine the Brave
Funke, Cornelia
Princess Igraine dreams of becoming a famous knight just like her great grandfather, but the truth is, life at the family castle is rather boring. Until the nephew of the baroness-next-door shows up with a dastardly plan to capture the castle and claim as his own the wonderful singing spell books that belong to Igraine's magician parents. To make matters worse, at the very moment of the siege, her mom and dad botch a spell, turning themselves into pigs! Aided by a Gentle Giant and a Sorrowful Knight, it's up to Igraine to be brave and save the day--and the books!

A Crooked Kind of Perfect

Urban, Linda

Ten-year-old Zoe Elias, who longs to play the piano but must resign herself to learning the organ, instead, finds that her musicianship has a positive impact on her workaholic mother, her jittery father, and her school social life.

Shadow Thieves
Ursu, Anne
Something extraordinary is about to happen to Charlotte Mielswetzski. It's not the very cute kitten that appears out of nowhere. It's not the arrival of her cousin Zee, who believes he's the cause of a mysterious sickness that has struck his friends back in England. And it's not the white-faced, yellow-eyed men in tuxedos who follow Charlotte everywhere. It's all of them. When Charlotte's friends start to get sick, Charlotte and Zee set out to find a cure. Their quest leads them to a not-so-mythical Underworld, where they face Harpies that love to rhyme, gods with personnel problems, and ghosts with a thirst for blood.

Skulduggery Pleasant
Landy, Derek

Ace Detective. Snappy Dresser. Razor–tongued Wit. Crackerjack Sorcerer. Walking, talking, fire-throwing skeleton—as well as ally, protector, and mentor of Stephanie Edgley, a very unusual and darkly talented twelve-year-old. These two alone must defeat an all-consuming ancient evil. The end of the world? Over his dead body.

The Softwire: Virus on Orbis 1

Haarsma, PJ

Thirteen-year-old Johnny Turnbull has always known there was something different about him, even before he and two hundred other kids landed on the first ring of Orbis. But once their spaceship lands, he is identified as the first-ever softwire — a human with the ability to enter and communicate with computers through his mind — and becomes the focus of intergalactic intrigue. Johnny and the rest of the refugee orphans are put to work in alien factories, and very quickly things go very wrong. When the all-knowing, all-controlling, and technologically perfect central computer starts malfunctioning, suspicious eyes turn to Johnny.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Kinney, Jeff
An exciting new series begins. Greg Heffley is thrust into middle school, where undersized weaklings share the hallways with kids who are taller, meaner, and already shaving. The hazards of growing up are uniquely revealed through words and drawings as Greg records them in his diary.

Nightmare Academy

Lorey, Dean

Charlie Benjamin has always been a little different. He can't sit still. He has an overactive imagination. And he's developed a nasty habit of releasing monsters into our world. Luckily there's a place for Charlie—The Nightmare Academy. Here he discovers that he isn't the only one with a strange gift for opening portals into the Nether, where nightmare creatures live. But Charlie's talent is so frighteningly strong that one of the most fiendish monsters of all time uses him to enter our world. Charlie will need all his ingenuity—and the help of his new friends—to put this bad boy to bed once and for all.

No Talking

Clements, Andrew

The fifth-grade girls and the fifth-grade boys at Laketon Elementary don't get along very well. But the real problem is that these kids are loud and disorderly. That's why the principal uses her red plastic bullhorn. A lot. Then one day Dave Packer, a certified loudmouth, bumps into an idea — a big one that makes him try to keep quiet for a whole day. But what does Dave hear during lunch? A girl, Lynsey Burgess, jabbering away. So Dave breaks his silence and lobs an insult. And those words spark a contest: Which team can say the fewest words during two whole days? And it's the boys against the girls.

Paint the Wind

Ryan, Pam Munoz

Maya is a captive. In Grandmother's house in California, every word and action is strictly monitored, and even Maya's memories of her mother have been erased — except within the imaginary world she has created. A world away, in the rugged Wyoming wilderness, a tobiano Paint horse called Artemisia runs free, belonging only to the stars. She embodies the spirit of the wild — and she holds the key to Maya's memories. How Maya's and Artemisia's lives intertwine, like a braided rein, is at the heart of this richly drawn adventure about captivity and freedom, about holding on and letting go.

Schooled
Korman, Gordon
Capricorn (Cap for short) had lived every day of his life on Garland Farm growing fruits and vegetables. He was homeschooled by Rain, the only person he knew in the world. Life was simple for Cap. But when Rain falls out of a tree while picking plums and is hospital-ridden, he has to attend the local middle school and live with his new guidance counselor and her irritable daughter. While Cap knew a lot about Zen Buddhism, no amount formal education could ready him for the trials and tribulations of public middle school.

The Lacemaker and the Princess
Bradley, Kimberley Brubaker
Eleven year old Isabelle is a lacemaker in the town of Versaille.One day as she delivers lace to the palace, she is almost trampled only to be rescued by Marie Antoinette. Before Isabelle can
believe it, she has a new job — companion to the queen's daughter. Isabelle is given a fashionable name, fashionable dresses — a new identity. How can Isabelle reconcile the ugly things she hears in the town with the kind family she knows in the palace? And which side is she truly on?

My Last Best Friend
Bowe, Julie
As Ida May begins fourth grade, she is determined never to make another best friend--because her last best friend moved away. Thanks to bratty, bossy Jenna Drews who hates Ida, no one in class has ever really noticed her before anyway. It's when the sparkly Stacey Merriweather comes to her school that her plan goes awry. Ida reaches out despite her fear, but doesn't say hello—instead she writes Stacey anonymous notes. Soon their friendship develops without Ida ever having to reveal her real identity. Until she has no choice. And that's when the true friendship begins.

Lawn Boy
Paulson, Gary
One day I was 12 years old and broke. Then Grandma gave me Grandpa's old riding lawnmower. More people wanted me to mow their lawns. And more and more. . . . One client was Arnold the stockbroker, who offered to teach me about "the beauty of capitalism”. If I'd known what was coming, I might have climbed on my mower and putted all the way home to hide in my room. But the lawn business grew and grew. So did my profits, which Arnold invested in many things. And one of them was Joey Pow the prizefighter. That's when my 12th summer got really interesting.

Leepike Ridge
Wilson, N.D.
Eleven-year-old Thomas Hammond is in for the ride of his life when he's swept downstream and underground aboard a crumbling raft of Styrofoam. Washing up on a dark subterranean "beach," his only companions are an impulsive dog named Argus and a corpse, from which he takes a flashlight and an all-too-limited supply of batteries. What Tom finds under Leepike Ridge — a castaway, four graves, a tomb, and buried treasure — will answer questions he hadn't known to ask and change his life forever. Now, if he can only find his way home again...

The Book of Lies

Moloney, James

On the night he was brought to an orphanage, Marcel's memories were taken by a sorcerer and replaced with new ones by his Book of Lies, but Bea, a girl with the ability to make herself invisible, was watching and is determined to help him discover his true identity.

Dragon’s Egg
Thomson, Sarah L.
She feeds them, gathers their eggs, and tends to their injuries. But Mella dreams about the dragons of legend, not the small farm animals, the huge fire-breathing monsters. Then a Knight of the Order of Defenders arrives at the Inn. A simple errand takes Mella through the forest, where she stumbles across a dragon's egg—and faces the true, terrifying dragon guarding it. Mella vows to get the egg safely to the fabled Hatching Grounds.

Elephant Run
Smith, Roland
In 1941, bombs drop from the night skies of London, demolishing the apartment Nick Freestone lives in with his mother. Nick's mother sends him to live with his father in Burma. But as soon as Nick arrives, trouble erupts in this remote Burmese elephant village. Japanese soldiers invade, and Nick's father is taken prisoner. Nick is stranded on the plantation, forced to work as a servant to the new rulers. As life in the village grows more dangerous for Nick and his young friend, Mya, they plan their daring escape. Setting off on elephant back, they will risk their lives to save Nick's father and Mya's brother from a Japanese POW camp.

Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat
Jonell, Lynne
Emmy was a good girl. She did her homework without being told. She ate all her vegetables, even the slimy ones. And she never talked back to her nanny, Miss Barmy, although it was almost impossible to keep quiet, some days. She really was a little too good. Which is why she liked to sit by the Rat. The Rat was not good at all . . .

White Giraffe
St. John, Lauren

The night Martine Allen turns eleven years old is the night her life changes completely. Martine's parents are killed in a fire, so she must leave her home to live on an African wildlife reserve with a grandmother she never even knew she had. When Martine arrives, she hears tales of a mythical animal living there: a white giraffe. Her grandmother insists that the white giraffe is just a legend, but then, one stormy night, Martine looks out her bedroom window straight into the eyes of the tall silvery animal.

Bearwalker
Bruchac, Joseph
As a member of the Mohawk Bear Clan, Baron has always been fascinated by bears. But the Bearwalker legend tells of a different kind of creature—a terrible mix of human and animal that looks like a bear but is really a bloodthirsty monster. The tale never seemed to be more than a scary story, until he’s on a class camping trip deep in the Adirondacks and Baron comes face-to-face with an evil being that is all too real.

The Big One-Oh
Pitchford, Dean
Charley Maplewood has never been one for partiesthat would require friends, which he doesn't have. But now that he's turning ten he decides to throw a birthday party for himself, complete with a "House of Horrors" theme. Of course things don't work out as he plans. In trying to make friends, he ends up inviting the class bully Cougar to come, and that's before he ruins the cake and sets the garage on fire. Will Charley be able to pull it together before the big one-oh . . . becomes the big OH-NO!?

Billy Creekmore
Porter, Tracey
With only a tin box that holds precious mementos of his beloved mother and mysterious father, Billy Creekmore travels from the coal mines of West Virginia in the early 1900s to the spectacular world of a traveling circus, in search of his past, his future, and his own true self.

The Black Book of Secrets
Higgins, F.E.
A boy arrives at a remote village in the dead of night. His name is Ludlow Fitch—and he is running from a most terrible past. What he is about to learn is that in this village is the life he has dreamed of—a safe place to live, and a job, as the assistant to the mysterious pawnbroker who trades people’s deepest, darkest secrets for cash. Ludlow’s job is to neatly transcribe the confessions in an ancient leather-bound tome: The Black Book of Secrets. What the pawnbroker does not know is, in a town brimming with secrets, the most troubling may be held by his new apprentice.