Middle Grade & YA

Filled with intrigue and surprises, The Pharaoh’s Secret includes Marissa Moss’s original illustrations throughout. The novel skillfully weaves history with a personal story full of heartache and family tensions that will entice and enthrall readers.When Talibah and her younger brother, Adom, accompany their father, an academic, to his homeland of modern Egypt on his research assignment, they become involved in a mystery surrounding an ancient, lost pharaoh – a rare…

When Mira receives a cryptic postcard from her missing mother, she sets off with her father and brother to find her in Paris. Only Mira doesn’t know she’s looking in the wrong century. With an innocent touch to a gargoyle sculpture on the roof of Notre Dame, Mira is whisked into the past. There she learns her mother isn’t just avoiding the family, she’s in serious trouble. Following her mother’s…

Historical fiction at its best, this novel by bestselling author Marissa Moss tells the story of Sarah Emma Edmonds, who masqueraded as a man named Frank Thompson during the Civil War. Among her many adventures, she was a nurse on the battlefield and a spy for the Union Army, and was captured by (and escaped from) the Confederates. The novel is narrated by Sarah, offering readers an in-depth look not…

As if traveling to a new country in search of her missing mother weren’t difficult enough, Mira has to do it dressed as a boy. In a different century. A new postcard from her time–traveling mother points Mira to the 16th century Rome. But before she can rescue her mom, she must follow the clues left around the city to find Giordano Bruno, a famous thinker and mathematician, who discovered…

The ultimate outsider, Edgar Stoker uses wit and humor to navigate the social complexities of middle-school and vampire culture. From surviving Saturday Vampire Jamborees to school lunches and the dreaded school photo, Edgar tries to win friends in both worlds, but when he’s faced with angry vegetable-eaters, his troubles have just begun….

In the third book of the popular time-travel series, Mira navigates her way through WWI London, meeting famous suffragists and writers like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Instructed by her time-traveling mother to steal a German spy’s briefcase full of secrets and pass on the information to British Intelligence, Mira struggles with whether the changes she has been working for are the right thing to do after all. How much control…

In the last book of the time-travel series, Mira explores the past of her familiar Bay Area, discovering layers of history in San Francisco and learning the real reason her mother has been working to change history. On the way, she meets Mark Twain and uncovers the Watcher’s real identity….

Everyone has heard of the Boston Tea Party, but few know about the other tea parties that took place at the same time. Boston, Philadelphia, New York City, and Charleston all had to deal with the ships from England’s East India Company coming to deliver tea to the colonies–tea that had a very high tax attached. America’s Tea Parties provides background on England’s taxation of the colonies, with emphasis on…

Caravaggio was on a defiant mission to change the art world. Before him, there were pastel-colored idealized visions, polite paintings for a polite society. After him, there were slews of imitators, trying to grasp his brilliant slashes of light and dark, his people who looked more like your neighbor than a model of perfection. Bold with his brush, the young rebel was equally brash in his life, picking fights and…

As a female Jewish physicist in Berlin during the early 20th century, Lise Meitner had to fight for an education, a job, and equal treatment in her field, like having her name listed on her own research papers. Meitner made groundbreaking strides in the study of radiation, but when Hitler came to power in Germany, she suddenly had to face not only sexism, but also life-threatening anti-Semitism as well. Nevertheless,…

Talia has just started 6th grade and uses her codebook to figure out the new social rules of middle school. Dash, her best friend, tells her they can’t be friends anymore since other boys are teasing him that she’s his girlfriend. Talia hopes that both of them being on the school mathlete team will repair their friendship. But things don’t go the way she plans. Using codes, doodles, and puzzles,…

The gripping story of one of America’s first cryptanalysts, Elizebeth Smith Friedman, who busted spy rings:One of the founders of US cryptology who would eventually become one of the world’s greatest code breakers, Elizebeth Smith Friedman (1892–1980) was a brilliant mind behind many important battles throughout the 20th century, saving many lives through her intelligence and heroism.Whip-smart and determined, Elizebeth displayed a remarkable aptitude for language and recognizing patterns from…