Themes: Friendship, Family, Hiking, Nature, Bullying, Prejudice, Goals, Pride, Patience, Selfishness, Respect, Fiction, Teen, Young Adult, Emergent Reader, Chapter Book, Hi-Lo, Hi-Lo Books, Hi-Lo Solutions, High-Low Books, Hi-Low Books, ELL, EL, ESL, Struggling Learner, Struggling Reader, Special Education, SPED, Newcomers, Reading, Learning, Education, Educational, Educational Books. Is there buried treasure at Summer Lake? Best friends Cora and Rayna canêt wait to find out. The girls are opposites. But they both like to hike. The trip is a little risky with all the wildfires. But the idea of finding treasure is too good. Itês all set. Then Rayna backs out. Cora decides to go it alone. Maybe not the best decision ... This series of books was designed specifically for struggling teen readers. The contemporary fiction is written at accessible levels and provides substantive content without being edgy. The relatable plots appeal to teens, especially those who are reluctant to read. Books in the series quickly grab their interest with fast-paced storylines that feature realistic, sometimes larger-than-life teen characters readers can identify with or would like to know. Then there is an unexpected twist. The charactersê lives are suddenly on the edge„of fame, fear, or even sanity. What starts out as fun or routine becomes a nightmare, real or imagined. As characters are tested in mind, body, and spirit, readers have a sense of being there to experience the adventure.

From Lake Como in Italy to Oxford, a wonderfully compelling novel about lost love, fate and second chances from the Sunday Times bestselling author. Lake Como - beautiful, enchanting, romantic... For Floriana, it is the place where the love of her life is getting married to another woman. And she's been invited to the wedding. For Esme, it is where, over sixty years ago, she fell in love for the first time. So often she's wondered what happened to the man who stole her heart - and changed the course of her life. Adam is in danger of burying himself entirely in his work after his girlfriend left him. Could a trip to Lake Como be the distraction he needs? Now it's time for each of them to understand that the past is not only another country, it can also cast haunting shadows over everyone's lives...

Twelve-year-old Nicholas and his ten-year-old, twin sisters, Hetty and Haley, spend the summer with their Great-Uncle Nick at Forsaken Lake, where he and their new friend Charlie investigate the truth about an accident involving their families many years before.

When fourteen-year-old Abby Kate boards the train in Austin to spend three weeks with her grandmother in Galveston, she's full of excitement--about the train ride and the prospect of days on the beach, exploring Galveston with her cousin Jane, family picnics, and her grandmother's good food. But things go wrong even before she gets to her grandmother's house. Abby Kate gets off the train briefly in Houston--and the train leaves without her. Stranded in the railroad station, she is befriended by a man traveling with his two sons and eventually reaches Galveston safely. Then word comes that Abby Kate's young brother, Will, has diphtheria, and she will have to stay in Galveston indefinitely. Abby Kate is still in Galveston on September 8 when a massive hurricane strikes the city. At first the prospect of a storm is exciting. But as Abby Kate takes an ill-advised trip to watch the waves crash on the beach, the storm turns into a terrifying monster. Unable to make it back to Grandmother Linden's house, Abby Kate, her older cousin Ellen, and Ellen's friend Ian take refuge in the home of one of Ian's teachers. When the house falls apart, Abby Kate is on her own, clinging to a plank in swirling waters with the wind howling around her head. With vivid descriptions, Julie Lake plunges the reader into the storm right along with Abby Kate. The Galveston hurricane of September 8, 1900, remains the worst national disaster to hit the United States. And Abby Kate? She's spunky, mischievous, kind and caring, courageous when she has to be, and absolutely irresistible!

Meet fourteen-year-old Gary. A self-described "tree-toad,"a sly and endearing geek, Gary has many unwieldy passions, chief among them his cousin Kate, his Underwood typewriter and the soft-porn masterpiece, High School Orgies. The folks of Lake Wobegon don't have much patience for a kid's ungodly obsessions, and so Gary manages to filter the hormonal earthquake that is puberty and his hopeless devotion to glamorous, rebellious Kate through his fantastic yarns. With every marvellous story he moves a few steps closer to becoming a writer. And when Kate gets herself into trouble with the local baseball star, Gary also experiences the first pangs of a broken heart. With his trademark gift for treading "a line delicate as a cobweb between satire and sentiment"(Cleveland Plain Dealer), Garrison Keillor brilliantly captures a newly minted post-war America and delivers an unforgettable comedy about a writer coming of age in the rural Midwest.

A lakeside summer, a new beginning… Samantha Fremont has been struggling with the weight of her mother’s expectations for years. But now that her mother has passed away, it’s time for Sam to be bold and finally establish the fashion design business she’s always dreamed of. And the perfect opportunity has fallen into her lap. Her friend’s getting married and has asked Sam to create her wedding dress…if only she can avoid the bride’s infuriating brother, who’s temporarily the boy next door. Ian Summerhill knows a sabbatical in Haven Point is exactly what he and his children need to recover from their mother’s death. His romantic relationship with his ex-wife may have ended years ago, but caring for her throughout her illness broke his heart. All he wants is to watch his little sister walk down the aisle and to see his kids smile again. And somehow his lovely new neighbor is instrumental in both. But as their uneasy truce blossoms into a genuine friendship and more, Ian has obligations in England he can’t ignore—and a secret that threatens the fragile trust he and Sam have built. Return to Hope’s Crossing this Christmas in New York Times bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne’s latest heartwarming story of matchmaking at the holidays, All is Bright!

A Mother's Remembrance... Summer Camp. These two words have been known to inspire many things in the hearts of young girls and prospective campers--from fear, loneliness and anxiety, to joy, freedom, and lessons learned that will last a lifetime. Facing her mom's recent passing, the author recalls another time in her life when she was learning to live without her.Set along the shores of Lake Michigan, time runs parallel between a present-day journey and a distant place of memory where friendships formed and faith grew. A Daughter's Journey... Told in flashbacks as Nancy drives to a camp reunion with her own daughter and her two teenage friends, memories unfold, taking the reader on an unforgettable journey back to the idyllic setting of the camp. In these humorous and at times harrowing adventures, the reader realizes the power of female friendship can last a lifetime--in fact, it can change the form and direction of your entire life. Through laughter, tears, colorful descriptions, thoughtful prose, and steady plot teasers, this memoir will infiltrate your dreams. Even if you've never attended summer camp, as you turn the last, heart-warming page, you'll feel as if you have. Welcome back to Memory Lake.