Claudia Mills schrijft kinderliteratuur die met empathie en inzicht de complexiteit van kindertijd en adolescentie verkent. Haar schrijfstijl is direct en toegankelijk, waardoor jonge lezers zich gemakkelijk kunnen verbinden met haar personages en hun ervaringen. Mills put uit scherpe observaties om verhalen te creëren die zowel leerzaam als vermakelijk zijn. Haar achtergrond in de filosofie informeert subtiel haar werk en biedt een uniek perspectief op jeugdige dilemma's en ontwikkeling.
Boogie Bass feels his best friend, Nolan, is better than he at everything, even caring for Boogie's little brothers, but an after-school camp reveals Boogie's talent at communicating using American Sign Language. Includes facts about ASL
The quest to save the words of a dying language - and to find the words to save what may be a dying friendship - lies at the heart of this exquisite verse novel. Sixth grader Betsy is the one who informs her best friend, Lizard, that thousands of the world's languages are currently threatened by extinction; Betsy's mother is a linguistics professor working frantically to study dying languages before they are lost forever. But it is Lizard who, gripped by the magnitude of this loss, challenges Betsy, "What if, instead of WRITING about dying languages, like your mom, you and I SAVED one instead?" As the girls embark on their quest to learn as much as possible of the near-extinct language of Guernésiais (spoken on the Isle of Guernsey, off the coast of France), their friendship faces unexpected strains. With Lizard increasingly obsessed with the language project, Betsy begins to seek greater independence from her controlling and charismatic friend, as well as from her controlling and charismatic mother. Then tragedy threatens Betsy's life beyond what any words can express, and Lizard does something unthinkable. Maybe lost friendships, like lost languages, can never be completely saved. A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
Seventh-grade honor student Sierra Shepard faces expulsion after accidentally bringing a paring knife to school, violating the school's zero-tolerance policy.
Twelve-year-old Maggie comes to dread biology class because her favorite teacher is insisting that she dissect a worm, an assignment that makes her feel very squeamish and awakens her to the question of animal rights.