Donna Jo Napoli

From microscopic organisms to giant cats, it's surprising who you'll find awake in the middle of the night! Dinoflagellates guzzle floating bacteria, bumblebee bats loop and swoop, racer snakes slither, weasels sneak and circle, and spot-bellied eagle owls leap and sweep. One by one, the animals of the food chain find their next scrumptious treat.

A collection of tales told by Scheherazade to amuse the cruel sultan and stop him from executing her as he had his other daily wives.

Tired of his mother's overprotectiveness and intrigued by the life of African American explorer Matthew Henson, twelve-year-old Alvin travels north and spends a season with a trapper near the Arctic Circle.

In a novel based on Chinese Cinderella tales, fourteen-year-old stepchild Xing-Xing endures a life of neglect and servitude, as her stepmother cruelly mutilates her own child's feet so that she alone might marry well.

One day when Albert is at his window, two cardinals come to build a nest in his hand, an event that changes his life.

Caught in Japan and separated from their father when World War II begins, Italian sisters Simona, thirteen, and Carolina, ten, embark on a trying journey hoping to reach safety. Includes historical notes.

"When a young Japanese girl moves into her new house, she is happy to see a girl her age playing in the snow just outside her window. The only problem is the Japanese girl doesn't speak English and the American girl doesn't speak Japanese. But each girl's love of the snow teaches them that they don't need to speak the same language to have fun!"--

When four siblings wish on a star, each gets only a fraction of what he or she wanted, but when they combine their wishes, they just might get a whole new pet.

Based on the fairy tale Rapunzel, the story is told in alternating chapters from the point of view of Zel, her mother, and the nobleman who pursues her, and delves into the psychological motivations of each of the characters.

Excited by a fencing demonstration he happens to see, fourth grader Mikey starts taking lessons in hopes that the sport will make him special like his brother and sisters.