Frank Carlson Library

"Claudia has always been the most outrageous kid in her class...until Ashley Wyeth comes along, Ashley's really different--she wears hippie clothes, has six holes in her ears, and is the most fantastic artist Claudia has ever met. Ashley says Claudia has artistic talent, too. She thinks Claudia should spend more time on her "calling" and forget about the Baby-sitters Club: It's just a waste of time. The Baby-sitters are sick of Ashley Wyeth, and they...

"The sequel to the critically acclaimed Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus follows Aven Green as she confronts yet another challenge: high school. Just as Aven starts to feel comfortable in Stagecoach Pass, with her friends and schoolmates accustomed to her lack of "armage," everything changes once again. She's about to begin high school...with 2,300 new kids to stare at her. And no matter how much Aven tries to play it cool, nothing prepares...

Jill injures her back during a coasting party and is forced to lie flat on a couch for many weeks. This happy story begins with trouble, but soon rings with the gayety of youth and closes in a glow of hope.

"With its historic charm and picture-perfect library, the Maple Sugar Inn is considered the winter destination. As the holidays approach, the inn is fully booked with guests looking for their dream vacation. But widowed far too young, and exhausted from juggling the hotel with being a dedicated single mom, Hattie Coleman dreams only of making it through the festive season. But when Erica, Claudia and Anna--lifelong friends who seem to have it all--check...

"Laid off from her department store job, Carmen has perilously little cash and few options. The prospect of spending Christmas with her perfect sister Sofia, in Sofia’s perfect house with her perfect children and her perfectly ordered yuppie life does not appeal. Frankly, Sofia doesn’t exactly want her prickly sister Carmen there either. But Sofia has yet another baby on the way, a mother desperate to see her daughters get along, and...

Sailing from Africa to England, Edward Steele meets these two very different men aboard ship. When his traveling companion becomes seriously ill, Edward abandons his goal of going home and disembarks with the two men in Lisbon, never dreaming that his association with them will lead to the mysterious Nicola Bettencourt, a woman who captivates and confounds him in equal measures.

At twenty-seven, fleeing an abusive marriage with little more than her kids and the clothes on her back, Ivy Peterman figures she has nowhere to go but up. Quaint, historic New Bern, Connecticut, seems as good a place as any to start fresh. With a part-time job at the Cobbled Court Quilt Shop and budding friendships, Ivy feels hopeful for the first time in ages. But when a popular quilting TV show is taped at the quilt shop, Ivy's unwitting appearance...

"Once, a long time ago, I walked down a night-darkened road called Firefly Lane, all alone, on the worst night of my life, and I found a kindred spirit. That was our beginning. More than thirty years ago. TullyandKate. You and me against the world. Best friends forever. But stories end, don't they? You lose the people you love and you have to find a way to go on. . . ." Tully Hart has always been larger than life, a woman fueled by big dreams and...

Twelve-year-old Ben Brown runs away from the circus with his dog (and best friend) Sancho to seek out his missing father. He stumbles into the lives of young sisters Bab and Betty Moss who live with their mother in a quiet, tidy house. Ben's juggling skills, Sancho's trick of spelling his name with letter blocks, and the duo's other tricks of the trade charm the small family while Bab and Betty's whimsical antics and their mother's steady goodness...

Nikki's diary describes a frightful Halloween, on which she helps with her sister's ballet class party at the same time she is Brandon's date for their middle school Halloween dance, where she has promised to spend the evening with her two best friends.