eSource: Free Teaching Guides

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Cover: A Calf Named Brian Higgins: An Adventure in Rural Kenya

A Calf Named Brian Higgins

Thirteen-year-old Hannah Higgins is convinced her summer is ruined when she is forced to travel to Africa and work in a remote village in Kenya with her mom and uncle. Never having been to a developing country, she finds the food gross and the community filthy. She has to live without… View →

 
Cover: AfterMath

AfterMath

“This book is a gift to the culture.” —Amy Schumer, writer, actor, and activist After her brother’s death from a congenital heart defect, twelve-year-old Lucy is not prepared to be the new kid at school—especially in a grade full of… View →

 
Cover: A Long Way from Home

A Long Way from Home

Twelve-year-old Abby has a lot to worry about: Climate change. The news. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. And now moving to Florida for her mom’s new job at an aerospace company. On the Space Coast, Abby meets two boys, Adam and Bix, who tell her… View →

 
Cover: Amelia's Middle-School Graduation Yearbook

Amelia's Middle-School Graduation Yearbook

Amelia is excited to graduate from middle school, but she’s nervous about starting high school, especially when she finds out she won’t have her best friend, Carly, with her. In her graduation yearbook, drawings and “photos” nostalgically recap her earlier years… View →

 
Cover: A Time Traveler's Theory of Relativity

A Time Traveler's Theory of Relativity

He believes in science, but only magic can help his mom. Twelve-year-old Finn is used to people in his family disappearing. His twin sister, Faith, drowned when they were three years old. A few months ago, his mom abandoned him and his dad with no… View →

 
Cover: Benno and the Night of Broken Glass

Benno and the Night of Broken Glass

Benno was the neighborhood’s favorite cat. During the week, he napped in a sunny corner of Mitzi Stein’s dress shop and begged scrapped from Moshe the butcher. But one night in Berlin, the Nazis changed everything. Life would never be the same. … View →

 
Cover: Blood Diaries: Tales of a 6th-Grade Vampire

Blood Diaries

Middle school is tough enough for normal humans, but when you’re a vampire, it’s even more challenging. Edgar rises to the occasion with wit, humor, and some help from his friends. View →

 
Cover: Cardslinger

Cardslinger

“An epic quest full of action and mystery. A big adventure with a big heart, Cardslinger is aces!” —Michael Northrop, New York Times bestselling author of the TombQuest series It’s 1881, and a newfangled card game called… View →

 
Cover: The Drained Brains Caper: Book 1

Chicagoland Detective Agency

Raf Hernandez knows Megan is odd from the moment she walks into his mom’s pet supply store asking for a tarantula. That’s weird, but in Chicagoland, weird things happen several times a day. Megan Yamamura is a vegetarian manga-reading haiku artist, and she doesn’t fit… View →

 
Cover: The Beautiful Game

Cody Trilogy

Thirteen-year-old Cody Dorsett is recovering from cancer and wants a normal life, and that includes soccer. Stuck on the bench and bullied as the new, bald kid, Cody has to find a way to prove himself as a Striker. The Beautiful Game challenges Cody to fight for what he View →

 
Cover: Coyote's Soundbite: A Poem for Our Planet

Coyote's Soundbite

A rip-roaring poem about protecting our planet, told through the eyes of Coyote the trickster. Excitement spreads like wildfire through the jungle. Earth-goddesses are planning a conference! From Australia to Antarctica, Amazon to Africa,… View →

 
Cover: Go Free or Die: A Story about Harriet Tubman

Creative Minds Biographies

Meet some of the world’s most creative minds! Written in story format, these episodic biographies give clear, straightforward accounts of historical figures’ lives. Each true story is accompanied by black-and-white illustrations. View →

 
Cover: Dappled Annie and the Tigrish

Dappled Annie and the Tigrish

A beautiful story of nature, family, bravery, and a touch of something magical. There are faces in the hedge at the end of the garden, and a nest of tiny fantails, and that’s where nine-year-old Annie gets to play one hot summer while her father works up at the lighthouse. One… View →

 
Cover: The Deadening: Book 1

Dead Max Comix

Middle school can be a survival of “fitting-in,” at best. In Dead Max Comix, Derrick discovers that his secrets aren’t really unusual. This series offers a light-hearted touch at accepting yourself and finding your own “pack.” View →

 
Cover: Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z

Dictionary for a Better World

How can we make the world a better place? This inspiring resource for middle-grade readers is organized as a dictionary; each entry presents a word related to creating a better world, such as ally, empathy, or respect. For each word, there is a… View →

 
Cover: Don't Sit On the Baby!: The Ultimate Guide to Sane, Skilled, and Safe Babysitting

Don't Sit On the Baby!

Babysitting is one of the most popular part-time jobs for teens, but caring for kids is no easy feat. Offering a ton of useful tips, this funny, modern no-nonsense guide covers all the basics any babysitting hopeful needs to know, and much more. Includes: -What to expect from View →

 
Cover: Duck, Death and the Tulip

Duck, Death and the Tulip

From award-winning author and illustrator, Wolf Erlbruch, comes one of the world’s best children’s books about grief and loss. Voted one of the 100 greatest children’s books of all time by the BBC. In a curiously… View →

 
Cover: Duck's Backyard

Duck's Backyard

A funny and philosophical story in which a duck with a limp and a blind chicken search for adventure and answers to some of life’s big questions. By a bestselling author/illustrator pair. With themes of friendship, difference, leadership and courage, this chapter… View →

 
Cover: Pelican in Peril

Eco Rangers

This action-packed series centers around two best friends who rescue and rehabilitate sick and injured wildlife through their local conservation center. Ebony and Jay love helping others and looking after the environment. In each story, they meet new animal friends, solve mysteries, and… View →

 
Cover: Eddie Whatever

Eddie Whatever

“Comic, creepy, calamitous, and . . . completely satisfying.”—Claudia Mills, author of The Lost Language and Zero Tolerance Thirteen-year-old Eddie needs to do a community service project in preparation for his bar mitzvah. Against… View →

 
Cover: Emma Just Medium: The Beach Dilemma

Emma Just Medium

Even though her family calls her Emma Bemma, Emma knows she is really a dilEmma. The middle kid between her two brothers, whom everyone calls Big and Little, Emma is just Medium. Big thinks he’s the coolest kid on the planet now that he’s ten. He… View →

 
Cover: Enly and the Buskin' Blues

Enly and the Buskin' Blues

Twelve-year-old Enly Wu Lewis is determined to go to band camp and follow in the footsteps of his musician father, who died years ago. But his mom, a single parent working two jobs, is saving every penny for his older brother’s college tuition. So Enly sets View →

 
Cover: Everything Together: A Second Dad Wedding

Everything Together

When Jeremiah arrives in Minneapolis to spend the summer with his Dad, everything feels odd. His dad’s fiancé, Michael, has buried the apartment in piles of DIY wedding decorations. His best friend Sage now spends all her time with a new girl as quirky and View →

 
Cover: Finding S.A.M.

Finding S.A.M.

Twelve-year-old Zach feels powerless over his autistic and often embarrassing brother who counts light bulbs and wears a Superman shirt every day. In desperation, Zach turns to an imaginary brother in his search for finding normal. Zach just wants a normal seventh grade year where he can View →