City of Alexandria
Wizards Book Of The Month Presented by KPMG
Check out Alexandria Library's picks for the Book of the Month. Click the month tab to browse through their title choices. Be sure to grab a library card and check out these books through the links below. Digital and physical copies are available.
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Separate is Never Equal
Years before the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Education, Sylvia Mendez, an eight-year-old girl of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage, played an instrumental role in Mendez v. Westminster, the landmark desegregation case of 1946 in California.
Hispanic Heritage
Perfect for annual Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations, this book explores the history that brought so many people and cultures together into a shared heritage. The Racial Justice in America: Latinx Histories series explores moments and eras in America’s history that have been ignored or misrepresented in education due to racial…
Lalo Lespérance Never Forgot
A moving middle-grade mystery about a boy dealing with long-repressed memories of his father as he learns about his Mexican and Haitian heritage while spying on a mysterious stranger during the first weeks of COVID lockdown.
We Gather Together: Celebrating the Harvest Season
The fall equinox signals the time of year when we gather our harvests and give thanks for their bounty. With accessible, lyrical prose and vibrant illustrations, this nonfiction picture book explains the science behind autumn and the social history of harvest-time celebrations. We Gather Together presents a remarkable range of…
Autumn the Falling Leaves Fairy
“Rachel and Kirsty love the fall! They can’t wait to go apple picking, carve pumpkins, and take a hayride. But this fall, everything is going all wrong, because Autumn the Falling Leaves Fairy’smagic is missing! Can the girls help her outsmart Jack Frost and his goblins, and make sure that…
A Year Without Autumn
Twelve-year-old Jenni’s much-anticipated vacation with her family and best friend Autumn goes awry when an old elevator transports her to a future in which everything has changed, and she must not only return to her time but find a way to prevent what she has seen from coming true.
We Don’t Eat Our Classmates
When the class pet bites the finger of Penelope, a tyrannosaurus rex, she finally understands why she should not eat her classmates, no matter how tasty they are.
Heidi Heckelbeck and the Big Mix-Up
An embarrassing rumor about Lucy spreads at school and she thinks Bruce is behind it so Heidi gets involved and uses some magic to bring the trio of friends back together.
Awkward
Cardinal rule #1 for surviving school: Don’t get noticed by the mean kids. Cardinal rule #2 for surviving school: Seek out groups with similar interests and join them. On her first day at her new school, Penelope — Peppi — Torres reminds herself of these basics. But when she trips…
Outside Amelia’s Window
Amelia is shy finding solace in fairy tales but finds the courage to make friends with her new neighbors and embark on an adventure in her new wheelchair with the help of a litte bird outside her window.
Once for Yes
Told in alternating voices, the Odenburgh, a semi-sentient apartment building, helps grieving eleven-year-old Prue and her neighbor Lewis unite the other tenants to save itself from demolition.
Deer Run Home
With a family who refuses to learn sign language, twelve-year-old Effie is mostly cut off from human communication at home, unable to speak of her abusive stepfather or violent father–only her interpreter understands, and Miss Kathy is willing to take Effie’s case to court to provide her with a safe…
My Dad is the Best
Two boys try to one-up each other about their strong dads. One says his dad can pick up a truck filled with elephants, which makes the other boy claim his dad can do the same, but with pregnant elephants! Eventually the boys realize something even more special about their dads….
Deephaven
When Guinevere “Nev” Tallow receives an acceptance letter to the exclusive Deephaven Academy, they know it’s the fresh start that they’ve been looking for. But things are strange from the moment they arrive–the house itself seems to breathe, students whisper secrets in dark corridors, and the entire east wing of…
Candidly Cline
Born in Paris, Kentucky, and raised on her gram’s favorite country music, Cline Alden is a girl with big dreams and a heart full of song. When she finds out about a young musicians’ workshop a few towns over, Cline sweet-talks, saves, and maybe fibs her way into her first…
Punky Aloha
Punky loves to do a lot of things–except meeting new friends. She doesn’t feel brave enough. So when her grandmother asks her to go out and grab butter for her famous banana bread, Punky hesitates. But with the help of her grandmother’s magical sunglasses, and with a lot of aloha…
Maizy Chen’s Last Chance
Eleven-year-old Maizy Chen visits her estranged grandparents, who own and run a Chinese restaurant in Last Chance, Minnesota. As her visit lengthens, she makes unexpected discoveries about her family’s history and herself.
Front Desk
Mia Tang has a lot of secrets. Number 1: She lives in a motel, not a big house. Every day, while her immigrant parents clean the rooms, ten-year-old Mia manages the front desk of the Calivista Motel and tends to its guests. Number 2: Her parents hide immigrants. And if…
My Friend Earth
Die-cut pages invite reader to explore how Earth is a friend to all creatures, watching over us as the year cycles through the seasons.
Team Trash: A Time Traveler’s Guide to Sustainability
After a mechanical mishap, studious environmentalist Charlie and artistic Oliver travel back through time and must gather information on recycling throughout the ages to return to the present day.
The Electric Kingdom
When a deadly Fly Flu sweeps the globe, it leaves a shell of the world that once was. Among the survivors are Nico and her dog, on a voyage devised by Nico’s father to find a mythical portal; a young artist named Kit, raised in an old abandoned cinema; and…
The Girl Who Thought in Pictures: The Story of Dr. Temple Grandin
Describes the life and accomplishments of the animal scientist and designer of cruelty-free livestock facilities, from her early life and autism diagnosis through her journey to become a livestock expert.
The Princess in Black
Princess Magnolia is having hot chocolate and scones with Duchess Wigtower when … Brring! Brring! The monster alarm! A big blue monster is threatening the goats! Stopping monsters is no job for dainty Princess Magnolia. But luckily Princess Magnolia has a secret — she’s also the Princess in Black, and…
Front Desk
Mia Tang has a lot of secrets. Number 1: She lives in a motel, not a big house. Every day, while her immigrant parents clean the rooms, ten-year-old Mia manages the front desk of the Calivista Motel and tends to its guests. Number 2: Her parents hide immigrants. And if…
Catastrophe
Wednesday and her service dog, Woof, are the best detectives in the whole world–or at least their neighborhood. But can they find Mrs. Winters’s missing cat before her big trip? Or will the case of the cat-napped kitty be their first unsolved mystery?
The Secret Library
Finding a mysterious letter from her late Grandpa, Dally is led straight to a library of secrets where each book is a portal to a precise moment in time, and she must find the courage to write her own life story as she “checks out” adventure after adventure.
My Selma : true stories of a Southern childhood at the height of the civil rights movement
As the civil rights movement and the fight for voter rights unfold in Selma, Alabama, many things happen inside and outside the Brown family’s home that do not have anything to do with the landmark 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Yet the famous outrages which unfold on that…
Legends of Lotus island. City of wishes
During the New Year’s break, Plum and her friends travel to fancy, fashionable Nakhon Island to stay with Sam and his mother, the powerful Lady Ubon. The New Year always brings food, parties, and the grand old tradition of making a wish. At first, Plum is dazzled by the big…
Our Little Kitchen
A crew of resourceful neighbors comes together to prepare a meal for their community. Includes a recipe and an author’s note about the volunteering experience that inspired the book.
Winter Wonderland
Ty’s big imagination takes him and Momma on a trip to the North Pole. Everything is wonderful! A Christmas tree sparkles, a snowman waves, and a polar bear sings. Will Ty’s wish to see Santa come true?
Eagle Drums
As his family prepares for winter, a young, skilled hunter must travel up the mountain to collect obsidian for knapping–the same mountain where his two older brothers died. When he reaches the mountaintop, he is immediately confronted by a terrifying eagle god named Savik. Savik gives the boy a choice:…
The Barren Grounds
“Morgan and Eli, two Indigenous children forced away from their families and communities, are brought together in a foster home in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They each feel disconnected, from their culture and each other, and struggle to fit in at school and at their new home — until they find a…
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