When Martine’s home in England burns down, killing her parents, she must go to South Africa to live on a wildlife game preserve, called Sawubona, with the grandmother she didn’t know she had. Almost as soon as she arrives, Martine hears stories about a white giraffe living in the preserve. But her grandmother and others working at Sawubona insist that the giraffe is just a myth. Martine is not so sure, until one stormy night when she looks out her window and locks eyes with Jemmy, a young silvery-white giraffe. Why is everyone keeping Jemmy’s existence a secret? Does it have anything to do with the rash of poaching going on at Sawubona? Martine needs all of the courage and smarts she has, not to mention a little African magic, to find out. First-time children’s author Lauren St. John brings us deep into the African world, where myths become reality and a young girl with a healing gift has the power to save her home and her one true friend.
When Ellie tells Tuffy the family is leaving for the week, Tuffy couldn’t be more thrilled. A whole blissful week of rolling around in the flower bed and lounging on top of the TV? Tuffy can’t wait! But the cat sitter the family procures doesn’t understand Tuffy’s refined feline palate, and Little Miss Soppy next door seems intent on dressing Tuffy in a nightie and calling him Janet. To get out of such a terrible mess, Tuffy is going to have to rely on his comical killer instincts. In this raucous sequel to The Diary of a Killer Cat, brimming with witty illustrations, Anne Fine reunites her readers with an unforgettable narrator who sees the world as only a conniving cat can.
Newbery Medalist Nancy Willard spins an original fairy tale about a poor baker who finds a beautiful bed for his wife in a strange new shop–for free! Perhaps his bad luck has turned? But there are more wonders in store, for the bed has magical powers. That night, the couple flies across the heavens to meet a master baker who gives them some magic yeast that will make them the best–and richest–bakery in town! But the yeast comes with a promise that will test the baker’s integrity, and will eventually teach the baker and his wife about the true riches of love and loyalty.
Who can sleep on such a beautiful night? Not Mama Horse. Not Mama Pig. Not Mama Sheep. They want to dance! Bounce! Jig! Leap! Shhh! The little ones are sound asleep . . . or are they?
The dreamhunting began as a beautiful thing, when Tziga Hame discovered that he could enter the Place and share the dreams he found there with other people. But Tziga Hame has disappeared and Laura, his daughter, knows that the art of projecting dreams has turned sour. On St. Lazarus’s Eve, when elite citizens gather at the Rainbow Opera to experience the sweet dream of Homecoming, Laura, determined to show them the truth, plunges them into the nightmare used to control the convict workers. The event marks the first blow in the battle for control of the Place, the source of dreams. Then, when Laura’s cousin, Rose, uncovers evidence that the government has been building a secret rail line deep into the Place, Laura follows it to find out what lies at its end. As she struggles to counter the government’s sinister plans, a deeper mystery surfaces, a puzzle only Laura can unravel, a puzzle having to do with the very nature of the Place. What is the Place, after all? And what does it want from her? Inventive and richly imagined, Elizabeth Knox’s dramatic conclusion will satisfy readers – whether or not they’ve read Book One.
One ordinary Monday morning in May, Hilmer Eriksson walks into his high school classroom and discovers that he has become invisible. No one can see him, no one can hear him. In fact, a police detective named Harald Fors arrives at school that very morning to investigate Hilmer’s disappearance. The boy has no idea what’s going on, but he’s frightened, and he’s starting to forget things – including what happened to him a few nights earlier. Detective Fors suspects foul play, and those suspicions lead him – trailed by the ghostlike presence of Hilmer – to a group of skinheads. These unpopular, disaffected kids are very vocal about their Nazi sympathies. But how does Hilmer’s life intersect with theirs? As Fors scours the village and interviews area residents for clues, he begins to piece together the puzzle of Hilmer’s disappearance. Meanwhile Hilmer waits, silently, to discover what has happened to him. In this riveting mystery set in northern Sweden, Mats Wahl deftly alternates between the policeman’s and the victim’s points of view, as the story of a missing-persons case shifts with a sad inevitability into a heartbreaking murder investigation.
Kidnapped after the fierce battle with Lord Morgarath, Will and Evanlyn are bound for Skandia as captives aboard a fearsome wolfship. Halt has sworn to rescue Will, and he will do anything to keep his promise—even defy his King. Expelled from the Rangers he has served so loyally, Halt is joined by Will’s friend Horace as he travels toward Skandia. On their way, they are challenged constantly by freelance knights—but Horace knows a thing or two about combat. Soon he begins to attract the attention of knights and warlords for miles around with his uncanny skill. Even so, will they be in time to rescue Will from a horrific life of slavery? The smash hit series continues with another heart stopping adventure.
When Tim is followed home by a dog on the street, he’s determined to find out who the friendly stray belongs to. But with a little investigating, Tim discovers that Grk’s owners don’t live in his town, or even in his country. Max and Natascha Raffifi, Grk’s owners, have been kidnapped with their ambassador parents by the evil Colonel Zinfandel and taken to a prison in Eastern Europe! Tim knows he’s about to undertake a mission his parents wouldn’t exactly approve of. He sneaks out of the house in the middle of the night with Grk, catches a taxi to the airport, then hops a plane to Stanislavia. Together he and Grk will have to break into a high-security prison, pilot a helicopter, and make a nail-biting run for the border in this high-octane, international adventure.
Growing up in a dead-end South Texas town, Mickey had two things she could count on: her big brother, Danny—the football hero everyone loved—and a beat-up copy of The Outsiders. But after the accident—after Danny abandoned her to a town full of rumors and a drunken father—all Mickey had left was a smoky memory, her anger, and the resolution to get out of town for good.But Danny is back—and he’s not the golden boy who left six years ago. He’s altogether a different person, and the life Mickey has worked so hard to rebuild seems to be falling apart. Danny’s anger is something Mickey just can’t forgive, and his best friend’s mysterious death six years ago keeps coming back to haunt the edges of her mind. No matter how hard she tries, she can’t remember what happened that night—and she’s starting to realize that remembering is the only way she can move on. She’ll have to face the brother who broke her heart, and that beat-up book that will never again feel like home.
Smart and independent, 11-year-old Khyber lives with her mom, Tammy, a former stripper, and her autistic twin brothers in a poor Toronto neighborhood. Though she doesn’t have a lot in common with her classmates, Khyber does have wonderfully eccentric friends: Valerie, Toronto’s meanest waitress, and X, a homeless woman in hiding from “the secret police.” Despite having to deal with pompous social workers who make her mother cry and ignorant kids who make remarks about her brothers, Khyber manages to enjoy herself, poring over atlases, planning exotic journeys, and taking peanut butter sandwiches to X. But when Tammy decides to move her sons to a group home for proper care, Khyber’s world starts to crumble. She fights with her mom and then gets expelled from school. To make matters worse, X suddenly disappears. Khyber sets out to find her in a wild all-night odyssey of self-discovery.
