A young person’s wartime account in the tradition of The Diary of Anne Frank follows the experiences of thirteen-year-old Russian Tatjana, who is taken to Germany as a captive laborer after Nazi Germany declares war on her country.”
Intermediate (ages 9-14)
Material appropriate for intermediate age groups
Firefight
Recruited into a black ops unit after bringing down an illegal fight club, Freedom Smith is now an agent for Phoenix, investigating criminal underworlds. His next assignment: Solve the mystery of the Screamer–a viral video that’s already made 13 kids vanish. Freedom faces the music, soon finding himself imprisoned in a nightmare fortress. To escape, he’ll have to master Dragon Fire, the ultimate fighting technique, and battle a supernatural enemy immune to his strength. Freedom may be on the ropes, but he’d better rally–his girl Java is about to be sacrificed to a serpent goddess!
Landing, The
Will Ben ever escape the Landing? The hardscrabble farm on the shores of Lake Muskoka can’t generate a living, so Ben’s Uncle Henry sells goods and gas to cottagers from the dock known as Cooks Landing. It had never been much of a living and since the Depression hit, it’s even less. Ben’s thinking a lot these days, and it’s making him miserable. He’s thinking about how unfair it is that his uncle only cares about work. He’s thinking about what he really wants to do: play the violin. These days, he’s lucky to snatch the odd bit of practice between chores, playing to the chickens in the henhouse. A new job fixing up the grand old cottage on nearby Pine Island seems at first to be just one more thing to keep Ben away from his violin. After he meets the island’s owner, Ben changes his mind. Ruth Chapman is a cultured and wealthy woman from New York who introduces Ben to an unfamiliar, liberating world. After Ben plays violin for Ruth and her admiring friends, it only makes him more desperate to flee. Then, during a stormy night on Lake Muskoka, everything changes.
Shades of Darkness: More of the Ghostly Best Stories
A companion volume to Demons and Shadows, this collection of eleven stories of the unexplained includes the tale of a nosy schoolgirl who helps a desperate ghost right a wrong and that of an antique camera that holds the clue to an old crime.
The Fat Man
Herbert Muskie is The Fat Man. When he catches skinny, hungry Colin Potter stealing a chocolate bar, he forces Colin to become his partner in crime. This begins an ever-escalating cycle of dominance fueled by Muskie’s hatred of the people of Loomis–a grudge Colin doesn’t understand.
There Will Be Wolves
The daughter of an apothecary and the owner of a secret book of healing arts, Ursula is determined to become a great healer, but her ambition makes her an outsider in the Holy Roman Empire. When she is accused of witchcraft and sentenced to burn at the stake, she is given one chance to save herself: she must march in the People’s Crusade to the holy city of Jerusalem.
The Dream Merchant
Having been hired by a mysterious corporation called Gippart, twelve-year-old Josh–along with two friends and the ghost of his dead twin sister–finds himself trapped in “umaya,” a place between dreams, time, and reality.
Hitler’s Daughter (Bccb Blue Ribbon Fiction Books (Awards))
Her name was Heidi, and she was Hitler’s daughter.
It began on a rainy morning in Australia, as part of a game played by Mark and his friends. It was a storytelling game, and the four friends took turns weaving tales about fairies and mermaids and horses. But Anna’s story was different this time: It was not a fairy tale or an adventure story. The story was about a young girl who lived during World War II. Her name was Heidi, and she was Hitler’s daughter.
As Anna’s story unfolds, Mark is haunted by the image of Hitler’s daughter. He wonders what he would have done in her place if he had known his father was an evil man leading the world into a war that was destroying millions of lives. And if Mark had known, would he have had the power and determination to stop him?
This intriguing novel poses powerful questions about a frightening period in history and will force readers to examine moral issues in a fresh, compelling light.
The China Year: A Novel
Henrietta Rich, a New York City teenager, spends a year in China when her father accepts a teaching position in Beijing.
Operation Siberian Crane: The Story Behind the International Efforts to Save an Amazing Bird
This book describes the cooperative effort by scientists in the Soviet Union and the United States to save the Siberian crane, with the support and aid of conservationists from other nations.