Love is in the air for the Casson family! Four hilarious, endearing tales unfold as Rose, Indigo, Saffy, and Caddy each tell their intertwining stories. Rose begins by showing how she does special with her Valentine\’s card for Tom in New York. Not to be outdone, Indigo has his own surprise in store for the Valentine,s Day disco at school. For her part, Saffy has an unusual date in a very, very dark graveyard, and is haunted by a balloon that almost costs her her best friend.But it is Caddy who dares everything — as she tells all about love at first sight when you have found the Real Thing. Unfortunately the Real Thing is not darling Michael. What is Rose going to do?
Intermediate (ages 9-14)
Material appropriate for intermediate age groups
The Tarantula Scientist (Scientists In The Field)
Yellow blood, silk of steel, skeletons on the outside! These amazing attributes don”t belong to comic book characters or alien life forms, but to Earth”s biggest and hairiest spiders: tarantulas. Here you are invited to follow Sam Marshall, spider scientist extraordinaire (he”s never been bitten), as he explores the dense rainforest of French Guiana, knocking on the doors of tarantula burrows, trying to get a closer look at these incredible creatures. You”ll also visit the largest comparative spider laboratory in America—where close to five hundred live tarantulas sit in towers of stacked shoeboxes and plastic containers, waiting for their turn to dazzle and astound the scientists who study them.
Mr. Karp’s Last Glass
Young Randolph has always been interested in collecting, so when he finds out that his family’s new boarder, Mr. Karp, also has a collection of mysterious crated items, he decides to find out more about the man.
Four Perfect Pebbles: A Holocaust Story
By the time WWII ended in Europe, the Blumenthal family–Marion, her brother Albert, and their parents–had lived in a succession of refugee, transit, and prison camps for more than six years, not only surviving but staying together. This memoir is written in spare, powerful prose that vividly depicts the endless degradation and humiliation suffered by the Holocaust’s innocent victims, as well as the unending horror of life in the camps.
A Most Dangerous Journey: The Life of an African Elephant
Deep in the hot African grasslands Ndovu is born, and begins the lessons of survival for his dangerous journey through life. Eventually he will face many hazards, including famine, drought, a devastating earthquake, and that most deadly of all predators–man.
A Dusk of Demons
When his father dies mysteriously and enemies set fire to Ben’s house, Ben and his stepsister, Patty, flee their homeland and embark on a perilous journey during which they face imprisonment, gypsies, and terrified countrymen seeking a sacrifice to save themselves from the Dark One.
The Amber Cat
While two friends convalesce from chicken pox, one boy’s mother tells them of a summer, long ago, when she was eleven–just their age–offering a story about a girl named Harriet who would mysteriously come and go at the beach. Who was Harriet? An underlying poignancy adds depth to this winning story with its surprise ending.
A Finder’s Magic
A boy who loses his dog meets a mysterious stranger and has a surprising adventure in an enchanting tale from a stellar author-illustrator team.When Till’s beloved dog slips its leash on their daily romp, the boy goes to bed in despair. But he wakes to meet Mr. Finder, an odd little man from his dream, who offers to help him retrieve the frisky pup. Together Till and Finder question some likely witnesses: a heron, a mole, a riddling cat, and two obliging old ladies, Miss Gammer and Miss Mousy. But Finder is a peculiar fi gure, given to disappearing suddenly, and Till starts to wonder: Can he be trusted? Part detective story, part fairy tale, A Finder’s Magic has mystery, darkness and light, and all the emotional truth that is a hallmark of Philippa Pearce’s writing.
Children of Summer: Henri Fabre’s Insects
“Paul, 10, is fascinated by insects, an interest engendered by his father, Henri Fabre, who has studied the creatures for most of his life. The boy and his two younger sisters help Père gather material for a textbook, often accompanying him on field trips into their untamed backyard…Admirable.”-School Library Journal
Gemini Summer
In the quiet of Hog’s Hollow, each member of the River family pursues a dream. Old Man River sets out to build a fallout shelter in case the war in Vietnam “brings the end of everything;” his wife Flo, who collects Gone with the Wind dolls, attempts to pen her own Southern saga; Beau, their older son, suffers from “space fever” and aspires to be an astronaut. As for Danny, the younger River boy, well, he just dreams of having a dog. Then in the spring of 1965 tragedy befalls the Rivers–a tragedy that makes the Old Man wish he’d never started building the shelter, stops Flo from finishing her bestseller, and leaves Beau grounded rather than airborne. But the tragedy does finally bring a dog into Danny’s life. And not just any old dog. Danny comes to believe that the mixed-breed stray embodies the spirit of someone he dearly loves. He won’t allow anyone to separate him from the dog, not even after it bites the neighborhood bully and the police are sent to take it away. Together Danny and his dog run off, heading toward Cape Caneveral, where the Gemini missions blast off from, and where dreams come true.