Intermediate (ages 9-14)

Material appropriate for intermediate age groups

Fiendish Deeds (Joy Of Spooking)

Do you dare set foot in Spooking?

It’s the terrible town on the hideous hill — and Joy Wells is a proud resident. A fan of classic horror stories, Joy is convinced that famous author E. A. Peugeot based his spine-tingling tales on Spooking. Take the eerie similarities between the nearby swamp and the setting of his masterpiece, “The Bawl of the Bog Fiend.” Could the story be true? Could the bog fiend be on the loose?

Things become truly horrifying when Joy learns that Darlington, the despicable suburban city where she is forced to go to school, is planning to build a water park over her beloved bog. It is up to her to safeguard the endangered area and its secrets. Little does she know that there is someone determined to destroy not only the bog but the town of Spooking itself — and anyone who dares stand in his way.

P. J. Bracegirdle spins a yarn of delicious devilry and macabre mayhem in the very first book of The Joy of Spooking trilogy.

The Little Secret

When Jane is invited to spend her summer vacation with her new—but admittedly odd—friend, Staffa, it feels like a dazzling daydream. Jane is lured by the promise of beautiful gowns as delicate as cobwebs, fancy parties as elegant as castle balls, and more fun than she can possibly imagine.   But there’s something menacing about the gleam in Staffa’s mother’s eyes. Something not-quite-right about the long drive over the hills of Scotland. Something strangely alluring about the mysterious, glowing box she is told she must never open. Never, ever, for any reason . . . Until, of course, it is opened on her behalf.  If Jane goes home with Staffa—if she enters the world of the box—will she be trapped forever? Or will she become every girl’s secret idea of a princess?    Kate Saunders takes readers into a wildly imaginative miniaturized world of castle balls, death-defying bee riders, and giant racing spiders. A world where wicked plots are hatched, exciting rescues staged, and where the power of friendship can be a match for even the most dastardly of villains. 

Open The Door To Liberty

The story of revolution leader Toussaint L’Ouverture of St. Domingue (now Haiti).The island now known as Haiti was once a French colony called St. Domingue, where white plantation owners forced hundreds of thousands of African slaves to farm sugar cane. Toussaint L’Ouverture was one of those slaves but not for long. The day would come when L’Ouverture would lead his island’s slaves into a revolution for freedom, and his efforts would influence the course of world history.

How To Scratch a Wombat: where to find it…what to feed it…why it sleeps all day

For more than thirty years, author Jackie French has lived in the Australian bush, coexisting with wild wombats. In this cross between memoir and natural history, Jackie shares her often hilarious adventures with her wombats neighbors and describes their physiology, history, and habits. Bruce Whatley adds pencil drawings in both comic and realistic styles.

The Deep

Sapphire lives in two worlds. On land she walks the rocky shores of the Cornwall coast—but under the sea she can swim like a seal by the side of her Mer friend Faro. Now both of Sapphy’s worlds are threatened. In the profound depths of the ocean, where the Mer cannot go, a monster called the Kraken is stirring. He has the power to sweep Ingo away and shake the land from its foundation. Because of her mixed blood, Sapphire can enter the Deep. With a great whale as her guide, she will journey to a place so far from the sun, no light can find it—and confront an evil that’s even darker.