Contains some of the author’s best ghostly tales, including “Rachel and the Angel,” “The Creatures in the House,” and the previously unpublished “Graveyard Shift.” By the author of The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral.
Intermediate (ages 9-14)
Material appropriate for intermediate age groups
Hexwood
Strange things begin to happen at Hexwood Farm as Ann Staveley watches person after person vanish into the old farmhouse and never reappear, but when she investigates, she discovers that the strangeness is spreading. By the author of Witch Week.
Triskellion 2: The Burning
As twins Rachel and Adam are pursued across Europe by terrifying forces, they realize they can trust no one — and must draw on their special powers to survive. After the shocking revelations in Triskellion, being guests of the “Hope Project” might seem like a relief. But Rachel and Adam soon figure out that they’re being held prisoner, and that the program has more sinister goals than archaeological research in mind. A hideous discovery at the funeral of their grandmother makes it clear that the teenagers must flee from England to Paris, Seville, and finally Morocco, evading not only their former benefactors but also the followers of “The Englishman,” a zombie-like figure with a frightening agenda of his own. It will take all of their special abilities and courage to stay alive until their journey reaches an explosive climax — and they unearth, on the North African coast, an ancient secret even more startling than the first.
The Other Side of Silence
In her brilliant but argumentative family, Hero is different, because she doesn’t speak. Instead, she prefers the silence and solitude she finds climbing the trees high above her neighbors stately old house. But everything changes when Hero starts to do odd jobs for the neighbor — and discovers a shocking secret high up in the tower of the house. “Mahy is a writer who just keeps getting better with every book.”– Kirkus Reviews, pointer review “Mahys exceptional imagination and storytelling prowess will make it difficult for readers to leave this book behind themhers is a tale with staying power.”– Publishers Weekly, starred review New Zealand author Margaret Mahy won the Carnegie Medal for The Changeover and The Haunting. Her most recent novel for Viking is Tingleberries, Tuckertubs, and Telephones.
Coping With Love (Coping)
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 Fire-Raiser
Set in New Zealand at the beginning of World War I, this novel depicts four children who band together to find out who has been setting fire to buildings all over town.
The Dragon Diary: Dragonology Chronicles – Volume 2
Apprentice dragonologists Daniel and Beatrice Cook’s mentor is called away at a crucial time, leaving the brother and sister alone to search for an ancient diary that could cure some gravely ill dragons.
