Intermediate (ages 9-14)

Material appropriate for intermediate age groups

I Was A Rat!: Or, The Scarlet Slippers

“I was a rat!”

So insists a scruffy boy named Roger. Maybe it’s true. But what is he now? A terrifying monster running wild in the sewers? The Daily Scourge newspaper is sure of it. A lucrative fairground freak? He is to Mr. Tapscrew. A championship wriggler and a budding thief? That’s the hope of Billy and his gang. A victim of “Rodent Delusion”? So says the hospital doctor.

Or just an ordinary small boy, though a little ratty in his habits? Only three people believe this version of the story. And it may take a royal intervention–and a bit of magic–to convince the rest of the world. . . .

Magical Kids: The Invisible Boy and the Strongest Girl in the World

Josie Jenkins can lift a table, a car, and even a bus with no effort at all. The fame and fortune such incredible powers promise, however, is not what Josie was hoping for from life, and she is happy when the powers suddenly leave her and she can go back to being a carefree schoolgirl.

When his parents disappear on the way back from a Moon vacation, Sam is abducted by evil neighbor Hilda Hardbottom, but manages to hold his own thanks to Splodge, a small alien wayfarer who gives him a shot of invisibility.

Fearless

When a storm brings down his father’s boat, Digory Beale is forced to leave home to discover his fate. For if Digory has been orphaned, he can never go home again. On his journey, Digory becomes the apprentice to a charming stranger whose life’s obsession is to save sailors’ lives. Digory must face his fears of the sea to help Henry bring candles to the lighthouse he’s built on a killer reef.

Death in the Air: The Boy Sherlock Holmes, His Second Case

After the harrowing experience of losing his mother while solving a brutal murder in London’s East End, young Sherlock Holmes commits himself to fighting crime … and is soon involved in another case. While visiting his father at the magnificent Crystal Palace, Sherlock stops to watch a remarkable and dangerous trapeze performance high above, framed by the stunning glass ceiling of the legendary building. Suddenly, the troupe’s star is dropping, screaming and flailing, toward the floor. He lands with a sickening thud just a few feet away, and rolls up almost onto the boy’s boots. Unconscious and bleeding profusely, his body is grotesquely twisted. In the mayhem that follows, Sherlock notices something that no one else sees — something is amiss with the trapeze bar! He knows that foul play is afoot. What he doesn’t know is that his discovery will put him on a frightening, twisted trail that leads to an entire gang of notorious criminals. Wrapped in the fascinating world of Victorian entertainment, its dangerous performances, and London’s dark underworld, Death in the Air raises The Boy Sherlock Holmes to a whole new level.Be sure not to miss Eye of the Crow, The Boy Sherlock Holmes, His First Case.

Lady Friday: The Keys to the Kingdom

Four of the seven Trustees have been defeated and their Keys taken, but for Arthur, the week is still getting worse. Suzy Blue and Fred Gold Numbers have been captured by the Piper, and his New Nithling army still controls most of the Great Maze. Superior Saturday is causing trouble wherever she can, including turning off all the elevators in the House and blocking the Front Door. Amidst all this trouble, Arthur must weigh an offer from Lady Friday that is either a cunning trap for the Rightful Heir or a golden opportunity he must seize – before he’s beaten to it.

Double or Die: A James Bond Adventure

James Bond is no ordinary boy. In a north London cemetery, a professor is kidnapped at gunpoint. Then, a suspicious letter crammed with cryptic clues arrives at Eton. To decipher the deadly mystery, James Bond must take a series of dangerous gambles. Once the code is cracked he has just forty-eight hours to save the professor from the dark forces that threaten to destroy them both. And if they can’t escape, it’s not only their future under threat.

Piratica: Being a Daring Tale of a Singular Girl’s Adventure upon the High Seas

Artemesia is the daughter of a pirate queen, and she’s sick of practicing deportment at the Angels Academy for Young Maidens. Escaping from the school, she hunts up her mother’s crew and breezily commands them out to sea in a leaky boat. Unfortunately, Art’s memories of her early life may not be accurate-her seasick crew are actors, and Art’s infamous mother was the darling of the stage in a pirate drama. But fiery, pistol-proof Art soon shapes her men into the cleverest pirate crew afloat. And when they meet the dread ship Enemy and her beautiful, treacherous captain, Goldie Girl, Art is certain that her memories are real. The Seven Seas aren’t large enough for two pirate queens: Art will have the battle of her life to win her mother’s title–and the race for the most fabulous treasure in pirate lore.

Dragonhaven

When Jake Mendoza, who lives in the Smokehill National Park where his father runs the Makepeace Institute of Integrated Dragon Studies, goes on his first solo overnight in the park, he finds an infant dragon whose mother has been killed by a poacher.

A Frost in the Night

Joan BlosIt is Germany in 1932, and Hitler is rising to power. This critical place and time in modern history is poignantly re-created through the observations of a young Jewish girl named Eva, who is caught up in the sense of dread shared by the adults around her.

Homesick

This fictionalized autobiography tells the heartwarming story of a little girl growing up in an unfamiliar place. While other girls her age were enjoying their childhood in America, Jean Fritz was in China in the midst of political unrest. Jean Fritz tells her captivating story of the difficulties of living in a unfamiliar country at a difficult time.