Intermediate (ages 9-14)

Material appropriate for intermediate age groups

Being Bee

Bee can’t understand what her father sees in Jazzi. Ever since Bee’s mom died, she, her dad, and her two guinea pigs, Fifi and Lulu, have been getting along just fine. Now Bee is supposed to welcome Jazzi, with her bangled skirts and her rock-hard scones and her new way of looking at everything. Imagine how Bee feels when her dad invites Jazzi to move in! Life certainly gets more complicated, especially after Bee discovers that there is something big that Jazzi has not told Dad. Yet knowing the secret makes Bee see another side of Jazzi, one that oddly enough makes Bee more comfortable.

Letters from Rifka

In letters to her cousin, a young Jewish girl chronicles her family’s flight from Russia in 1919 and her own experiences when she must be left in Belgium for a while when the others emigrate to America.

Mythological Creatures: A Classical Bestiary

Tales about proud gods and goddesses, fabulous creatures, ferocious beasts, and brave heroes from the world of Greek mythology have captured the imaginations of readers, young and old, for centuries. From the fierce Chimera, who is part lion, goat, and serpent; to the magnificent Phoenix that rises from its own ashes; to the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece; to the legend of Perseus and the Gorgon Medusa; to the noble winged horse, Pegasus; to Cerberus, the three-headed watchdog of Hades, Mr. Curlee explores the characters of the myths and legends that have been told and retold for thousands of years.

Little Fur: A Mystery of Wolves

Little Fur goes in search of her friend, Ginger the cat, who has vanished completely in this third book in the Little Fur quartet. The wise Sett Owl tells Little Fur that she must first discover who or what the Mystery of Wolves is. The only creature Little Fur finds who has heard of them is a mad prophet. He explains that the Mystery of Wolves is a mystic order of wolves who dwell in the high mountains to the east of the city. On an adventure that leads to more than just Ginger, Little Fur learns more about her long-gone father and mother and ultimately risks everything she loves to save the mysterious and dangerous humans who do not even know she exists.

Silent Observer

“I was born, like my seven brothers and sisters, in a house atop a hill overlooking lovely Bras d’Or Lake”. So begins Christy MacKinnon’s story of life as a little girl in 19th-century Nova Scotia, Canada. Through wonderful images created with her own words and her watercolors, she tells of a simple, charming life on the family farm; of learning with her father, the master of her town’s one-room schoolhouse; and of her eventual travel to Halifax to attend a “special” school. As with many children in the 1800s, Christy became deaf after a “seige of whooping cough”, a sickness common then, which she barely survived.

Silent Observer opens to young readers a world rarely seen today. They will be thrilled by her family’s ride in a horse-drawn sleigh over a frozen northern lake, and her close encounters with a noisy bull and a “gentleman” ram. Children and adults alike will warm to her cheerful memories of the simple pleasure of playing in a flower-filled field with her brothers and sisters. They will discover, too, that young Christy crossed paths with many vital figures of the day, beginning with frequent visits by Alexander Graham Bell, and later with a momentous meeting with Helen Keller.

Silent Observer is a delightful memoir told as it was seen through the eyes of a lively child. It is also a meaningful record of life for a deaf child and her family in the far reaches of Canada at the end of an era. Silent Observer is a beautiful, sensitive story that is sure to be enjoyed by everyone.

Chicken Feathers

A talking chicken! Josh knows it sounds ridiculous, but that’s just what Semolina is. And she’s not just a talking chicken. She’s a spirited, sarcastic, sassytalking chicken. And with Josh’s mom in the hospital about to give birth to his sister, Josh needs Semolina more than ever, even if she will only talk in front of him. But when Semolina tells him that a fox is sneaking into the hen house at night, can Josh get his dad to believe in Semolina before it’s too late? Chicken Feathers introduces one of children’s literature’s most original, endearing new characters to peck her way onto the page.

The Magician: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

After fleeing Ojai, Nicholas, Sophie, Josh, and Scatty emerge in Paris, the City of Lights. Home for Nicholas Flamel. Only this homecoming is anything but sweet. Perenell is still locked up back in Alcatraz and Paris is teeming with enemies. Nicollo Machiavelli, immortal author and celebrated art collector, is working for Dee. He’s after them, and time is running out for Nicholas and Perenell. For every day spent without the Book of Abraham the Mage, they age one year and so their magic is becoming weaker and their bodies more frail. For Flamel, the Prophesy is becoming more and more clear. It’s time for Sophie to learn the second elemental magic: Fire Magic. And there’s only one man who can teach it to her: Flamel’s old student, the Comte de Saint-Germain—alchemist, magician, and rock star. Josh and Sophie Newman are the world’s only hope—if they don’t turn on each other first.

The Castaways

Tom Tin and his four convict companions are only too glad when they come upon a deserted ship. The boys clamber aboard, not knowing whether they’ve been saved or set on a course toward doom. But after rescuing two men stranded on a melting iceberg, Tom begins to suspect that these unsavory sailors are dangerous castaways from this very vessel. The more Tom questions the men, the more they dislike him. So, when Tom overhears them plotting to get rid of him, he knows they mean it. But the other boys don’t feel threatened – at least not until the sailors attempt to sell them as slaves, a decision that ends with death for some and with Tom sailing the ship home to England. Soon Tom discovers that he has to cast away every ill-intentioned companion from his voyage home before he can truly be free.

The adventure that began in The Convicts and continued in The Cannibals has its conclusion in The Castaway.