Material appropriate for intermediate age groups
While in Germany with their father, who is researching the Pied Piper legend, Max, nearly thirteen, and her brother Carter, ten, are spirited away to the magical land where the stolen children of Hamelin have been hidden since the thirteenth century.
When thirteen-year-old Mascha is sent to her grandparents’ for the summer, she spends her days bored and lonely at a nearby playground. There she meets Julia and Max, two young siblings who are incredibly shy and withdrawn. Mascha soon begins to suspect that they are being physically abused by their father, a prominent member of their small community. She tells her grandparents and the authorities, but they all refuse to believe her.
Journeyman toymaker Stefan Drosselmeyer is recruited by his mysterious cousin, Christian, to find a mythical nut that will save Boldavia’s princess and his own kidnapped father from a fanatical Mouse Queen and her seven-headed Mouse Prince, who have sworn to destroy the Drosselmeyer family.
Neil and Liz Maloney have a secret: Their father is the keeper of the Weatherbox, a magical phone booth that rings four times a year, signaling the changing of the seasons. But this summer when the family gathers to send off the season, the phone doesn’t ring and autumn does not arrive. Instead a mysterious tourist of magic shows up at their doorstep, along with two nonsensical hags and one cat-shaped bog beast.
Martin Moone is eleven and completely fed up with being the only boy in a family of girls. He’s desperate for a decent wingman to help him navigate his idiotic life. So when best mate Padraic suggests Martin get an imaginary friend―or “IF” for short―he decides to give it a go.
Deep in the forest, in a crumbling ruin of a castle, Sarah begins to untangle the layers of curses affecting her family, until she discovers that the curse has carried over to her, too. The day she falls in love for the first time, Sarah will transform into a beast . . . unless she can figure out a way to break the curse forever.
London, 1842. Wild Boy, master detective and former freak-show performer, and Clarissa, circus acrobat and troublemaker, are the secret last hope of a city beset by horror. A poisoner stalks the streets, leaving victims mad with terror.
Through a series of strange coincidences, orphan Edie finds herself at Knight’s Haddon, a stately boarding school for girls. But Edie is not just another student–under normal circumstances, she could never afford to go to boarding school. She’s been sent to Knight’s Haddon by her art-dealer uncle to investigate the disappearance of a precious crystal bird that belongs to his secretive client’s daughter. Anastasia, a Russian royal, has a fragile disposition and a melodramatic bent–or so the headmistress and all the other girls say. Edie’s assignment is not only to find the missing glass bird; it’s to befriend the troubled blueblood and keep a watchful eye on her.
The struggle for human survival continues following an alien invasion of Earth as twelve-year-old Sam and his fellow resistance members join a mission to disable the invading Voidborn technology in Tokyo, but something is coming, something even worse than the Voidborn.
An anxiety disorder disrupts 14-year-old Audrey’s daily life. She has been making slow but steady progress with Dr. Sarah, but when Audrey meets Linus, her brother’s gaming teammate, she is energized. She connects with him. Audrey can talk through her fears with Linus in a way she’s never been able to do with anyone before. As their friendship deepens and her recovery gains momentum, a sweet romantic connection develops, one that helps not just Audrey but also her entire family.