Intermediate (ages 9-14)

Material appropriate for intermediate age groups

Deadly Flowers

Ninjas are stealthy. They are disciplined. Ninjas trust no-one, and do not let anything deter them from completion of their mission. Teenage Kata has trained since childhood to live up to the exacting standards that Madame Chiyome sets for her “deadly flowers” – the girls who live a harsh, hungry life at her school for ninjas, and she is determined to succeed in her first mission as an assassin for hire. When it all goes wrong, she finds herself on the run, guarding a powerful amulet as well as the children of one of Japans most powerful warlords. They meet bandits and monks, and are plagued by demons and ghosts. Feudal Japan is a fascinating backdrop for their journey – neither the wealthy children nor skilled Kata truly control their own fate in a country where might equals right. Genuinely thrilling, with surprises at every turn and a solid emotional core, give Deadly Flowers to your Percy Jackson fans and see what happens.

The Singing Bones

Wicked stepmothers, traitorous brothers, cunning foxes, lonely princesses: There is no mistaking the world of the Brothers Grimm and the beloved fairy tales that have captured generations of readers. Now internationally acclaimed artist Shaun Tan shows us the beautiful, terrifying, amusing, and downright peculiar heart of these tales as never before seen.

The Vanishing Throne

Aileana Kameron is the Falconer, born to hunt and slay the faeries who prey on mankind but now, in 1847, the great battle is past, Edinburgh lies in ruins, and Aileana is a prisoner of the Fae prince Lonnrach, whose sister murdered her mother, and somehow she must find a way to escape, before he can steal her memories.

Trickster Tales (World Storytelling)

People of all ages love to watch the escapades of tricksters. In modern times, we watch Bugs Bunny, Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote even Ace Ventura and Bart Simpson. But these contemporary characters have roots in antiquity. The trickster is a universal archetype, found in every culture: Anansi among the African people, Coyote in the American Southwest, Raven in the Pacific Northwest, Rabbit in the American South, the leprechaun in Ireland, Fox in South America.

Mission Mumbai

Dylan, an aspiring photographer, is spending a month in Mumbai with his friend Rohit Lal and his family, but knowing nothing of Indian culture, he cannot seem to do anything right (do not hit cows!)–and the situation is made worse by the tensions within the Lal family over whether Rohit should be raised in India, which Mr. Lal’s wealthy sister is pushing for.

Poison Is Not Polite

In 1930s England, schoolgirl detectives Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong are at Daisy’s home for the holidays when someone falls seriously, mysteriously ill at a family party, but no one present is what they seem–and everyone has a secret or two–so the Detective Society must do everything they can to reveal the truth no matter the consequences.

Projekt 1065

It is 1943, and thirteen-year-old Michael O’Shaunessey, son of the Irish ambassador to Nazi Germany in Berlin, is also a spy for the British Secret Service, so he has joined the Hitler Youth, and pretending that he agrees with their violence and book-burning is hard enough but when he is asked to find out more about “Projekt 1065” both his and his parents’ lives get a lot more dangerous.