School has started, and Binny can’t stand it. She has a horrid hand-me-down uniform and the kids make fun of her “posh” city accent.
Then a storm damages the roof of their home, and Binny, her sensible older sister Clem, and her rambunctious brother James (and chickens) must move to a rental home out in the country.
Intermediate (ages 9-14)
Material appropriate for intermediate age groups
The Blackthorn Key
In 1665 London, fourteen-year-old Christopher Rowe, apprentice to an apothecary, and his best friend, Tom, try to uncover the truth behind a mysterious cult, following a trail of puzzles, codes, pranks, and danger toward an unearthly secret with the power to tear the world apart.
The After-Room
It’s 1955, and Benjamin Burrows and Janie Scott are trying to live a safe, normal life in America. It’s not easy, when they have the power to prevent nuclear disaster, and sinister forces are circling. Soon the advice of a mysterious, unscrupulous magician propels Janie and Benjamin into danger, and toward the land of the dead. Meanwhile, their friend Jin Lo washes up on a remote island where an American spy is stationed, and finds herself on the trail of a deadly threat in China.
Friends For Life
Francis Meredith is a boy who is interested in fashion and costuming, which has made him a target at school, but when he meets Jessica and Andi his life begins to change–Andi is an athletic girl with a reputation for fighting and family in the fashion business, and Jessica is a ghost who has no idea how she died.
The Bubble Wrap Boy
Fourteen-year-old social outcast Charlie Han, known as “the short Chinese kid” at school, searches for a talent to improve his popularity, but when he discovers skateboarding, much to the disapproval of his overprotective mother, he also uncovers a huge family secret.
The World Within
Fourteen-year-old Emily would rather spend her days dreaming of adventures and wandering the moors, but when her father falls sick, and her sister Charlotte is sent away to school reality comes crashing in.
Doubleborn
For years, a cruel wizard named Ash has been trapped in a magical prison-but now, she is poised to escape and get her revenge by unleashing an army of vicious monsters. Only three stand in her way: Sam, the apprentice of the wizard who imprisoned her, Starback, Sam’s steadfast dragon companion, and Tamrin, a runaway wizard apprentice. Tamrin and Sam have only just met-but neither of them can deny the strange force that links them. They must discover the secret behind their connection in order to defeat Ash and protect everything they hold dear.
The Book Of Storms
Eleven-year-old Danny O’Neill has never been what you’d call adventurous. But when he wakes the morning after a storm to find his house empty, his parents gone, and himself able to hear the thoughts of a dying tree, he has no choice but to set out to find answers. He soon learns that the enigmatic Book of Storms holds the key to what he seeks . but unraveling its mysteries won’t be easy. If he wants to find his family, he’ll have to face his worst fears and battle terrifyingly powerful enemies, including the demonic Sammael himself.
The Tournament at Gorlan (Ranger’s Apprentice: The Early Years)
In this prequel to the Ranger’s Apprentice series, Halt and Crowley travel north seeking Prince Duncan’s royal warrant to stop Morgrath from corrupting the Corps, but if they are to prevent a coup that is nearing success, the young Rangers will have to tread a dangerous path toward the annual tournament at Gorlan.
A Plague Of Bogles
Jem Barbary spent most of his early life picking pockets for a wily old crook named Sarah Pickles—until she betrayed him. Now Jem wants revenge, but first he needs a new job. Luckily Alfred the bogler, the man who kills the child-eating monsters that hide in the shadows of Victorian London, needs a new apprentice. As more and more orphans disappear under mysterious circumstances, Alfred, Jem, and Birdie find themselves waging an underground war in a city where science clashes with superstition and monsters lurk in every alley.