The Return of the Killer Cat

When Ellie tells Tuffy the family is leaving for the week, Tuffy couldn’t be more thrilled. A whole blissful week of rolling around in the flower bed and lounging on top of the TV? Tuffy can’t wait! But the cat sitter the family procures doesn’t understand Tuffy’s refined feline palate, and Little Miss Soppy next door seems intent on dressing Tuffy in a nightie and calling him Janet. To get out of such a terrible mess, Tuffy is going to have to rely on his comical killer instincts.

A Hippo’s Tale

Deep in the middle of Africa, at the river’s edge where the hippos live, life is pleasant. The big hippos like to relax at the beach, while the little hippos love diving. Mrs. Hippopotamus enjoys having quiet time all to herself, especially when bathing. She even has her beach, where she takes a bath in peace. But then a monkey shows up and disturbs her solitude. What is Mrs. Hippopotamus to do? She comes up with a fantastic solution, one, as it turns out, that all the hippos like.

A Swift Pure Cry

Ireland, 1984. After Shell’s mother dies, her obsessively religious father descends into alcoholic mourning, and Shell is left to care for her younger brother and sister. Her only release from the harshness of everyday life comes from her budding spiritual friendship with a naive young priest, and most importantly, her developing relationship with childhood friend, Declan, who is charming, eloquent and persuasive. But when Declan suddenly leaves Ireland to seek his fortune in America, Shell finds herself pregnant and the center of a scandal that rocks the small community in which she lives, with repercussions across the whole country. The lives of those immediately around her will never be the same again.

Little Tad Grows Up

Little Tadpole is going through some big changes in his early life. For one thing, he’s sad when he learns he is losing his tail. Instead, he’s growing four strange, long legs that he doesn’t know what to do with. The older frogs tell him to be patient, but it’s hard when everything’s changing around you. Then one day he finds himself face-to-face with a water snake’s big fangs, and he learns just how useful his new legs can be. In the process, he discovers a beautiful new world outside the water. This is a funny, endearing look at what it means to grow up.

The Lion Hunter (The Mark Of Solomon)

It is the sixth century in Aksum, Africa. Young Telemakos—King Arthur’s half-Ethiopian grandson—is still recovering from his ordeal as a government spy in the far desert, trying to learn who was breaking the Emperor’s plague quarantine. Before he is fully himself again, tragedy and menace strike, and he finds himself sent, with his baby sister, Athena, to live with Abreha, the ruler of Himyar—a longtime enemy of the Aksumites, now perhaps a friend. His aunt Goewin, Arthur’s daughter, warns him that Abreha is a man to be wary of, someone to watch carefully. Telemakos promises he will be mindful—but he does not realize that Goewin’s warnings are not enough to protect him. The Sunbird was the first book about Telemakos. The Lion Hunter continues his story, to be quickly followed by The Empty Kingdom—a two-book sequence called The Mark of Solomon.

Snowbone

One pale wooden girl stands on the shore of Black Sand Bay, where the sea meets the sky and the wind meets the water. But Snowbone knows that she and her wooden friends can’t stay here forever. Something is happening deep within the forest. Something—someone—that must be stopped. Determined to save the Ashenpeakers from a dark destiny, Snowbone leads her gang of wooden tiddlins on a perilous chase—on the heels of human slave traders. They encounter feathered flying machines, a mystifying ancient prophecy, a looming volcano, and hungry cannibals. Snowbone, strong and courageous (and a bit stubborn), urges them on, while learning what it means to be a good leader.In a companion novel to Barkbelly, Cat Weatherill weaves another magical tale about the world of Ashenpeake and its lovable wooden heroes.

Tiny Tyrant

Portocristo has clear skies, sandy beaches, bustling streets–and a spoiled rotten, six-year-old king. The little despot is grouchy, whiny, outrageous…everything you’d hate to find in a boy on a throne.  But here in Portocristo, anything he says goes, no matter how bizarre or harebrained.  Young King Ethelbert swaps his country’s kids for Ethelbert robots, tests his bodyguard’s mettle by putting a price on his own head, shrinks the world down to his size, and brings a dinosaur back from the past.  A graphic novel, originally published in France.