When a young girl has to move countries and start at a new school, her fear tells her to be alone and afraid. How can she hope to make friends if she doesn’t understand anyone? Surely no one else feels the same way.
Me And My Fear
USBBY Outstanding International Book
Mary, Who Wrote Frankenstein
How does a story begin? Sometimes it begins with a dream, and a dreamer. Mary is one such dreamer, a little girl who learns to read by tracing the letters on the tombstone of her famous feminist mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, and whose only escape from her strict father and overbearing stepmother is through the stories she reads and imagines. Unhappy at home, she seeks independence, and at the age of sixteen runs away with poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, another dreamer. Two years later, they travel to Switzerland where they meet a famous poet, Lord Byron. On a stormy summer evening, with five young people gathered around a fire, Byron suggests a contest to see who can create the best ghost story. Mary has a waking dream about a monster come to life. A year and a half later, Mary Shelley’s terrifying tale, Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus, is published — a novel that goes on to become the most enduring monster story ever and one of the most popular legends of all time.
A Story Like The Wind
As a group of refugees huddles together in a rubber dinghy, one of them uses his violin to weave their stories together and give them hope for freedom in the future.
Featured in WOW Review Volume XI, Issue 3
Vacation
A girl spends her vacation at her grandfather’s house, but everything changes when he brings home a young elephant.
Skating Over Thin Ice
Imogen St Pierre is a musical prodigy, a classical pianist touring the international concert halls in a trio with her father and grandfather. Though clearly accomplished, she is also painfully awkward socially, getting lost in the music even after it’s over. Imogen’s in the final year in a private boarding school where she meets a boy of the same age, Nathan McCormick, who turns out to be the “Next Great Hockey Player.” Nathan, however, has recently been penalized for a vicious fight in an international tournament. Imogen and Nathan don’t exactly become an item, but there’s an elusive special quality to their connection. Jean Mills has given us a thoughtful, moving, powerful story about what it’s like to be gifted and exceptional — and still young.
You Can’t Be Too Careful!
Introduces a colorful cast of characters whose fates are connected in different ways, exploring the importance of kindness and the dangers of greed.
Hans Christian Andersen Award
The Agony Of Bun O’keefe
Little Miss Sunshine meets Room in this quirky, heartwarming story of friendship, loyalty and discovery.
A Face Like Glass
Originally published in Great Britain in 2012 by Macmillan UK. In the underground city of Caverna, the world’s most skilled craftsmen toil in the darkness to create delicacies beyond compare–wines that remove memories, cheeses that make you hallucinate, and perfumes that convince you to trust the wearer, even as they slit your throat. On the surface, the people of Caverna seem ordinary, except for one thing: their faces are as blank as untouched snow. Expressions must be learned, and only the famous Facesmiths can teach a person to express (or fake) joy, despair, or fear–at a steep price. Into this dark and distrustful world comes Neverfell, a girl with no memory of her past and a face so terrifying to those around her that she must wear a mask at all times. Neverfell’s expressions are as varied and dynamic as those of the most skilled Facesmiths, except hers are entirely genuine. And that makes her very dangerous indeed . . “
When The Moon Comes
In this atmospheric story, a group of kids play hockey on a frozen lake by moonlight. At once nostalgic and timely, this is a gorgeous book that will speak to readers young and old.
A Pattern For Pepper
From pinstripe to houndstooth, ikat to toile, join Pepper on her journey into the history of textiles as she works alongside a tailor to make her perfect dress.