Fantasy genre
It’s almost bedtime and for the first time, Mama won’t be putting Billy Bear to bed. Lucy the babysitter will be looking after him instead. They read and sing songs together, but when it’s time for bed, Billy and his stuffed rabbit just can’t fall sleep. What can be bothering them?
A saintly rabbi miraculously brings to life a clay giant who helps him watch over the Jews of sixteenth-century Prague.
As Eastern Europe lurches toward chaos after the fall of communism, at last it seems possible to Letta that she and her grandfather will be able to visit his homeland, the tiny country Varina. Varina is presently split among three big neighbors, but why shouldn’t it be free? It has its own language and history, its own songs and dances, its own dogs and cheeses. Can Varina take its chance or must it go the tragic way of Bosnia and Croatia? Can one old man make any difference? And how can Letta help?
Alexander Cold and Nadia Santos reunite for their final adventure in Isabel Allende’s celebrated trilogy. This time they are heading to the blazing plains of Kenya, where Alex’s grandmother Kate is writing an article about the first elephant-led safaris in Africa. Days into the tour, a Catholic missionary approaches the camp in search of companions who have mysteriously disappeared. As the group investigates, they discover a clan of Pygmies and a harsh world of corruption, slavery and poaching. Alexander and Nadia must trust in the strength of their totemic animal spirits as they launch a spectacular struggle to restore freedom to the Pygmies and return leadership to its rightful hands.
Aria is different from the other children in her village because she cannot speak. But Aria loves being with the birds around her jungle home — with them, she is free to be herself. When the village men begin to catch the birds to sell in their market-place, Aria moves out of the village to protect her friends. But then the villagers try to catch Aria. She flies away to freedom with the birds.
It has been ten years since the great battle that wiped out all the superhumans. Whether they all died that day or simply lost their powers and blended back into society, only one thing is certain: They are gone. Or are they? Thirteen-year-olds Danny and Colin have recently begun changing. How can they explain Danny’s newfound ability to move at the speed of light, or Colin’s surprising strength? They can’t, but their parents—the lost generation of superhumans—can. They have been watching and waiting for these changes. So have others—and not everyone is happy about the boys’ new powers. Some will do anything to stop them.
Hob, the friendly spirit who lives under the stairs and protects the house, must do battle with a variety of evil beings trying to take control of his family’s home.
The newest boy at Mrs. Timmins’s Home for Orphans and Foundlings awakes at first light with no name and no memory. But a strange girl who hides among the shadows of the orphanage tells him that a mysterious wizard’s creation, the Book of Lies, holds the answers, and then gives him one clue: “Your name is Marcel.” With that knowledge, and the help of three new friends, Marcel begins a quest to find the truth about his real identity—a truth that is hidden in the Book of Lies. As Marcel learns more about his past, he realizes that truth can change at any moment and can be manipulated by anyone, and he begins to wonder if the old book’s so-called magical truth might be the greatest lie of all.
As usual, the Strega-Borgia family can’t seem to get a break: They’ve just welcomed a newborn boy Strega-Borgia into the world, but before they can give him a name, he’s snatched and replaced with a demon baby. Mrs. McLachlan, the super-efficient (and supernatural) nanny is back, safe and sound—but so is the demon Isagoth, and he hasn’t forgotten what he wants from the Strega-Borgias. And evil Uncle Lucifer has resurfaced, but this time he has the added ammunition of a pact with S’tan the First Minister of the Headen Executive—otherwise known as His Imperial Inflammableness, his S’tainless Steeliness, and the Arch-Fiend.
WHEN TOMAS AND HIS SON, Peter, settle in Chust as woodcutters, Tomas digs a channel of fast-flowing waters around their hut, so they have their own little island kingdom. Peter doesn’t understand why his father has done this, nor why his father carries a long, battered box, whose mysterious contents he is forbidden to know. But Tomas is a man with a past: a past that is tracking him with deadly intent, and when the dead of Chust begin to rise from their graves, both father and son must face a soulless enemy and a terrifying destiny.