Fantasy genre
Hannah the hen spends a whole day on the farm looking for a quiet place to lay her eggs, so that she can have chicks of her own. The pigs grunt too loudly, the lambs are too playful, the cows are too clumsy…Will Hannah ever find a nice quiet place where her eggs will be safe?
When the lazy people of Cologne go to sleep, the helpful elves do all their work. They measure and saw for the carpenter, knead and mix for the baker, carve and chop for the butcher, taste and pour for the winemaker, and snip and sew for the tailor. But no one ever sees them. Until one day the tailor’s wife becomes curious.
This classic picture book is based on a poem by August Kopisch (1799–1853), who specialised in re-telling popular legends. It is brought to life with humorous illustrations by Beatrice Braun-Fock (1898–1973).
It begins with a book, the most boring book in the world, a book so boring no one could ever read it—the perfect place to hide a dangerous secret.
When best friends Luke and Tommy volunteer to help move books from their library’s basement to higher ground during a quick rising flood, they discover the only surviving copy of the most boring book in the world: Leonardo’s River, lost for over 100 years. The book is connected to Leonardo da Vinci and is worth millions, so they return that night to steal it. After they steal it from the library, dark forces are soon on their tail. Luke and Tommy must unlock the mystery first, but with their pursuers closing in, the clock is ticking down to the final hour.
They are outcasts. Hal, Stig, and the others – they are the boys the others want no part of. Skandians, as any reader of Ranger’s Apprentice could tell you, are known for their size and strength. Not these boys. Yet that doesn’t mean they don’t have skills. And courage – which they will need every ounce of to do battle at sea against the other bands, the Wolves and the Sharks, in the ultimate race. The icy waters make for a treacherous playing field especially when not everyone thinks of it as playing.
Goldie Roth is a trained thief and a skilled liar. Along with her friend Toadspit, she’s supposed to be one of the Keepers of the mysterious Museum of Dunt. But although she desperately wants to be a Keeper, she will not leave her sick parents to do so. But when Toadspit’s sister Bonnie is stolen, he and Goldie are forced to follow the child-stealers to the neighboring City of Spoke. Along the way, Toadspit too is captured, and Goldie is caught up in the Festival of Lies, where every word she says means something else and no one can be trusted. There, Goldie discovers some dangerous secrets-secrets that the child-stealers will kill to protect. She will need all her skills as a thief and a liar if she is to survive and save her friends.
Thirteen-year-old Reveka, an herbalist’s apprentice in the Middle Ages, attempts to break the mysterious curse on the princesses of Sylvania and instead discovers a door to the Underworld.
Fourteen-year-old Petra, her tin spider Astrophil, and their friends become entangled in the competition for the Roma crown, then set out for Prague in hopes of finally finding a cure for Petra’s father.
The king of Long City is dying. For Kai Zu, the news means more than it does for most former street rats in the small mountain stronghold, because he and the king’s daughter are close friends. Then the majestic ruler of the ghost dragons orders Kai to travel across the country to the Phoenix Empire, where the princess is learning statecraft. In a court filled with intrigue, Kai and his best (female) friend Yan must work together to help the princess escape and return to Long City.
The unlikely heroes of the Cockroach Ryu face their greatest danger yet — a warrior seeking revenge against his former teacher, Sensei Ki-Yaga. The White Tiger Temple is under threat. To help the Shaolin monks, Sensei KiYaga and the whole gang of samurai kids—from Niya Moto, the boy with one leg to Taji, the boy who is blind—embark on a perilous journey across the Sea of Japan to China. But soon they discover that getting there is only half the battle. A great danger awaits them: a former student of Sensei named Qing-Shen, China’s Warrior, now the most skilled soldier in the Middle Kingdom. But Qing-Shen is also a man with a vendetta against his onetime teacher. Could there be anyone more dangerous? The samurai kids must train in the ways of the Shaolin monks before facing him. But will they be able to protect the temple and their beloved Sensei?
Kara Foster is finally starting to fit in at her boarding school in Japan—after all, nothing bonds you with your classmates like having an ancient demon put a curse on you. Hoping life can go back to normal now that the demon has been put to rest, Kara joins her friends Sakura and Miho in putting on a play for the Noh drama club. It’s the story of the Hannya, a snake demon who inhabits the body of a beautiful woman. When a few members of the Noh club go missing, Kara fears that the real Hannya has been awakened by the curse. Then Miho is abducted, and Kara must find her before the Hannya destroys her. But the demon is wily, and may be hidden in the last place any of them would think to look.