This award-winning, beautifully made picture book by Jane Simmons is the story of a duckling who is too busy chasing dragonflies and bouncing on lily pads to stay caught up with Mama Duck. It perfectly captures a little one’s thrill of exploration in this gentle cautionary tale.
Based on a Medieval Book of Hours, this book describes the monthly activities of rural peasants in England during the Middle Ages. Rhyming couplets banner the top of each page while a paragraph for each month elaborates on the daily chores, showing the round of seasons in the farm year.
Here are seven tales — seven doorways to bizarre, yet strangely familiar worlds — to transport one and all. In these worlds are a child born to an ordered society but preordained to spread Dissolution; a girl who so loves the sun that she renounces her humanity for eternity; a cat and a boy, held captive by an evil magician until they can find a bigger magic of their own; a woman imprisoned in a strange country dominated by three ravenous wolves; and many other characters and stories just as exceptional.
Jonathan Starling’s home has been attacked, his dad is in an asylum, he’s running for his life, and there’s nowhere to hide. Jonathan has stumbled upon London’s greatest secret: Darkside. Incredibly dangerous and unimaginably exciting, Darkside is the creepiest place Jonathan has ever seen. It’s a world of nightmares and secrets, where fear and evil rule, and Jonathan has to find a way out…. Since Tom Becker learned to hold a pen, he wanted to become a writer. In fact, when he was five years old, he wrote in a notebook that it was his dream was to be an author. Tom studied History at Oxford University and was inspired by the otherworldly atmosphere of this academic institution. He used to spend long days studying and reading in the University library, but now he spends long days writing.
With unmitigated honesty, a touch of humor, and sensitive illustrations by Quentin Blake, Michael Rosen explores the experience of sadness in a way that resonates with everyone. “Sometimes I’m sad and I don’t know why. It’s just a cloud that comes along and covers me up. Sad things happen to everyone, and sometimes people feel sad for no reason at all.” What makes Michael Rosen sad is thinking about his son, Eddie, who died suddenly at the age of eighteen. In this book the author writes about his sadness, how it affects him, and some of the things he does to cope with it—like telling himself that everyone has sad stuff (not just him) and trying every day to do something he can be proud of. Expressively illustrated by the extraordinary Quentin Blake, this is a very personal story that speaks to everyone, from children to parents to grandparents, teachers to grief counselors. Whether or not you have known what it’s like to feel deeply sad, the truth of this book will surely touch you.
Boston Globe-Horn Book Honors
When Omri puts away the cupboard in The Secret of the Indian, he vows that it will be forever. Little Bear, Boone, and the other miniature figures he had brought to life will remain plastic. But then Omri and his family move to an old country farmhouse that they inherited from a distant relative, and he unearths a faded journal hidden in the thatched roof. To Omri’s utter amazement, the notebook was written by his “wicked” great-great-aunt Jessica Charlotte on her deathbed. Even more astonishing: It reveals how the cupboard and its magic were created–and changed the destiny of his family. In trying to right a wrong done in the past, Omri finds he has no choice but to break the promise he made to himself. The magical cupboard is opened once more.
When a storm brings down his father’s boat, Digory Beale is forced to leave home to discover his fate. For if Digory has been orphaned, he can never go home again. On his journey, Digory becomes the apprentice to a charming stranger whose life’s obsession is to save sailors’ lives. Digory must face his fears of the sea to help Henry bring candles to the lighthouse he’s built on a killer reef.
James Bond is no ordinary boy. In a north London cemetery, a professor is kidnapped at gunpoint. Then, a suspicious letter crammed with cryptic clues arrives at Eton. To decipher the deadly mystery, James Bond must take a series of dangerous gambles. Once the code is cracked he has just forty-eight hours to save the professor from the dark forces that threaten to destroy them both. And if they can’t escape, it’s not only their future under threat.
Lola gets to bring the class guinea pig, Bert, home over school vacation! She takes good care of Bert, but when she and Charlie build him a guinea pig run, he escapes. They hunt all over, and when they find him, they also discover a big surprise—lots of absolutely very adorable baby Berts! This new Charlie and Lola adventure will have readers giggling and wishing for a pet guinea pig of their very own.
Fifteen-year-old Leo North’s prospects in life are limited. He attends military school, lives with his fearful grandmother, and looks after his brother Stirling. He resists his innate powers, because those who demonstrate any sort of magical ability are considered enemies of the state. But when he finds a blank book in the snow, his typical indifference melts away. From the first moment he touches the book, he senses its strange power. Passages start to appear on the pages—revealing family secrets, telling the history of Malonia, and uncovering the story of Ryan and Anna, two teens from a parallel universe. When Leo’s seemingly narrow path takes an unexpected tragic turn, he finds himself on a journey from which he can never really return. And, as he slowly begins to lose touch with reality, Ryan and Anna’s story comes to the forefront. Their idyllic summer romance—seemingly worlds away from Leo—has everything to do with Malonia.