Europe

Materials from Europe

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Over the Moon

The Tootings are stuck in 1966! Somebody’s stolen Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and left them behind. But that’s not their biggest problem. Their biggest problem is that Little Harry’s been kidnapped by whoever stole their magical car. There’s only one solution: the Tootings must find the Potts — the family that originally built Chitty. Sharing their combined knowledge of how Chitty works, the families may stand a chance of rescuing Little Harry and finding the most brilliant car in the world. But a fiendish criminal has different plans, ones that involve flying Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to the moon and putting an explosive scheme into action.

A Dark Inheritance

When Michael Malone saves a dog, he discovers that he has paranormal abilities, which bring him to the attention of a secret organization, but he plans to use the ability to find out what happened to his father, who mysteriously vanished three years earlier, and save his new friend, Freya.

Why We Took the Car

Mike Klingenberg is a troubled 14-year-old from a dysfunctional family in Berlin who thinks of himself as boring, so when a Russian juvenile delinquent called Tschick begins to pay attention to him and include Mike in his criminal activities, he is excited–until those activities lead to disaster on the autobahn.

The Secret Sky

Two teens from different ethnic groups in present-day Afghanistan must fight their culture, tradition, families, and the Taliban to stay together as they and another village boy relate the story of their forbidden love.

The Hound Of Florence

Walking through the streets of his hometown of Vienna, Lucas Grassi sees an archduke’s coach, with the archduke’s faithful dog running alongside. He wishes he could be the dog and be free from his everyday life. Then his wish comes true: Lucas does become the dog. Every other day he switches from his normal body to that of the archduke’s canine companion. Soon he learns the dog is treated badly and the archduke is not a nice man. Lucas decides he’ll do anything to reverse his wish if only he knew what to do!

Andre The Giant

Andre Roussimoff is known as both the lovable giant in The Princess Bride and a heroic pro-wrestling figure. He was a normal guy who’d been dealt an extraordinary hand in life. At his peak, he weighed 500 pounds and stood nearly seven and a half feet tall. But the huge stature that made his fame also signed his death warrant. Box Brown brings his great talents as a cartoonist and biographer to this phenomenal new graphic novel. Drawing from historical records about Andre’s life as well as a wealth of anecdotes from his colleagues in the wrestling world, including Hulk Hogan, and his film co-stars (Billy Crystal, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, etc), Brown has created in Andre the Giant, the first substantive biography of one of the twentieth century’s most recognizable figures.

The True Adventures Of Nicolo Zen

“Orphan Nicolo Zen is all alone in 1700s Venice, save for his clarinet, enchanted by a mysterious magician to allow its first player to perform expertly. Soon Nicolo is a famous virtuoso, wealthy beyond his dreams, but he can’t stop wondering if he earned the success — or the girl he met in Venice is safe from the harm”–

Dream Land

One girl’s struggle to find her true home. It was meant to be like coming home…All her life, Safi’s parents have dreamed of returning to Grandpa’s native village in Crimea. But exchanging their sunny Uzbekistan house for a squalid camp is more like a nightmare. Will the return to a country where no one welcomes them tear Safi’s family apart, or can this strange land ever become home? This is a compelling story about the Crimean Tatars’ struggle to reclaim the land from which they were exiled in the Second World War.

Egg & Spoon

Elena Rudina lives in the impoverished Russian countryside. Her father has been dead for years. One of her brothers has been conscripted into the Tsar’s army, the other taken as a servant in the house of the local landowner. Her mother is dying, slowly, in their tiny cabin. And there is no food. But then a train arrives in the village, a train carrying untold wealth, a cornucopia of food, and a noble family destined to visit the Tsar in Saint Petersburg — a family that includes Ekaterina, a girl of Elena’s age. When the two girls’ lives collide, an adventure is set in motion, an escapade that includes mistaken identity, a monk locked in a tower, a prince traveling incognito, and — in a starring role only Gregory Maguire could have conjured — Baba Yaga, witch of Russian folklore, in her ambulatory house perched on chicken legs.

Hello, Moon!

The boy asks the moon if it enjoys some of his favorite activities–and they share in some, like pretending to be pirates, together. But then the boy starts to think big. Can the moon see the city? Can the moon see the whole wide world? What are the moon’s friends like? Soon the boy grows tired, says good night to the moon, and falls asleep.