During a summer at her grandparents’ Italian seaside home, thirteen-year-old Lucrezia faces a changing relationship with her best friend Oliver and great personal tragedy.
Europe
Materials from Europe
The Scarecrow And His Servant
A scarecrow and his boy servant, Jack, set off on a dangerous adventure as they try to outwit the crooked Buffaloni family and stake their claim to valuable Spring Valley.
Along the Tracks
When the train that he is on is bombed, Yankele, a young Polish refugee from the Nazi invasion, is separated from his mother and wanders along the tracks, braving hardship and danger, as he searches for his family.
Copper
Pursued by enemies of the family she never knew she had, ten-year-old Copper Beach flees to Spindle House and decides to uncover the truth about a feud between the Stone and Wood clans that sent her into exile six years earlier.
Aldabra, Or, The Tortoise Who Loved Shakespeare
In Venice, Italy, ten-year-old Elisa finds she must deal with all the unexpected consequences of her beloved eccentric grandmother’s transformation into a giant Aldabra tortoise, native to a small group of coral islands in the Seychelles.
The Girl With The Broken Wing
Twins James and Amanda are baffled as to why a girl with a broken wing shows up outside their attic window one night, demanding to be let in and then not leaving except to cause trouble, until one day her purpose becomes clear.
Crepes by Suzette
Suzette sells a variety of her crepes, or French pancakes, from the street cart she takes all over Paris. Includes a recipe, a short glossary of French words used, brief notes on Paris sites, and more.
Daniel’s Story
Daniel and his family and friends suffer through deportation by the Nazis from their homes in Frankfurt, their life in a ghetto, and their experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
It Happened At School: Two Tales
In the first of two school stories set in France, a homework assignment involving autographs excites Claudette’s class; in the second, the teacher’s boyfriend becomes a nuisance using the class’s new telephone/fax machine to express his love.
I Have Lived A Thousand Years: Growing Up In The Holocaust
The author, who was imprisoned in Auschwitz as a teenager, describes her terrible experiences as one of the camp’s few adolescent inmates and the miraculous twists of fates that enabled her to survive.