action and adventure

Where’s My Teddy?

Yikes! Eddie’s in for the surprise of his life when he discovers that his teddy bear has grown much too big to cuddle! But there’s fun in store when Eddie meets up with a real bear who’s got just the opposite problem—his lost teddy bear has shrunk to a size that’s much too small for such an enormous bear to cuddle. Could it be a case of mistaken identity? This fast-paced comedy of errors, illustrated with Jez Alborough’s quirky artwork, is guaranteed to have children—and bears alike—reaching for their teddies!

William Wenton And The Impossible Puzzle

Twelve-year-old William Wenton is a puzzle-solving genius. He lives with his family in a quiet Norwegian town. They used to live in England, but eight years ago his family suddenly packed up, moved away, and even changed their last name! Neither of his parents will offer an explanation or tell William why he has to keep his talent for solving codes and puzzles a secret. But then a special exhibit comes to the local museum: the Impossible Puzzle. The experts say it is unsolvable, but William’s sure that he can crack it if he gets a chance.

Robinson

Robin and his friends are planning to dress up as pirates for their school’s annual costume party, but instead his mother creates a Robinson Crusoe costume for him, and while the adults love it, his friends are less welcoming.

Refugee

Although separated by continents and decades, Josef, a Jewish boy livng in 1930s Nazi Germany; Isabel, a Cuban girl trying to escape the riots and unrest plaguing her country in 1994; and Mahmoud, a Syrian boy in 2015 whose homeland is torn apart by violence and destruction, embark on harrowing journeys in search of refuge, discovering shocking connections that tie their stories together.

Featured in WOW Review Volume X, Issue 3.

In The Shadow Of The Sun

North Korea is known as the most repressive country on Earth, with a dictatorial leader, a starving population, and harsh punishment for rebellion. Not the best place for a family vacation. Yet that’s exactly where Mia Andrews finds herself, on a tour with her aid-worker father and fractious older brother, Simon. Mia was adopted from South Korea as a baby, and the trip raises tough questions about where she really belongs. Then her dad is arrested for spying, just as forbidden photographs of North Korean slave-labor camps fall into Mia’s hands. The only way to save Dad: get the pictures out of the country. Thus Mia and Simon set off on a harrowing journey to the border, without food, money, or shelter, in a land where anyone who sees them might turn them in, and getting caught could mean prison — or worse.

The Shopping Expedition

Setting out to pick up some things from the store entails more than a brave family bargains for in this funny flight of fancy from Allan Ahlberg and André Amstutz.On the day Mom goes shopping with her young daughter, baby Harry, and Wilf the Wonderdog, she starts by making her usual grocery list. But with Allan Ahlberg at the helm, what begins as a mundane shopping trip can quickly become just a little unusual. With the help of whimsically detailed illustrations by André Amstutz, this persistent family treks through a blizzard and under the desert sun, into a jungle of tropical beasts, and even across the sea. But what will they find at the end of their journey?

Silo And The Rebel Raiders

Ten-year-old Silo Zyco doesn’t know much about his relatives — his father was a mysterious stranger, and the rest of the Zycos were killed in a disaster involving a terrible wave and lots of mud. All he has inherited is a family reputation for thieving, and webbed feet. But Silo, last of the Zycos, does have one thing that others envy. He can see things. Things that will happen in the future.