Peoples are strange! The things they are doing and saying—sometimes they make no sense. Did their brains fall out of their heads? And why so much saying, so much talking all the time day and night, all those words spilling out of those mouths? Why so much? Why don’t they be quiet? In the ancient stone tower of the Casa Rosa, in a tiny village high in the Swiss Alps, life for one angel has been the same, well, for as long as she (or he?) can remember. Until Zola arrives, a determined American girl who wears three skirts all at once. For neighbors who have been longtime enemies, children who have been lost, and villagers who have been sleepily living their lives: hold on. Zola and the angel are about to collide. Figs start flying, dogs start arfing, and the whole village begins to wake up. Zola is a girl with a mission. And our angel has been without one—till now. This hilarious and endearing novel by Newbery Medal winner Sharon Creech reminds us that magic is found in the most ordinary acts of kindness.
Orphans
Blackbriar
Danny can feel something sinister about his new home, Blackbriar, an old, abandoned cottage in the English countryside. The residents of a nearby town refuse to speak of the house and can barely look Danny in the eyes. Then Danny begins to have strange dreams of fires and witches, and awakes to shrieks of laughter that seem to come from another time and place.With help from his friend, Lark, Danny begins to unravel the mysteries of Blackbriar and its frightening past,through the discovery of an ancient doll and a chilling list of names and dates carved on the cellar door. But what might be most terrifying of all is the mystery that does not lie in the past but in the here and now. . . .
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows (Book 7)
The final book in the Harry Potter series.
The Well of the Wind
Two orphaned children manage to outwit a witch and return to their rightful home.
Muktar and the Camels
Muktar lives in an orphanage on the border of Kenya and Somalia. He daydreams about his old life with his family and especially tending to camels. One day, visitors arrive bearing books, and Muktar’s friend Ismail is excited; so is Muktar, but for a different reason—the visitors are riding on camels. Muktar quickly discovers that one of the animals is injured and realizes this is his chance to prove himself. If there is anything Muktar knows, it is camels. Through the eyes of an endearing protagonist whose love and respect for animals shines, this beautifully told story introduces young readers to another part of the world and way of life.
Dick Whittington And His Cat
When Dick Whittington finally gets a ride from the countryside to London, he anticipates a wealthy paradise where the streets are paved with gold. He is shocked, though, to find that the city is in an even worse state than the country! Dick struggles to survive, barely living off scraps of food, until the wealthy merchant Mr. Fitzwarren offers him a job. Still lonely, Dick purchases a cat to comfort him and to kill the rodents in his bedroom. Little does anyone, particularly Dick Whittington, know that this cat will bring many more fortunes than anticipated! Margaret Hodges retells the optimistic story of Dick Whittington’s luck with beautiful acrylic paintings by Melisande Potter.
DarkIsle
IT’S A MAGICAL world if you know where to look. . . .For 10-year-old Morag, that magical world is no farther than the cellar of her cruel foster parents’ home. That’s where she’s shocked to meet Aldiss, a talking rat, and his resourceful companion, Bertie the dodo bird. Morag jumps at the chance to escape a life of drudgery and join them on their quest to save their homeland from an evil warlock named Devlish, who is intent on destroying it. But first, Bertie and Aldiss will need to stop bickering long enough to free the only guide who knows where to find Devlish: Shona, a dragon who’s been turned to stone. Together, these four friends begin their journey to a mysterious island beyond the horizon, where danger and glory await—along with clues to the disappearance of Morag’s parents, whose destiny seems somehow linked to her own.
Birth Of A Warrior
Lysander thought he left his roots as a Helot slave far behind when he discovered his true identity as the descendant of a Spartan warrior. His training at the academy has been ruthless, but now he must face his toughest challenge yet: being sent to the mountains with two other boys to prove they can survive the harsh conditions on nothing but their Spartan strength and wits. Facing starvation, wild animals, and the elements, Lysander discovers that his real enemy is in fact one of the other boys, who’s bent on sabotaging him. And when war with Persia threatens, Lysander must decide where his allegiance truly lies. This sweeping, dramatic adventure story is an exciting follow-up to The Fire of Ares, and its action and intrigue will not disappoint.
Fly By Night
Twelve-year-old Mosca Mye hasn’t got much. Her cruel uncle keeps her locked up in his mill, and her only friend is her pet goose, Saracen, who’ll bite anything that crosses his path. But she does have one small, rare thing: the ability to read. She doesn’t know it yet, but in a world where books are dangerous things, this gift will change her life. Enter Eponymous Clent, a smooth-talking con man who seems to love words nearly as much as Mosca herself. Soon Mosca and Clent are living a life of deceit and danger — discovering secret societies, following shady characters onto floating coffeehouses, and entangling themselves with crazed dukes and double-crossing racketeers. It would be exactly the kind of tale Mosca has always longed to take part in, until she learns that her one true love — words — may be the death of her.Fly by Night is astonishingly original, a grand feat of the imagination from a masterful new storyteller.
Street Child
A fictional account of the experiences of Jim Jarvis, a young orphan who escapes the workhouse in 1860’s London and survives brutal treatment and desparate circumstances until he is taken in by Dr. Barnardo, founder of a school for the city’s “ragged” children.