If no one notices her, then no one willnotice her uncle Punky either. Punky is a grown man with a child's mind. Delrita loves him dearly and can't stand people making fun of his Down Syndrome. But when tragedy strikes, Delrita's quiet life— and Punky's— are disrupted forever. Can she finally learn to trust others, for her own sake and Punky's? This story captures the joy and sorrow that come when we open our hearts to love. Author Biography: June Rae Wood lives near Windsor, Missouri.

    Soon it becomes clear that Daine's talent, as much as she struggles to hide it, is downright magical. Horses and other animals not only obey, but listen to her words. Daine, though, will have to learn to trust humans before she can come to terms with her powers, her past, and herself.

    Countless taboos are shattered when Elsha, an idealistic and rebellious Quelled girl, is chosen to be handmaid to the Firelord—the man revered by those calling themselves the Chosen. Traveling in the privileged class, Elsha encounters ugly, unthinking prejudice; she also meets a few relatively enlightened Chosen men, who cannot help falling in love with the feisty maid. Spurred on by a hatred of injustice, Elsha battles against sexism, improves life for the Quelled, and even (it seems) hastens the return of the sun to her world.

    The Thief of Always tells the haunting story of Harvey, a bright 10-year-old who is suffering from the winter doldrums, and of a creature who takes him to a place where every day is filled with fun, and Christmas comes every night. Illustrated.

    Once confronted by this mysterious being and whisked away to an unearthly realm, Yoko is left with only a magical sword; a gem; and a million questions about her destiny, the world she's trapped in, and the world she desperately wants to return to.

    I can't make you live longer, I can stop you form hurting. But I can give you one wish, as someone did for me.Three letters. Three last wishes.In Mother, Help Me Live, Sarah discovers that her birth mother, whom she's never known, is the one person who may have the bone marrow she needs to survive. When Sarah journeys to find her mother, she learns the real meaning of family.Let Him Live tells the story of Megan's friendship with Donovan, who is hoping to receive a liver transplant. Megan helps make Donovan's wish for his mother and little brother come true, along the way, Megan comes to understand true giving.In Sixteen and Dying, when Anne finds out that a blood transfusion she had seven years ago has made her future uncertain, being given one wish helps her face her pain. She chooses to spend the summer with her father on a ranch out west—and there she meets someone who will change her life.

    Amanda Guthridge just wants to ride horses with her boyfriend Philip and plan her coming-out party. But suddenly they're facing alligators, rattlesnakes, and stampeding buffalo on the Texas-Oklahoma frontier with David Talltree, the half-Comanche cowboy who thinks she can't even ride!So she challenges him to a horse race, no-holds-bared. He's handsome, arrogant, and much too self-assured -- and she's determined to won. She expects adventure. But she hasn't planned on danger -- or romance...

    Ellen Marlowe is in love with Michael Tyler, handsome upperclassman, star of the swim team. And when Michael goes off to college, Ellen is left behind to wonder if she can ever get over him.

    Tiny Lambert struggles to find security and happiness when her high school years are marred after her stepfather rapes her.

    Their grandparents should know they're too old to play with dolls! Then the twins learn that the dolls are a family legacy from a past generation of twins. But that's not all that's special about the dolls. Before they know it, Jessica and Elizabeth are thrown into the most magical adventure of their lives. And along the way they learn what being twins - and best friends - really means.

    Thirteen-year-old Garet's quiet life with her grandmother is changed when down the laundry chute comes Garet's twin Daisy, whose true identity comes as a surprise.

    In 1313, Thomas risks his life to gain possession of an English manor that was stolen from its rightful owners.

    Six thousand sheep. John will be alone, except for two horses, four dogs, and all those sheep.John doesn't feel up to the task, but he hopes that if he can accomplish it, he will finally please his father. But John finds that the adage "things just happen to sheep" is true when the river floods, coyotes attack, and one dog's feet get cut. Through it all he must rely on his own resourcefulness, ingenuity, and talents to survive this summer in the haymeadow.

    She doesn’t understand why she was born with cystic fibrosis. Each day she faces an uncertain future. But the close-knit bond she develops with Eric and Vince gives her the hope to live one day at a time.When an anonymous benefactor promises to grant a single wish with no strings attached, Kara can’t help but wonder if miracles might really happen. Will Kara live to see her dying wish fulfilled?

    But the only horse Leslie wants is Battlecry, a racer everyone else has given up on as wild and untrainable. Leslie knows Battlecry is something more. Beneath his unpredictable behavior is a spirited horse who would give his all to win races again—for her. Finally Leslie's parents give Battlecry a chance to prove his worth. Leslie doesn't know that by entering Battlecry in a race, she'll risk losing him forever...

    After all, she's been riding since she was young. But this last spill was different. Susan only broke her wrist, but she knows it could have been a lot worse for her or the horse. And it was her own fault. Now, just thinking about riding terrifies her.Then Evening Star comes to the horse farm where Susan lives. Star's elegant gait and graceful stride show he could become a champion jumper. But he was mistreated by his former owner, and as a result he trust no one in the stable--except Susan. Susan knows that only she can make Star a winner, but she also knows that she isn't ready to ride again...

    

    Twelve-year-old Clare flees an unhappy home life and tries to survive on the streets of Atlantic City with a small gang of homeless kids, each of whom has his own secret reason for distrusting society.

    “Issues about separation of church and state, the scandalous idea of thinking for oneself, etc., are thoughtfully raised here and would provide provocative discussions in the social studies classroom.”--School Library Journal

    Shannon always shared so much with her father--why wasn't her love enough to make him want to live? As Shannon and her mother try to make sense of his death, they courageously renew their commitment to living in the face of their loss. Despite the hardships life may bring, they know they will forgive and love again.From the Paperback edition.

    He has also written mystery novels, short stories, stage plays -- under several pen names. The Woodlander Series are classic children's stories written in the 1940s and 1950s about the inhabitants of Deep Wood -- Old Stripe the Badger, Potter-the-Otter, Woo Owl and Digger Mole. Meet, for the first time, the inhabitants of DEEP WOOD.

    The story teaches us once again that the pain of coming of age is the purchase price of mature joy.

    

    Because she has cystic fibrosis, Star has never been able to do the things most kids do--like have a best friend. But when she meets Courtney at Hope House, the two become fast friends--until Courtney goes back to a normal, healthy life, and Star is still too sick to leave Hope House.

    The students are excited to stay at a farm, where they will sleep in tents. They board the ferry and the mood on the way to the camp site is elated. Everyone would consider them a well-behaved class, but the reality is different. Throughout the school year, a group of boys has been ruining the atmosphere in the classroom with their antisocial behavior. Mainly they pick on Ivan. At school the situation is more or less under control, but away from the watchful eyes of their teachers, it soon escalates. The bullies are making Ivan’s life hell, and what happens next will forever change the lives of everyone involved.Each chapter moves the story forward from the point of view of a different student. Despite the serious subject, it is written with a lot of warmth and humor. Looking through their eyes, you get to know the students one by one. The climax hits you like you yourself were part of the class.The Flight of the Seagull is the English translation of the Dutch book Al het water van de zee, one of the best-known books about bullying in The Netherlands. Universally popular with Teens and Young Adults, it is also widely used by teachers to raise and discuss issues relating to bullying and being bullied in the classroom. Above all, it is a fascinating read providing an insight into high school dynamics through a wealth of young mindsPerfectly capturing the anxieties and peer pressure belonging to teenage life, you won’t be able to put it down.

    Paula Simmons and Darrell Salsbury cover everything you need to know, from choosing and buying the right sheep to feeding, heath care, shearing, showing, breeding, and lambing.

    With the help of some unusual characters in a small California town, Danny struggles to live on his own while his father, a Vietnam veteran, is in the VA hospital.

    Holly and the Heartbreakers! The kid, riding the tiger, grabs the microphone, pumping it up, taking it higher, making it hotter, rounding the bend and racing for home.

    Set mostly inside of Santa's magical red sack, the action takes place in a land that most of us would call make-believe.

    

    

    Tiffany and her friends try to scare each other with a spooky game of Hangman at her slumber party and succeed too well when a series of ominous occurrences makes them think a real Hangman is among them.

    It’s bad enough when they figure out that they’ve been working for a bogus earthquake insurance company, but now it’s also clear that their sleazy boss, Nick Keverian, has left them for dead. Snooping through the wreckage, Mollie discovers that Nick was up to his eyeballs in crime—and everyone who worked for him was part of his schemes. She and her friends swear to get revenge—if they make it out alive. But first they must confront dangerous aftershocks and possible death by starvation. Will Mollie and her friends escape? If they do, and Nick Keverian finds out about it, can they expose his scam before one of them becomes the first to die?

    Ted Bradford steps on a lot of toes and endures many heartaches the summer he decides he would rather be a lifeguard than a musician.

    It is a rueful, humorous story of the people in one rural county, but the telling cuts so deep it breaks through to the universal. Reminiscent of To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Sawyer, and The Catcher in the Rye, Run With the Horsemen is the powerfully moving and delightfully endearing story of Porter Osborne Jr.'s journey to adulthood.

    When Jaime mysteriously disappears, Mollie Fox and Jaime's girlfriend, Roberta, travel to Jaime's grandmother's house in Lost Camp, California, where a motorcycle gang is running rampant.

    When someone begins intentionally frightening her, following her, and spying on her, Nicole begins to suspect that that someone is her former boyfriend, Michael, a guy who, everyone insists, is incapable of such things.

    Through letters and essays, emotionally disturbed sixteen-year-old Abby chronicles her growing desperation in a family consisting of parents who seem devoid of love, one older sister bent on self-destruction, and another older sister who has always seemed perfect.

    Journeying to the Tamish city of Domn, Weyr, a thirteen-year-old orphan with special senses, gains self-acceptance and an awareness of his talents as a performer when he meets an Agari family and joins their acting and singing troupe.

    Through her writing, she captures the thoughts and feelings of a teenager dealing with all the joy and stress of being on the brink of adulthood.

    But what power can Jocasta‚ Flora and Cilla find to free themselves from Aunt Lureene? Will their malevolent aunt succeed in her evil schemes? And what will the lives of her three orphaned nieces be like if she does succeed? What really killed the girls′ parents? What lies behind the magical power in Lureene′s hands? Are the twins‚ Cain and Abel‚ to be sacrificed by their own mother?. . . And who is the mystery man on the bicycle?Tripswitch is both dark and humorous. It was first published in 1992 by HarperCollins‚ and soon became a popular title. The fast−paced story is about three teenagers who find themselves unwilling victims of a witch′s evil plans. They must learn to harness their own powers and use them unseen by others if they are to have any hope of survival.

    Flying in Place is such a book. As unflinching as The Lovely Bones, as startling as Beloved, it is a work to bear witness--with bravery and compassion--for the experience of millions of readers and their loved ones.Emma is twelve, a perfectly normal girl, in a perfectly normal home. With a perfectly normal father...who comes into her bedroom every night in the hours before dawn. Emma will do anything to escape. From the visits. From the bodies. From the breathing. Even go walking on the ceiling--which is where Emma meets Ginny, the sister who died before she was born. Ginny, who knows things. Ginny, who can fly....

    Maddy, Keegan and Einstein rule their brand-new neighborhood. But then, just as they are getting bored of TV and their skateboards, all three realize that something's not quite right with Crestview Estates. Pets are disappearing. Construction sites are sinking into the ground. And a purple slime is surfacing... It's oozy, it's gooey, it's after them! And nothing's going to get in the way of this slimy sucker.

    It's time to leave the safety of your everyday life, throw your fear into full throttle, and delve into a real spellbinder from the TWISTED TALES series: The Slithering Corpse & Other Sinister Stories.This creepy volume is scary enough to send shivers up your spine and make you want to read nothing but nursery rhymes forevermore. And if you haven't had enough horror, there's more gore in store. Look for The Dripping Head & Other Gruesome Stories, another terrifying collection in the TWISTED TALES series. Read them both soon. . . or else!

    

    A poignant, beautifully written, brutally honest first novel by the granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway, about a woman's death-defying battle with alcoholism and insanity--and her courage to prevail.

    

    I put out my fingers and traced the curve of his lips below the unexpected roughness of the moustache. He must have kissed me. I know he kissed me..." The photograph that hangs above Ellie's bed in the old Brittany mansion is of a handsome young man from a former age. The sort of guy any teenage girl might fantasize about.But when Ellie feels him beside her, his breath on her face and his hands on her body, is she fantasizing?And what of the wolf calling in the darkness outside her window? Another fantasy or something more shockingly sinister?

    Having reluctantly moved to Maine after her father's death in Manhattan, fourteen-year-old Denise forges a healing friendship with a boat owner surrounded by considerable mystery.

    Eager to fit in at her new school, Birdie Honaker, a skinny redhead with a high IQ, befriends another new kid, Jobee Riggs, who is eager to fit in too, and the pranks they play together on the teachers could get them into big trouble.

    Twelve-year-old Ellen's loathing for her new baby brother Barry, who has cerebral palsy, gradually changes to a fierce, obsessive love, and she must find a proper balance for her life.