Dumped in Paris by the Countess Carbunkle, who would rather run away to South America than continue in Ivy's companionship, our young heroine (of sorts) finds herself with no money and no home to go to ... until she is summoned to the bedside of the dying Duchess of Trinity. For the princely sum of £500 (enough to buy a carriage, and possibly a monkey), Ivy agrees to courier the Duchess's most precious possession – the Clock Diamond – to England, and to put it around the neck of the revolting Matilda Butterfield on her twelfth birthday. It's not long before Ivy finds herself at the heart of a conspiracy involving mischief, mayhem and murder. Illustrated in humorous gothic detail by Barbara Cantini, Anyone But Ivy Pocket is just the beginning of one girl's deadly comic journey to discover who she really is ..'

    In a bid for freedom a lone spaceship hurtled through space before crashing in the hills outside a small village in Spain. On Christmas Day a strong, silent man with blank eyes entered Bar Noche Azul. Only a 13-year-old boy could have guessed that there was any connection between the two.

    He is "just a man" who, with common sense, achieves what other superheroes can't. This story is a good excuse for young readers to reflect on the qualities that a real superhero should have. An excellent title to awake the critical thinker.

    Fraud. Footie pajamas. Twins Edgar and Ellen live alone -- their parents disappeared years ago, and who can blame them? -- in the quaint, little town of Nod's Limbs, in a grim, gray house overlooking the cemetery and the junkyard. They spend their days avoiding Heimertz, the mysterious accordion-playing caretaker; pestering Pet, a hairy, one-eyed creature of indeterminate species and gender; and wreaking havoc on the hapless citizens of Nod's Limbs. But wreaking havoc can incur expenses, so the twins come up with a unique fund-raising scheme: They'll nab the pets of Nod's Limbs and transform them into exotic animals they can sell for big bucks. Not a bad plan, if one of the purloined pets wasn't a lethargic python with a raging appetite....

    

    T. Wallace Wooly, a self-important tycoon, but at heart a shy brown rabbit of a man, meets his future bride when he rescues her from a hotel fire. Readers might think this situation poses unique challenges to a couple just getting acquainted, but it probably helped that the soon to be Mrs. Wooly was completely naked at the time. Mr. Wooly is the most public, most consequential man in town and so respectable that the well-publicized rescue of the nude Miss Broome thrown over Mr.Wooly's shoulder as he rushes from the burning building sets tongues wagging. (You sly dog.) Mr. Wooly is aghast at the rumors, but Miss Broome is after all, bewitching, and Mr. Wooly is soon under the spell of her red lips, lustrous black hair, and slanting yellow eyes. It isn't long after their marriage that Mr. Wooly begins to question the wisdom of their hasty union when he sees his new wife climbing down the trumpet vine outside their bedroom window, riding the goat through the apple orchard in the moonlight, and killing chickens. Among other things.The Passionate Witch (1941) was initially drafted as a film scenario, but later completed as a novel by Norman Matson after Thorne Smith's death in 1934. Unlike Smith's hugely popular Topper novels, the post-humous collaborative effort failed to satisfy the public (and the critics). Still, much of Thorne Smith's magic and singular wit shines through and, all in all, the book doesn't disappoint. The storyline was heavily reworked for the sunnier, more successful movie adaptation, I Married a Witch (Masterpiece/United Artists/Cinema Guild, 1942).