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The Forgotten Pearl by Belinda Murrell


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The Snow Goose


Paul Gallico - 1941
    Gallico's most famous story, The Snow Goose, is set in the wild, desolate Essex marshes and is an intense and moving tale about the relationship between a hunchback and a young girl. The Small Miracle is a contemporary fable about a young boy's love for his dangerously ill donkey.

Seven Little Australians


Ethel Turner - 1894
    Together, they had another child, making seven. The Captain felt it was necessary to run the family with army discipline, but his rules and regulations were no match for the fun loving children, led by the redoubtable Judy."But now it was morning, and she could disbelieve it no longer. Esther had come to her bedside and kissed her sorrowfully, her beautiful face troubled and tender. The kind-hearted stepmother had begged as she had never done before for a remission of poor Judy's sentence, but the Captain was adamant. To boarding school she must go!"

Hitler's Canary


Sandi Toksvig - 2005
    'Why aren't you doing something? Do you know what the British are calling us? Hitler's canary! I've heard it on the radio, on the BBC. They say he has us in a cage and we just sit and sing any tune he wants.'"Bamse's family are theater people. They don't get involved in politics. "it had nothing to do with us," Bamse tells us. Yet now he must decide: should he take his father's advice and not stir up trouble? Or should he follow his brother into the Resistance and take part in the most demanding role of his life?

The Gathering


Isobelle Carmody - 1993
    However there is something wrong with the town, someone is controlling the population. Nat and his new friends feel compelled to oppose the strange power that dominates the place.

Spying on Miss Muller


Eve Bunting - 1995
    Half-German and half-Irish, she's as beautiful as a movie star. But ever since their country, Ireland, went to war with Germany, they don't feel the same way. In fact, the girls now think there's something very strange about Miss Müller.One night Jessie sees Miss Müller walking by herself in a part of the dorm that is off limits. When she tells her friends, they get really suspicious. But they will soon find out that appearances can be deceiving--and that judging someone can be downright dangerous. . . .

If I Should Die Before I Wake


Han Nolan - 1994
    As part of a neo-Nazi gang in her town, she's finally found a sense of belonging. But when she's critically injured in an accident, everything changes.Somehow, in her mind, she has become Chana, a Jewish girl fighting for her own life in the ghettos and concentration camps of World War II.Han Nolan offers powerful insight into one young woman's survival through the Holocaust and another's journey out of hatred and self-loathing.Reader's guide and an interview with the author included.

Lovely War


Julie Berry - 2019
    She's a shy and talented pianist; he's a newly minted soldier with dreams of becoming an architect. When they fall in love, it's immediate and deep--and cut short when James is shipped off to the killing fields.Aubrey Edwards is also headed toward the trenches. A gifted musician who's played Carnegie Hall, he's a member of the 15th New York Infantry, an all-African-American regiment being sent to Europe to help end the Great War. Love is the last thing on his mind. But that's before he meets Colette Fournier, a Belgian chanteuse who's already survived unspeakable tragedy at the hands of the Germans.Thirty years after these four lovers' fates collide, the Greek goddess Aphrodite tells their stories to her husband, Hephaestus, and her lover, Ares, in a luxe Manhattan hotel room at the height of World War II. She seeks to answer the age-old question: Why are Love and War eternally drawn to one another? But her quest for a conclusion that will satisfy her jealous husband uncovers a multi-threaded tale of prejudice, trauma, and music and reveals that War is no match for the power of Love.A sweeping, multi-layered romance with a divine twist, by the Printz Honor-winning author of The Passion of Dolssa, set in the perilous days of World Wars I and II.

The Magic Pudding


Norman Lindsay - 1918
    The adventures of those splendid fellows Bunyip Bluegum, Bill Barnacle and Sam Sawnoff, the penguin bold, and of course their amazing, everlasting and very cantankerous Puddin'.

Nick of Time


Ted Bell - 2000
    Nick and his younger sister, Kate, live in a lighthouse on the smallest of the Channel Islands. Nick and Kate come to the aid of their father who is engaged in a desperate war of espionage with German U-boat wolf packs that are circling the islands. The information they provide to Winston Churchill is vital as he tries to warn England of the imminent Nazi invasion.One day Nick discovers an old sea chest, left for him by his ancestor, Captain Nicholas McIver of the Royal Navy. Inside, he finds a time machine and a desperate plea for help from the captain. He uses the machine to return to the year 1805. Captain McIver and, indeed, Admiral Nelson's entire fleet are threatened by the treachery of the French and the mutinous Captain Billy Blood. Nick must reach deep inside, using his wits, courage, and daring to rescue the imperiled British sailors.His sister, Kate, meanwhile, has enlisted the aid of two of England's most brilliant "scientific detectives," Lord Hawke and Commander Hobbes, to thwart the invading Nazis. She and Nick must face England's underwater enemies, a challenge made all the more difficult when they discover the existence of Germany's supersecret submarine.In this striking adventure for readers of all ages, Nick must fight ruthless enemies across two different centuries, on land and sea, to help defeat those determined to destroy his home and his family.

Anastasia: The Last Grand Duchess, Russia, 1914


Carolyn Meyer - 2000
    Award-winning author Carolyn Meyer introduces readers to the unforgettable Anastasia Romanov whose idyllic life is forever changed with the coming of World War I.

Homefront


Doris Gwaltney - 2006
    And when Margaret's older sister leaves for college, it looks like Margaret's days of waiting are over. But then disaster strikes. Its form: an English cousin named Courtney who has been forced to flee 1941 London because of the blitz. Not at all concerned with what's happening in Europe, Margaret Ann is soon fighting a war of her own as she watches her cousin Courtney get not only her room, but also the attention of her very own family and boyfriend. It's not until Margaret's only brother enlists in the navy that Margaret discovers an ally and a friend where at first she saw only a rival.Poet and novelist Doris Gwaltney has crafted a detailed, spirited, sometimes humorous, and always deeply felt novel about two girls coming of age and becoming friends in the shadow of the biggest war in modern history.

Twenty and Ten


Claire Huchet Bishop - 1952
    Will the children be able to withstand the interrogation and harassment?

Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two


Joseph Bruchac - 2005
    effort, sending messages back and forth in an unbreakable code that used their native language. They braved some of the heaviest fighting of the war, and with their code, they saved countless American lives. Yet their story remained classified for more than twenty years.Joseph Bruchac brings their stories to life for young adults through the riveting fictional tale of Ned Begay, a sixteen-year-old Navajo boy who becomes a code talker. His grueling journey is eye-opening and inspiring. This deeply affecting novel honors all of those young men, like Ned, who dared to serve, and it honors the culture and language of the Navajo Indians.

Early Sunday Morning: the Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows, Hawaii, 1941


Barry Denenberg - 1998
    In late 1941 her family moves to Hawaii, landing in the epicenter of the attack that plunged the United States into World War II. As she watches her world literally explode in flames, Amber demonstrates that in the face of tragedy, kids can find the courage to help and to simply go on.

Moondial


Helen Cresswell - 1987
    Or is it a haunting? Minty believes she is a witch - not the type you would notice ordinarily - - she appears to be like anyone else but is quite used to seeing phantoms floating about the place, and thinks it is perfectly normal. Minty is very determined as well, which is just as important because when she goes to stay with her aunt in the village of Belton she soon realizes that she has a task to do. . .