Prequel to A Place for Peter. Grades 4-7."

    A brilliant overview of world history from prehistoric times to the early 20th century

    These adorable stories of childhood adventures are as fresh today as when they were written more than a half century ago. And now, thanks to dynamic new covers, they're ready to charm a whole new generation of readers. Penny's name is really William, but when he was adopted as a baby, he had hair the color of a new copper penny. Adopted or not, Penny decides to prove his friend Patsy wrong when she says he doesn't truly have a family!

    Although his story takes place long ago, he is much like any little boy today--always on the lookout for excitement and adventure!Little Pear is just looking for fun, but he has a knack for finding trouble without even trying! Join him as he stows away to the fair in a wheelbarrow full of vegetables, nearly flies away on a kite, has a mishap with a firecracker, and is rescued from the river by a houseboat family.

    Wayne is left stranded far from shore. The storm is making huge, powerful waves. Sharks are closing in. Can Baby, the dolphin Wayne recused as a calf, come to the diver's rescue?

    She and her helpers face lack of money, wartime restrictions, equipment needs, mechanical breakdowns, travel hardships, and uncertainties. Through it all, answers to prayer multiply. The organization she creates, Gospel Recordings, continues to record the Good News for those with no written language. Betty M. Hockett captures the spirit and dedication of Joy Ridderhof, a one-of-a-kind woman. She tells Joy’s story especially for children, but promises, "People of all ages will find inspiration in this faith-filled life." Catching Their Talk in a Box is the fifth in the "Life-Story from Missions" series of ten books.

    And Johanna does. She loves the twelve metal figures on horseback who ride forth each hour from the clock on the ancient church tower. She would do anything to protect them, anything. And one night she risks her life to prove it.Set during the Second World War when the German army occupied Holland, The Little Riders is an exciting, moving adventure story, just right for reading aloud.

    . . thanks to some help from their cranky teacher, a little bit of logic, and a lot of amusing misadventure.Yes, Rufus wrote CAIUS IS A DUMBBELL on his tablet at school, but no, he did not break into the schoolroom, did not tie up his teacher, and certainly did not paint his slur about Caius on the Temple of Minerva (even if it is in Rufus's own handwriting). Rufus is doomed unless his six classmates can find out who is really responsible. Every hour seems to bring a new, confusing clue . . . until the boys finally stumble upon someone who is not what he appears to be.

    There’s never been anyone like Gooney Bird Greene at Watertower Elementary School. What other new kid comes to school wearing pajamas and cowboy boots one day and a polka-dot t-shirt and tutu on another? Gooney Bird has to sit right smack in the middle of the class because she likes to be in the middle of everything. She is the star of story time and keeps her teacher and classmates on the edge of their seats with her “absolutely true” stories. But what about her classmates? Do they have stories good enough to share?

    Eleven-year-old Toby’s vivid diary entries offer an insider’s view of day-to-day castle life, including tips on etiquette (where do you spit at a feast?) and exciting descriptions of hunting, jousting, and harvesting. Complete with glossary, index, and detailed endnotes, this is a rich look at medieval life that informs as much as it entertains.

    Her father left three years ago for the new colony of Jamestown in America, thousands of miles away. But now that her mother has died, Amanda is left to take care of her younger brother and sister all alone back in England.As the new head of the family, Amanda finally decides to take her brother and sister to America to find Father. The ocean crossing is long and hard, and the children don't know whom to trust. But with her father's little brass lion's head to guard them, Amanda knows that somehow everything will work out.

    Although Jim finds it difficult to fit in with the family he hasn't seen since childhood, and though they are wary and distrustful of him, Jim feels his duty is at their side. But slowly, as they survive the dangerous trek west, the perils of frontier life, and the kidnapping of their younger brother, Jim and his family realize that the only way to survive is to accept each other and truly reunite the family.

    With the help of a determined therapist, he learns to read Braille and to use a cane. Then he's given the chance to have a guide dog. Learning to work with Leader is not easy, but Jimmy tries harder than he ever has before.

    He was going to be a hermit—a lazy recluse who didn't have to work or think.Now here he was facing a crisis that needed immediate attention. At least that's what he would call the dozens of raccoons and spotted skunks that were now living in and under his home, coming and going as they saw fit.

    The snappy dialogue and wacky scenarios are perfect for middle-graders, who will enjoy discovering the appendix of science activities, which focus on such concepts as epidemiology, code breaking, phases of matter, and simple machines. Each corresponds to a case in the book and will have readers scrambling for their own lab notebooks and detective gear! Michele Torrey and Barbara Johansen Newman teamed up on three other titles in the Doyle and Fossey series, including The Case of the Graveyard Ghost, about which School Library Journal raved, "Early chapter-book readers will be enchanted with the deductive skills and humor of Doyle and Fossey, whose adventures will remind readers of Cam Jansen and Einstein Anderson." Michele Torrey lives in Auburn, Washington. Barbara Johansen Newman lives in Needham, Massachusetts.