...It may sound like fun to be the daughter of Madam Snickasnee and be forbidden to go to school, to wash behind your ears, or go to bed at night. You might even like to see certain people you know turned into potted plants and have your own flying broomstick. ...But Minx didn't like riding around in the dark or cooking up horrid pots of Black Spell Brew. Even a witch's child rebels, and one day, Minx sneaked off to school. ...The principal was certainly surprised to see his newest pupil arriving on a broomstick, and life got much more exciting for a lot of people - the school-children, Mr. Beanpot the detective and Mrs. Sputter of the Parent-Teachers' Association. ...Anyone who ever longed to cast a spell or experiment with a magic kettle will delight in the wonderful story of Minx and how her dearest wish came true. Helen Stone's gay line drawings make the little witch and her friends come alive with humor and Hallowe'en spirit.

    Accompanied by angels, shepherds, kings and even a Roman governor, she is rushing back through time and space to Bethlehem, to be present at the birth of Christ. Fifty years later a boy called Joachim pieces together her story from a magic advent calendar and brings it to a conclusion.

    What will be the outcome of the conflict between smugglers and revenue men? How can the hero, John Trenchard, discover the secret of Colonel John Mohune's treasure? As the book progresses these two interwoven themes resolve themselves into a third and richer one, with the friendship and suffering of both John Trenchard and the craggy, taciturn Elzevir Block. Falkner's feeling for history and for the landscape of his Dorset setting combine with his gift for storytelling to turn Moonfleet into a historical romance of moving intensity.

    In the seaside village of Frip live three families: the Romos, the Ronsens, and a little girl named Capable and her father. The economy of Frip is based solely on goat’s milk, and this is a problem because the village is plagued by gappers: bright orange, many-eyed creatures the size of softballs that love to attach themselves to goats. When a gapper gets near a goat, it lets out a high-pitched shriek of joy that puts the goats off giving milk, which means that every few hours the children of Frip have to go outside, brush the gappers off their goats, and toss them into the sea. The gappers have always been everyone’s problem, until one day they get a little smarter, and instead of spreading out, they gang up: on Capable’s goats. Free at last of the tyranny of the gappers, will her neighbors rally to help her? Or will they turn their backs, forcing Capable to bear the misfortune alone? Featuring fifty-two haunting and hilarious illustrations by Lane Smith and a brilliant story by George Saunders that explores universal themes of community and kindness, The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip is a rich and resonant story for those that have all and those that have not.

    . . ."Once, in a house on Egypt Street, there lived a china rabbit named Edward Tulane. The rabbit was very pleased with himself, and for good reason: he was owned by a girl named Abilene, who treated him with the utmost care and adored him completely. And then, one day, he was lost. Kate DiCamillo takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the depths of the ocean to the net of a fisherman, from the top of a garbage heap to the fireside of a hoboes' camp, from the bedside of an ailing child to the bustling streets of Memphis. And along the way, we are shown a true miracle — that even a heart of the most breakable kind can learn to love, to lose, and to love again.

    He believes it is every gull's right to fly, to reach the ultimate freedom of challenge and discovery, finding his greatest reward in teaching younger gulls the joy of flight and the power of dreams. The special 20th anniversary release of this spiritual classic!

    Troy lies in ashes. The black ships of the Greek war-host set sail for home but for King Odysseus of Ithaca, the return voyage holds hazards far greater than any he faced in the Trojan War.For this dramatic sequel to Black Ships Before Troy, Rosemary Sutcliff has transformed Homer’s magnificent but complex epic poem The Odyssey into an enthralling traveler's tale, with a spectacular cast of men, magicians and monsters. Alan Lee evokes a golden age of mythical Greece in his portrayal of the greatest voyage of all time.

    Narnia... the land beyond the wardrobe, the secret country known only to Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy... the place where the adventure begins.Lucy is the first to find the secret of the wardrobe in the professor's mysterious old house. At first, no one believes her when she tells of her adventures in the land of Narnia.But soon Edmund and then Peter and Susan discover the Magic and meet Aslan, the Great Lion, for themselves. In the blink of an eye, their lives are changed forever.A fully illustrated version of the most popular book in The Chronicles of Narnia, with glowing full page artwork and an abridged text for easier reading.

    But the evil Count Karlstein has struck a terrible bargain with Zamiel, and so the lives of his two young nieces, Lucy and Charlotte, are in danger. Their only hope lies with Hildi, a castle maidservant, and her fearless brother Peter. Can they save the girls from their dreadful fate? Only one thing is certain—the Demon Huntsman will not return to his dark wood unsatisfied!

    (Though this isn't a book for nine-year-olds.) And sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno at a fence.Fences like this exist all over the world. We hope you never have to encounter one.

    Shrek, a horrid little ogre, goes out into the world to find adventure and along the way encounters a witch, a knight in armor, a dragon, and, finally, a hideous princess, who's even uglier than he is!

    A clay giant miraculously brought to life by a saintly rabbi saves a Jewish banker who has been falsely accused in the Prague of Emperor Rudolf II.

    A devoted admirer of the great detective, he had learned his craft by listening at the feet of Holmes himself. The Mystery of the Missing Twins was one of the strangest cases in Basil's career. He had only a few crumbs of clues with which to find solutions to such baffling questions as: Who had masterminded the plot? Where were the twins, Angela and Agatha, being kept?

    The king's house had many other doors, but this was the door for petitions. Since the king spent all his time sitting at the door for favors (favors being offered to the king, you understand), whenever he heard someone knocking at the door for petitions, he would pretend not to hear . . ." Why the petitioner required a boat, where he was bound for, and who volunteered to crew for him, the reader will discover in this delightful fable, a philosophic love story worthy of Swift or Voltaire.

    Not only must he say everything twice just to be heard over his four brothers and sisters, but he finds himself the prisoner of the dreaded Hooded Fang. What had he done to deserve such a punishment? The worst crime of all--insulting a grown-up. Although he's small, Jacob is not helpless, especially when The Infamous Two come to his aid.