Homesick: My Own Story


Jean Fritz - 1982
    This fictionalized autobiography tells the heartwarming story of a little girl growing up in an unfamiliar place. While other girls her age were enjoying their childhood in America, Jean Fritz was in China in the midst of political unrest. Jean Fritz tells her captivating story of the difficulties of living in a unfamiliar country at such a difficult time.

Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer


Kelly Jones - 2015
      Twelve-year-old Sophie Brown feels like a fish out of water when she and her parents move from Los Angeles to the farm they’ve inherited from a great-uncle. But farm life gets more interesting when a cranky chicken appears and Sophie discovers the hen can move objects with the power of her little chicken brain: jam jars, the latch to her henhouse, the entire henhouse....   And then more of her great-uncle’s unusual chickens come home to roost. Determined, resourceful Sophie learns to care for her flock, earning money for chicken feed, collecting eggs. But when a respected local farmer tries to steal them, Sophie must find a way to keep them (and their superpowers) safe.   Told in letters to Sophie’s abuela, quizzes, a chicken-care correspondence course, to-do lists, and more, Unusual Chickens is a quirky, clucky classic in the making.

Little Boy Lost


Eric Hobbs - 2011
    He's landed at the bottom of his school's popularity ladder, and bully Randy Stanford seems to be waiting around every corner.The troubled teen thinks he's found a way to escape his real-world problems when he stumbles upon strange doorways in Astoria's local library that seem to lead into the extraordinary worlds from all his favorite books. Oz, Neverland, Wonderland -- they're all a reality with Wesley's new discovery. Wesley teams with best friend Taylor Williams to embark on a great adventure, both ready to leave the drama of middle school behind.But the two kids quickly find themselves embroiled in a centuries-old battle for the library and the magic hiding within. Now, fighting alongside the eccentric old man who's vowed to protect the building's power, the pair must help ward off an attack by a shadowy group with a strange tie to Wesley's nemesis, forcing Wesley to face the fears he's been dodging... and one of the most terrifying bullies of all time!

If only I wasn't Lonely!


Sigal Adler - 2014
    They hide there from predators and live a life of ease, Eating lots of vegetables and fruit that grows on trees.

Portal Through the Pond


David K. Anderson - 2013
    They said her grandmother was crazy. Christy knows better. When 13-year-old Christy's grandmother dies, she leaves Christy a mysterious packet of information revealing an amazing secret: the pond in her yard is in fact a portal to another world. And what's more, her grandfather had disappeared in that world nine years earlier. Christy is determined to honor her grandmother's wish to keep the secret, even if it means alienating her best friend Trevor. However, things spiral out of her control when nosy classmate Rob accidentally crosses into other world, the grown-ups think he has drowned, she's forced to tell Trevor, and Danny--the nine-year-old deaf boy next door--follows her through the portal to rescue Rob. Will Trevor be able to convince the grown-ups to trust Christy to get them all home? Or will they let the police drain the pond, stranding the children in an alien world?

The Talent Thief


Alex Williams - 2006
    Unlike his superstar sibling, this twelve year-old boy excels at absolutely nothing, although his sister would argue that he's the master of getting on her nerves. But when a mysterious creature as old as time steals her talent, it's Adam who fearlessly leads the charge to retrieve it and stop the creature before it can take the talents of other children. Brimming with colorful characters and dastardly villains, and recalling the best of Roald Dahl, Alex Williams presents a humorous adventure about where talent truly lies.

Wings of the Seraph


Sarah Hawke - 2018
    Welcome to the Far Rim.” I spent my entire childhood dreaming about flying starships, and a few years ago that fantasy finally became a reality. I have a fast ship, a reliable partner, and a cute alien girl in almost every port in the sector. Life is good. Or was, until I met her. My heart nearly stopped the first time I laid eyes on her. She is a Velothi Succubus, a genetically engineered concubine whose body and personality are attuned to the needs of a specific person—in this case, a human male who isn’t me. Her long legs, her silky blue skin, her faintly-glowing eyes…I’ve never seen anything like her before. And if I want to score the biggest payday of my life, all I need to do is deliver her into the harem of a scumbag pirate on the other side the sector. Oh, and of course I’ll forfeit my payment if I so much as lay a finger on her during the trip, even though she clearly wants me every bit as much as I want her. What could possibly go wrong? WINGS OF THE SERAPH is an action-packed erotic sci-fi adventure filled with daring chases, heart-pounding space battles, and plenty of explicit sex (31,000 words).Publisher's Note: this book is part of the anthology Wings of the Seraph: The Complete Series . The second edition (released 10/2020) includes many editorial improvements.

Sky Pirates: Echo Quickthorn and the Great Beyond (Sky Pirates, #1)


Alex English - 2020
    Sky Pirate: Echo and the Great Beyond is the first title in a thrilling new action-packed adventure series   11 year-old Echo Quickthorn has grown up believing that nothing exists outside the Kingdom of Albion, but everything changes when an eccentric professor parks his airship outside her window armed with a map that shows all the magical places that exist beyond the city walls. Together with her pet lizard, Gilbert, Echo sets off on an incredible adventure to find her missing mother; an adventure that will take her to unimaginable places …

PathFinder


Angie Sage - 2014
    She receives help from ExtraOrdinary Wizard Septimus Heap and Ex–ExtraOrdinary Wizard Marcia Overstrand, but the Lady’s brother, the Darke Sorcerer Oraton-Marr, has a plan that will put everyone Tod holds dear in danger. To save her people, Tod must embrace her identity as a PathFinder and navigate the often dangerous Ancient Ways.Full of Angie Sage’s characteristic humor and heart, PathFinder celebrates the joy of discovering one’s own personal Magyk, and of choosing the path that lets that Magyk flourish and grow.Perfect for anyone who can’t get enough of the world of Septimus Heap!

Huber Hill and the Dead Man's Treasure


B.K. Bostick - 2011
    An old gold coin and a treasure map rocket him and his friends into a mind-blowing adventure, but he's not the only one on the hunt. Filled with dangerous animals and cryptic puzzles, this book will have you on the edge of your seat until the last page.

Dead Lines


Grace Hamilton - 2018
    When a catastrophic EMP strikes, and he’s the last person a kidnapped girl speaks to before the lines go dead, he knows he can’t let her down. Especially when the circumstances are so similar to his own daughter’s disappearance. With the world falling apart around him, he wants to do nothing more than retreat to his prepper cabin. But with a fresh lead on his daughter, and another innocent girl’s life on the line, the disgraced cop will do everything in his power to track them down. Finn Meyers has lost Ava, her best, and only, friend in the world, but she knows where the missing young woman might be—and perhaps Parker’s long lost daughter. Now, Parker must form an uneasy alliance and tackle his own internal demons as the two begin a perilous journey that will take them to the headquarters of a mysterious cult in Indiana. But what they find along the way will shatter all their preconceptions—and threaten the world as they know it. Can a has-been and a has-not save the innocent, and stop a disaster from happening? This book has scenes of graphic violence, not suited for all readers.

The Forest of Stars


Heather Kassner - 2020
    Long ago, a powerful gust of wind swept through town, stealing him away on the wings of his untamed magic—the same magic that stirs within Louisa. As if she is made of hollow bones and too much air, her feet never quite touch the ground. But for all her sky gazing, Louisa finds her fortune on the leaf-strewn street when she spots a gleaming black-and-gold invitation—a ticket to the Carnival Beneath the Stars. If her father fits in nowhere else, maybe she’ll find him there, dazzling crowds alongside the other strange and wonderful feats. Only, soon after she arrives, a tightrope act ends disastrously—and suspiciously. As fate tugs Louisa closer to the stars, she must decide if she’s willing to slip into the injured performer’s role, despite the darkness plucking at the carnival’s magical threads.

Aster Wood and the Lost Maps of Almara


J.B. Cantwell - 2014
    Here, the grass grows green, the wolves glow like the full moon, and wizards play with ancient magic. And Aster, sick his whole life, is healthy again.Now, he must chase down the long-lost sorcerer, Almara, to discover the truth about his family's past, and to learn what is yet to come for Earth's future.But he must work fast if he wants to survive. Almara left not only clues, but enemies behind. If Aster loses the race to find him, and the enemy captures him first, he may never see Earth again.

Frankenstein (Raintree Short Classics Series)


Diana Stewart - 1991
    If you haven't read it recently, though, you may not remember the sweeping force of the prose, the grotesque, surreal imagery, and the multilayered doppelgänger themes of Mary Shelley's masterpiece. As fantasy writer Jane Yolen writes of this (the reviewer's favorite) edition, "The strong black and whites of the main text [illustrations] are dark and brooding, with unremitting shadows and stark contrasts. But the central conversation with the monster--who owes nothing to the overused movie image … but is rather the novel's charnel-house composite--is where [Barry] Moser's illustrations show their greatest power ... The viewer can all but smell the powerful stench of the monster's breath as its words spill out across the page. Strong book-making for one of the world's strongest and most remarkable books." Includes an illuminating afterword by Joyce Carol Oates.

Black Cats and Butlers


Janine Beacham - 2017
    So when Argyle is murdered - the third butler to be stabbed in a week - Rose knows she must find out what really happened.Rose's investigation leads her on a journey into a hidden world of grave robbers and duelling butlers, flamboyant magicians and the city's ancient feline guardians.Knives aren't just for cutting cucumber sandwiches, you know . . .