Accustomed to a glamorous life as a famous young movie star, eleven-year-old Gemma is horrified when, because of her mother's film career, she is sent to live with her dull and unknown cousins in a small industrial town.

    The kids work even during playtime, and are neat and behave well but what is the secret of the Headmaster's control over them, and why are they afraid?

    Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: The Death Gate Cycle, Into the Labyrinth, the Hand of Chaos, Dragon Wing, Serpent Mage, the Seventh Gate, Fire Sea, Elven Star. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: The Death Gate Cycle is a seven-part series of fantasy novels written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. The main conflict is between two powerful races, the Sartan and the Patryns, which branched off from humans following a nuclear holocaust. Centuries prior to the events of the series, the Sartan attempted to end the conflict by sundering the earth into four elemental realms, and imprisoning the Patryn in a fifth prison world, the Labyrinth. The Sartan took up stewardship of the elemental realms, but soon mysteriously lost contact with each other and disappeared. Centuries later, a Patryn known as Xar escaped the Labyrinth, and started returning to the Labyrinth to rescue others. He learned how to access the other worlds and dreamed of freeing all his people from the Labyrinth and conquering the other worlds. The books follow the fiercely independent Haplo, a Patryn agent sent to scout the elemental worlds and throw them into chaos in preparation for his Lord's conquest of them. Weis and Hickman created five distinct fantasy worlds during the course of the series, along with developing the cultures of five major races, their unique Patryn and Sartan, and the common fantasy races of dwarves, elves, and humans. "Margaret and I have always tried to take fantasy literature in new directions. Krynn is a world wholly distinct from Earth, unlike Tolkien's Middle-earth. Time travel itself was a science-fiction notion we applied to fantasy. We have even written fantasies taking place in the far future (The Death Gate Cycle) " Tracy Hickman, The Annotated Dragonlan...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=121546

    With the family's fortunes considerably reduced in his absence, the children and their mother are forced to live in a simple country cottage near a railway station. There the young trio—Roberta, Peter, and young Phyllis—befriend the porter and station master.The youngsters' days are filled with adventure and excitement, including their successful attempt to avert a horrible train disaster; but the mysterious disappearance of their father continues to haunt them.The solution to that painful puzzle and many other details and events of the children's lives come to vivid life in this perennial favorite, a story that has captivated generations of readers and, more recently, delighted television and movie audiences. In this inexpensive, unabridged edition, it will charm a whole new audience of young readers with its warmth and appeal.

    

    The Blue Cup is a 1936 Russian language short story.

    Includes Midnight for Charlie Bone, Charlie Bone and the Time Twister, Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy, Charlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors, and Charlie Bone and the Hidden King