A month before eighth grade begins, Alice realizes she is going to have to face something she's been afraid of forever. Everybody, she knows, is afraid of something: elevators, dogs, planes, spiders... but her fear is worse. It's going to bring absolute disaster to the rest of her summer, maybe to the rest of her life. The truth is she's afraid of deep water! It's a hot August, and everyone in Alice's gang goes to Mark Stedmeister's swimming pool almost every day. Alice sits at the shallow end. She plays badminton. She makes excuses, and keeps her problem secret.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth and Pamela, Alice's two best friends, tackle problems of their own, and are more or less successful. Life is changing for everyone but Alice.
Bravery begins in little ways, with small steps. That's what Alice finally discovers. And after she faces this particular fear, she knows she can summon the courage to face other fears as well.
As in her previous adventures, Alice tackles some of the big problems of growing up with humor and enterprise and learns once again that a brother, a father, and friends can offer amazing amounts of help. Views: 1 151
The Aldens find a mystery when a visitor comes. Who put the coins in a hiding place behind the wall? Views: 1 151
When Tryfan, son of Bracken and Rebecca, returns to the sacred Burrows of Uffington, he finds dreadful signs of death and destruction. For out of the chilly North have swarmed the grikes, a fanatical tribe of warrior moles bent on destroying all believers in the powers of the Stone.
Tryfan’s duty is clear – to muster and protect the few remaining Stone followers from the evil that seems certain to engulf them. With only a frail and timid mole named Spindle for company, he sets off on an epic journey… But can he save his friends? Views: 1 150
Nancy suspects that sabotage in a chain of West Coast shops selling imported art objects is connected with the theft of a valuable Eskimo sculpture. Views: 1 150
At her new school, Mira discovers she has a very unusual teacher - a teacher who turns into a real-life dragon when she eats crisps! This comes in very handy when the class run into trouble on a school trip to the seaside... Views: 1 149
Paris 1793. The blade of the guillotine falls on the neck of the King himself, and the spirit of the French Revolution lies in tatters. The Reign of Terror has begun. This is a thrilling tale of secrets, of locks and keys, of murder, revenge and romance. Views: 1 149
"The most winning junior detective ever in teen lit. (Take that, Nancy Drew!)" *—Midwest Children's Book Review*
This is not the summer camping trip of Sammy's dreams. She imagined shady glades, meandering streams, a deer or two. What she gets are scrubby shrubs, blazing sun, rattlesnakes, ticks, and scorpions. Her fellow campers are desperate to catch a rare glimpse of an endangered condor. To Sammy, the trip is nothing more than the painful in pursuit of the unspeakably ugly.
But when she and two other girls find an injured condor, Sammy's intrigued at last. As they track down a clue, they stumble onto two classmates and wind up lost. Which leaves three girls and two boys in a canyon with one tent and six billion biting flies. Oh—and an armed and dangerous highstakes poacher.
S'mores anyone?
The Sammy Keyes mysteries are fast-paced, funny, thoroughly modern, and true whodunits. Each mystery is exciting and dramatic, but it's the drama in Sammy's personal life that keeps readers coming back to see what happens next with her love interest Casey, her soap-star mother, and her mysterious father.
From the Hardcover edition. Views: 1 149
At the far end of the long white gallery is a painting of a woman, in pale flowing clothes and lying on a sofa beside an open window. The muslin curtains billow out towards her like clouds. There is a touch of brilliant red, the ribbon on her hat. The rest is white, cream, palest grey. It is a painting which leads Flora on, beckoning her away from her childhood, her complaining, clinging mother, pert younger sister, and the confines of a small community, to a proud and self-reliant future. But later, this image is to prove the catalyst for the most signicant event in her life. Isolation, separation, solitude, betrayal. The shocks of life. The consolations and the beauty of death. A few piercing moments of absolute joy and perfect understanding. THE SERVICE OF CLOUDS is about these things, and also about love, loyalty, friendship, growing up and growing old. Views: 1 149
No sooner has Alex splashed down off the coast of Australia than he finds himself sucked into another adventure. This time he's working for ASIS - the Australian Secret Service - and his target is the criminal underworld of South-East Asia: the ruthless world of the Snakehead. Views: 1 149
Someone steals artifacts from a Navajo reservation. Views: 1 148
Simon Serrailler is faced with that most complicated of investigations - a cold case. Freak weather and flash floods all over southern England. Half of Lafferton is afloat. A landslip on the Moor has closed the bypass and, as the rain slowly drains away, a shallow grave - and a skeleton - are exposed. All the Simon Serrailler novels offer more than merely a murder mystery, and The Betrayal of Trust is no exception: it takes a brave, truthful look at old age and the associated problems of terminal illness which, in the future, will bring our society to the brink of painful conflicts of conscience. Views: 1 148
The Aldens are visiting Grandfather’s friend Abby in Peachland, Canada—home of the mysterious lake monster called Ogopogo. When the children learn that Abby must sell her resort unless she can attract more business, they decide to help. But someone or something is trying to get in their way. Can they save the resort? Views: 1 147
Everyone has a bad day once in a while-- but no one can top Karen's worst day ever. Views: 1 146
Nancy helps an old friend, Nina Ford, learn what happened to her father. Mr. Ford was falsely accused of a crime, and while in police custody, he was swept away in a flood. Nancy acquires her very own assistant, a young girl named Midge who regards Nancy as a hero Views: 1 146
