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Fourteen-year-old Valentine Marsh has always known about her grandmother's remarkable magic powers. Val hasn't let her belief in Granny Gran's sorcery affect her everyday life at home and school, until the day she receives a phone call and a magic silver glove from her grandmother that brings her two worlds together with a crash. A powerful wizard has come to Earth to steal human souls, and Gran has been chosen to defeat him. Val can't believe that the wizard is actually masquerading as smooth-talking Dr. Brightner, her new school psychologist. But when her mother becomes a pawn in his deadly scheme, Val finds the courage to join Gran's fight. Together, armed with magic and the illuminating power of love, they face Brightner's seductive and dangerous illusions. Guided by instinct and urged on by fear, Val uses the silver glove to aid her in her mission— a mission to save not only her family but even the world from the forces of doom.From Publishers WeeklyFans of The Bronze King shouldn't miss this sequel, but those new to the proposed trilogy won't be left out by beginning with this one. Some time after the events of the earlier novel, Valentine Marsh finds herself willy-nilly cutting school, disobeying her mother and trying to save the world again. The threat: sinister Dr. Brightner, who is installed as the new school psychologist the same day Val's magic Gran runs away from her nursing home. A renegade wizard, Brightner is after souls, and he's been trying to get Gran to his clinic for "research." Val is horrified to find that he is trying to seduce her mother, who has long denied Gran's magic and doesn't see the threat. This is a book to relish; told in Charnas's nearly perfect first-person narration, Val's engaging personality of savoir-faire and innocence is judiciously mixed with a flying carpet, a deliciously scary Indian woman and a wonderful final confrontation in Central Park. Ages 12-up. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. From School Library JournalGrade 5-8 In this sequel to The Bronze King (Houghton, 1985) , 14-year-old Valentine discovers that her grand mother, who has magical powers, has gone into hiding to escape a powerful rogue wizard'' who is stealing human souls to use as soldiers in another world. When the wizard turns up as Dr. Brightner, the new psychologist at Val's school, and begins to date her di vorced mother, Val realizes that she alone can oppose him directly. This she does with the help of a magical glove given her by Gran. The various magical elements, including an Indian Restau rant named after the Goddess Kali and Brightner'sClaw,'' which takes vari ous sinister shapes, do not form a smooth whole. However, the recurring image of a skating rink, on which the assembled souls whirl mindlessly, forms an effective link between epi sodes of the plot, which moves at a good pace. Characterization is lightly but effectively sketched. Brightner's gaining of power over Val's mother by using her loneliness is well-drawn, as is Val's reaction to it. In fact, it is the realistic tensions of this situation which will appeal to readers most strongly. Charnas has done a good job of fitting her fantasy into the everyday world of a young teenage girl. Ruth S. Vose, San Francisco Public LibraryCopyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 61
In a vastly different and darker Philadelphia of 1844, steam power has been repressed, war threatens from deep, dark waters, and one young lady of high social standing is expecting a surprise at her seventeenth birthday party–but certainly not the one she gets! Jordan Astraea, who has lived out all of her life in Philadelphia’s most exclusive neighborhood, is preparing to celebrate her birthday with friends, family and all the extravagance they might muster. The young man who is most often her dashing companion, Rowen Burchette, has told her a surprise awaits her and her best friend, Catrina Hollindale, wouldn’t miss this night for all the world! But storm clouds are gathering and threatening to do far more than dampen her party plans because someone in the Astraea household has committed the greatest of social sins by Harboring a Weather Witch. Views: 61
Bestselling novelist and picture book author Funke now reaches a brand-new audience with a silly, spooky series of illustrated paperback originals for ages 7 to 10. Among her top sellers in Germany!Nine-year-old Tom Tomsky can't catch a break: He's a klutz, his sister Lola pretty much hates his guts, and—this is a big "and"—he just found a ghost camping out in his cellar. Lucky for Tom his grandma's best friend just happens to be the world's foremost ghosthunter. Under her expert tutelage, Tom learns the tools of the trade—which just happen to include buckets of graveyard dirt—and soon finds he has to face down not just the ASG (Averagely Spooky Ghost) in the basement but the IRG (Incredibly Revolting Ghost) in town. All while keeping the nettlesome Lola off his trail.... Views: 61
Originally published in 1983, this collection represents some of the greatest short fiction from one of the genre's most renowned authors. These collected works were written throughout Clarke's career, from 1946 to 1981—originally appearing in science fiction magazines such as Thrilling Wonder Stories, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, and OMNI.Between these pages you'll find some of Clarke's most groundbreaking early stories—many of which influenced later classic novel-length work. The title story, "The Sentinel," formed the foundation for what would later become the Space Odyssey series—perhaps Clarke's most famous work. You'll also find "Guardian Angel," a rarely reproduced story that was the inspiration for Childhood's End. Views: 61
For Nathanial Stone and Annabelle Somerset, the most harrowing journey has only just begun! At long last, Nathanial and Annabelle are back on Earth, but the reception is hardly what they hoped for–Nathanial locked up in Chatham Convict Prison, Annabelle and her uncle Cyrus Grant held in the Tower of London: the charge–treason! Someone high up in the British government is putting pressure on them for mysterious reasons. But when the Austro-Hungarian ambassador to Britain is assassinated in a gunpowder plot, which would have made Guy Fawkes smile, events spin out of everyone’s control. The clock is ticking down on the arrival of the new Austrian ambassador, and on an assassination plot which aims to cut the heart out of the British monarchy and government. The race to thwart the conspirators will take Nathanial, Annabelle, and George Bedford through the heart of Whitechapel at night, to gunpowder barges anchored in the Thames, to seedy boarding houses attacked by infernal clockwork devices, and finally to the dizzy heights of a zeppelin docking gantry packed with explosives and where a single spark will mean extinction for all. Views: 61
From Ilona Andrews—#1 New York Times bestselling author of Magic Shifts and the Kate Daniels novels—comes a stark, seductive tale of a world torn asunder by supernatural gifts and irresistible passions...Karina Tucker is driving a van of children home from a field trip when an unplanned detour to a seemingly ordinary rest stop changes her life. There, she witnesses a world beyond humanity's sight, of frightful powers and chaos, where she is in death's grip...before an irresistibly dangerous male saves her—only to take her captive.For she is a rare commodity in the shadowy realm she's entered.Karina soon finds herself caught in a violent civil war where those with inhuman powers strive to destroy each other without mercy. And it becomes all too clear that she must make a choice: submit and become a pawn, or take hold of her own destiny and fight for survival against impossible odds.Alphas: Origins originally appeared... Views: 61
An all-new Tale of the Great Schools of Dune — written to accompany Navigators of Dune by the same authors (Tor, September 2016).At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied. Views: 61
