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If everyone’s dreams are overrun by nightmares, how will anyone ever sleep again?  What if there was an evil force feeding on the negative energy in those nightmares, gaining power with every dream, preparing to take over the world?  Would anyone be able to stop the horror unfolding every night in every bed? For eleven year old Zac Wonder, all he knows is that he’s been having some realistic, recurring nightmares.  The London newspapers are full of reports of sleep-deprived people doing some harrowing things as a plague of nightmares seems to be sweeping the nation.  But even more strange than this night-time horror, Zac’sRead More →

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In the last installment of the action packed Archer Legacy, Gerald Wilkins and his friends Ruby and Sam are finally going to be able to put the danger posted by the ruthless Mason Green behind them and get on with their normal (well, normal for a billionaire) lives.  But just as  Mason Green’s murder trial is getting under way, Mason is mysteriously killed and Gerald is framed for his murder.  Now, Gerald is left with only one choice – to run – and his faithful friends join him in the quest to clear his name.  Their journey takes them from London to France, then toRead More →

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Jake and Lily are twins.  Sure, they are a little different – Lily’s got a temper, Jake’s always calm – but in many ways, they feel like two halves of the same person.  When one of them is in trouble or in pain, the other one just knows it; they can communicate without words; it’s a secret “power” they call the goombla and sharing it means everything. But the summer they turn 11, things change.  Their parents decide it’s time for them to have separate rooms.  Jake starts hanging out with a group of guys from down the street, and Lily, well, Lily feels lostRead More →

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Everyone has secrets. Some are small and innocuous “I am going to surprise my friend with a special lunch”  but others carry much more weight “I am betraying my best friend in a terrible way.”  We carry these secrets, large and small, light and heavy, around with us every day. But when the burden of these secrets, hopes, and fears becomes to much, we have to find ways to lighten the load.  In the woods behind 10 year old Minty Mortimer’s house, there’s a big old oak tree with a gaping hole in the center, and as she discovers one summer afternoon, it’s the tree where peopleRead More →

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By 2050, global warming has turned the climate into mankind’s enemy: once “normal” weather systems like hurricanes and tornadoes are now monster storms that ravage the world with their intensity and frequency.  Life has become a dual existence of living indoors: above ground anxiously waiting for the next storm system and then spending a good deal of time in underground storm shelters wondering if your home has been annihilated.  Playgrounds are built in cavernous underground shelters, no one rides bikes, goes on picnics or travels far.  The food supply is all grown in special DNA-ture farms secure from the uncontrollable weather.  Amid this dire climate,Read More →

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Denise Fleming’s book Shout! Shout it Out! is a fantastic early learning participation book. Based on a very simple premise-if you know it, shout it out-a small mouse takes young learners through basics like the numbers 1-10, the ABC’s, identifying colors, animals and more. This book makes learning into a game, encouraging preschoolers to participate while featuring uniquely fun and bright artwork. The simple text clearly identifies every object on the pages and the precocious little mouse shows up on every page, so make sure to keep an eye out for him too! If you have an early learner in your household, or a classroom fullRead More →

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Sinister, blood-thirsty ghosts in fog-filled cemeteries, a Medieval cathedral and castle-turned boarding school, and an angry 11 year old boy sent away from home when his widowed mother becomes engaged to a new man.    A story spun with all the cinematic detail, coming-of-age life lessons, and supernatural qualities of her other works, Cornelia Funke‘s newest book, Ghost Knight, is a tale full of danger, bravery, and friendship. Jon Whitcroft tells us the story of his first year at an English boarding school, where he was sent after some very terrible behavior towards his mother’s fiance.  Jon had expected to be miserable in Salisbury and forRead More →

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*Welcome to the Town of Remarkable Where Every Day in this Remarkable Place filled with Remarkable People is Positively Remarkable for Absolutely Everyone Except Jane I don’t think I’d like to live in a town like Remarkable, where everyone is expertly talented in something, everyone is positively happy, and every sentence uttered ends in an exclamation point!  I think 10 year old Jane Doe, unnoticed, untalented, and completely unremarkable, would be only person worth knowing.  For Jane, the middle child in a remarkable family – her mother is a world renowned architect, her father a prize winning novelist, her gorgeous brother an ultra talented painter and herRead More →

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Polly Horvath’s latest is a heart-warming little gem about a girl in need of some security, a pair of empty-nesters in need of a new hobby, and a villainous bunch of bad guys looking to cause a lot of trouble.  When self-sufficient, hard-working 5th grader Madeline arrives home one evening, she discovers her flighty, hippie parents have gone missing:  all that’s left is a threatening note from “The Enemy” and a recipe card written in code.  Turns out Flo and Mildred (Madeline’s parents) have been kidnapped by a gang of Foxes who are in search of a Master Decoder to decode their gangs’ recipes forRead More →