Chip Clewt, known simply as the weirdo, lives like a hermit in the Powhatan Swamp, a National Wildlife Refuge that is at the center of a heated controversy between local hunters and environmentalists. A hunting ban on the Powhatan is about to expire. The environmentalists want to protect the wildlife; the hunters are oiling their guns. Then someone completely unexpected comes forward to spearhead the conservation effort--the weirdo. Includes a reader's...

It is 1946, a year after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and World War II is over. But the U.S. government has decided that further tests of atomic bombs must be conducted. When Bikini Atoll is chosen for the testing site, the inhabitants of the tiny island are told they must relocate for just two years. But sixteen-year-old Sorry Rinamu believes the Americans are lying and that it will never be safe to return. He must find a way to stop the...

An account of the WWII sea battle by the author of The Cay: "The story of the Bismarck is one of exciting high adventure, and [Taylor] captures it nicely." -The New York Times From the award-winning author, this is a compelling history of the sinking of British battlecruiser H.M.S. Hood in the cold waters of the North Atlantic in 1941. It was a great loss to the Royal Navy and resulted in the deaths of more than fourteen hundred sailors. Soon...

The year is 1868, and fourteen-year-old Alika and his younger brother, Sulu, are hunting for seals on an ice floe attached to their island in the Arctic. Suddenly the ice starts to shake, and they hear a loud crack-the terrible sound of the floe breaking free from land. The boys watch with horror as the dark expanse of water between the ice and the shore rapidly widens, and they start drifting south-away from their home, their family, and everything...

Jon Jeffers is the loneliest nine-year-old on earth. It's 1935, and he's stuck on a tiny rocky island off the coast of San Francisco with his mother and his lighthouse-keeper father. Jon longs for something more. If only he had a way to escape this forsaken pile of rocks, he could have some real adventures. Then one morning the irritable ghost of an ancient magician appears on the beach and offers-amazingly-to teach Jon to fly. Jon agrees, and at...

Twelve-year-old Jose Maldonado used to dream of becoming a fine artist. But this son of a poor Mexican farmer now focuses on survival, not art. After Jose's mother died, his father left to work in the United States, leaving Jose on his own in Mexico. When it's time for father and son to reunite, things go terribly wrong. Jose's attempt to cross the border is harrowing, and his stay at a migrant worker camp turns into a nightmare, forcing him to flee...

"A high-impact techno-thriller [that] brings readers into the heart of WWII's Battle of the Atlantic . . . To Kill the Leopard is a winner." -Publishers Weekly The U-boat under Horst Kammerer's command bears a leopard insignia, and Kammerer is indeed a feral hunter as he torpedoes Sully Jordan's oil tanker. The merchant marine escapes with his life-only to encounter Kammerer again a month after Pearl Harbor. After Jordan loses yet another ship...

This heartwarming story will be especially meaningful to any child dealing with issues of cross-cultural adoption or physical disabilities. Fourteen-year-old Helen Ogden tells the story of the miraculous friendship that grows between her blind dog Tuck and her adopted brother Chok Do, a deaf Korean orphan.

Friar Tuck, a big golden Labrador, is young Helen's inseparable companion. She still remembers the sunny day three years ago when her father dumped the fat, wriggling puppy into her surprised arms and said, "All yours, Helen." Since then, her dog has grown into a wonderful friend for the lanky, red-haired girl. No one knows exactly when Tuck began to go blind. By the time Helen and her parents notice the symptoms, the dog is knocking over chairs...

When the freighter on which they are traveling is torpedoed by a German submarine during World War II, a twelve-year-old white boy, blinded by a blow on the head, and an old Negro are stranded on a small desert island in the Caribbean where the boy acquires a new kind of vision, courage, and love from his old companion. Blinded when his ship is torpedoed, Philip is marooned on an island with an elderly West Indian who shows him how to survive and...