Chocolate-loving penguin detective Mr. Pin is relaxing between cases when a client approaches him with a baffling problem-someone is smashing the stone gargoyles in his warehouse. In fact, all over Chicago, gargoyles are falling from the buildings. Hoping to stop the villain before someone gets hurt, Mr. Pin and his young friend Maggie scamper to the latest crime scene to collect clues. But when an empty chocolate box is found near a destroyed statue, and a rock hopper penguin is seen scuttling away, police blame Mr. Pin. The flippered detective must find the culprit-quickly-or lose his reputation and more. As he munches his way through the chocolate clues in two exciting cases, Mary Elise Monsell's loveable penguin from the South Pole teaches that appearances can be misleading. Narrator John McDonough will have young listeners laughing out loud with delight as Mr. Pin finds the statue smasher and solves a second puzzling mystery for the famous Cubs baseball team.
Eleven-year-old Nhamo is running for her life. When the village witch finder decrees that she must marry a cruel stranger to propitiate an evil spirit, her only recourse is to steal a fishing boat and go looking for a father she has never met. Alone on the Musengezi River, Nhamo has meager resources to help her survive loneliness, hunger, wild animals, and even land mines. During the grueling months in her leaking boat and on a deserted island, she has only visions of her dead mother and other spirit ancestors to sustain her. They transform her solitary journey into a luminous spiritual odyssey, one from which she will need to draw strength when she reaches her destination. Listeners who have enjoyed another of her Newbery Honor books, The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm, know the broad range of imagination and talent this award-winning author brings to her work. Young listeners will gain a healthy respect for the richness of cultural diversity even as they're realizing the universality of the human experience.
These stories are about how, many years ago, Arthur the once and future King of England, set out to save his country from the troubles that plagued it, aided by the brave knights of his Round Table, and the most famous sword in the world, Excalibur; how Merlin the wizard fought against the wicked Morgana le Fay's enchantments, and how Arthur loved and lost the beautiful Guinevere, his Queen.
Since his father died, Daniel Martin looks forward to summers with his uncle in the mountains. They have a great time practicing outdoor survival skills. But this summer his mother is sending him to Camp Eagle Nest. When he boards the camp van, Daniel's heart sinks. Three boys from school-who always tease him-are going to camp, too. Soon the driver gets lost. As the van is crossing a rickety bridge, the wooden planks break, plunging the van into the river! Will Daniel be able to save himself and his classmates with his outdoor training? Gary Paulsen, outdoorsman and Newbery-Award winning author, entertains boys and girls with his World of Adventure series. Filled with excitement and the spirit of discovery, his tales captivate the interests of readers of all levels. Danger on Midnight River is the gripping story of four boys learning to trust each other as they struggle to find their way in the harsh land.
Like other rock hopper penguins, Mr. Pin enjoys the icy weather in the South Pole. But he loves eating chocolate and solving mysteries more. When he moves to Chicago to be a detective, his new home is wonderful! Snowflakes swirl in the wind, and Sally from Smiling Sally's diner gives him all the chocolate ice cream he can eat. Soon Maggie, Sally's young niece, becomes his new friend. But Sally and Maggie, are worried.
Gangsters are threatening to blow up the diner. Will Mr. Pin be able to help them? In The Mysterious Cases of Mr. Pin, Chicago's delightful new penguin detective is up to his beak in problems and clues. Mr. Pin will entertain young readers with his tasty solutions to three puzzling cases and provide thoughtful lessons in friendship.
When the naïve David Balfour sets out on his quest for a long-lost relative, a terrifying chain of events is set in motion. He is plunged into a world of infamy and violence from which there seems no escape, until, that is, he meets the enigmatic and valiant Highlander, Alan Breck.
When sixth-grader Rosie Saunders asks her best friend, Kayo Benton, to come along on her family's summer trip, the girls look forward to a perfect vacation. Their first stop is a campground in the colorful Arizona desert, where Rosie and Kayo busily explore trails lined with the almost-human forms of the Saguaro cactus. Soon they have found a new animal friend, too: a tiny abandoned kitten. But the eerie shapes of the giant plants aren't the only spooky things in the desert. Kidnappers looking for the daughter of a wealthy businessman grab Kayo by mistake.
Now, instead of trying to find a home for the kitten, Rosie desperately searches for a way to rescue Kayo from the two rough men who have carried her away into the desert night. In each addition to the Frightmare series, Peg Kehret provides plenty of suspense while the two girls' love for animals leads them into perilous adventures. The nonstop action will whisk you through Desert Danger at a hair-raising pace.
When the boys' parents are called away by a family emergency, Doug and his older brother Gordon are left on their own in their Rocky Mountain campsite. The brothers are fighting, though, so it isn't long before Gordon stomps away from the campsite, leaving Doug completely alone. When neither Gordon nor his parents return after three days, 12-year-old Doug fears the worst. He knows Gordon has gone to a high ridge in the Comanche Peak Wilderness-the Fear Place. Will Doug and a newfound friend-a cougar-find his brother, or will Doug's terror of heights prevent a rescue? Newberry Medal-winning author Phyllis Reynolds Naylor is the author of more than eighty children's books. She drew on her own fear of heights to write The Fear Place, which is destined to become a children's adventure classic. The combination of her award-winning, realistic writing style and Ed Sala's well-paced narration is irresistible.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is the story of a boy's adventures growing up in a small town on the banks of the Mississippi river over a hundred years ago. The cheerful, adventurous hero plays truant to form a pirate band and, together with his best friend, Huckleberry Finn, finds fun and excitement, and buried treasure, along the shores of the great river.
When RamOn Salazar swims into an underwater cave in a deserted lagoon, he discovers the black pearl, the Great Pearl of Heaven. As the son of a pearl merchant, RamOn knows that this is the rarest and most valuable pearl in the world. He quickly scoops it up and brings it home to his father. RamOn's father believes the pearl is a blessing from the sea, but others in their tiny seaside town do not agree. They think RamOn has brought a curse upon his family, for the pearl belongs to the Manta Diablo, the most terrifying and monstrous devilfish of all. The manta, they say, will not give up his treasure easily. He will come to reclaim the pearl-and it is RamOn who will have to face him. Scott O'Dell, the winner of the Hans Christian Anderson Award for his contributions to children's literature, spins a stirring story that resounds with all the power of a great legend. A Newbery Honor Book and an ALA Notable Book, The Black Pearl is captivating entertainment for all ages.
When the steamer Drake is shipwrecked off the Spanish coast, only two passengers survive. One is Alec Ramsay, a young American boy. The other is the Black Stallion, the wildest of all wild creatures. Stranded together on a desert island, boy and stallion develop a deep and wonderful understanding. The Black Stallion is the horse Alec has always dreamed of-beautiful, free-spirited, and astonishingly strong. Alec is determined to tame him and bring him home to New York. But the job turns out to be more difficult and dangerous that he ever thought possible, for a wild Arabian stallion will not settle down easily into the quiet American countryside. Generations have been captivated by Walter Farley's heartwarming story of the extraordinary horse and the boy who loves him. To this day, The Black Stallion remains one of the best-loved books of children around the world and a classic of children's literature.
The tales of the Norse gods, of the giants, demons, trolls and dwarves, still have the power to fascinate more than a thousand years after they were first told. Here are the stories of the one-eyed god Odin, the all-seeing, who from his throne in Asgard the home of the gods, has to prepare for Ragnarok, the final conflict between good and evil. There are tales too of Tyr the god of war, of the cunning Loki, of Thor the mighty thunder god and a host of others. These retellings of the old tales are given extra dramatic perspective by the music of Mahler, Grieg, Smetana. They come to life as never before.
