From Newbery Award winner Phyllis Reynolds Naylor comes a witty tale of the Wild West filled with comical cliffhangers and featuring a cast of plucky orphans and dastardly villains.
Emily Wiggins is poor and timid, without a drop of self-confidence. When she is unexpectedly orphaned, she is left all alone except for her turtle, Rufus.
What in blinkin' bloomers should Emily do?
Emily's neighbors, Mrs. Ready, Mrs. Aim, and Mrs. Fire, have the answer: Emily must travel by stagecoach to the home of her honorable aunt Hilda.
What a rootin' tootin' grand idea!
But Miss Catchum of the Catchum Child-Catching Services will get a big bonus for delivering Emily to her next of kin, the vicious Uncle Victor.
How the ding dong dickens will Emily escape Miss Catchum?
It will take all the gumption and cunning of fellow orphan and traveler Jackson to help Emily find her confidence, her conniving spirit, and the true reason Uncle Victor wants to claim her.
But how in flippin' flapjacks will Emily outsmart Uncle Victor?
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.