Half a Creature From the Sea: A Life in Stories

      David Almond
     Half a Creature From the Sea: A Life in Stories

In fiction, real worlds merge with dreamed worlds. Real people walk with ghosts and figments. Earthly truth goes hand in hand with watery lies… May Malone is said to have a monster in her house, but what Norman finds there may just be the angel he needs. Joe Quinn’s house is noisy with poltergeists, or could it be Davie’s raging causing the disturbance? Fragile Annie learns the truth about herself in a photograph taken by a traveling man near the sea. Set in the northern English Tyneside country of the author’s childhood, these eight short stories evoke gritty realities and ineffable longings, experiences both ordinary and magical. In brief autobiographical preludes, master storyteller David Almond speaks to his own inspiration and shows how all things can be turned into tales, reflecting on a time of wonder, tenderness, and joy.

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    The Wrong Chemistry

      Carolyn Keene
     The Wrong Chemistry

The Dean of Emerson College enlists Nancy to investigate the thefts of a valuable substance being used in a top-secret experiment. But when Nancy discovers that the experiment involves biological mutations, she knows she must find the culprit before the lives of everyone on campus are endangered.

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    Karen's Magic Garden

      Ann M. Martin
     Karen's Magic Garden

Karen's family is having a reunion in Maine. Karen meets her cousin Diana for the first time. Diana is a lot of fun. Together the cousins explore the old house. They even find a hidden garden. Karen and Diana fix up the garden. Soon it looks beautiful. Special things happen when they are there. Could the garden be magical too?

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    The Wizard Heir

      Cinda Williams Chima
     The Wizard Heir

Sixteen-year-old Seph McCauley has spent the past three years getting kicked out of one exclusive private school after another. And it's not his attitude that's the problem: it's the trail of magical accidents - lately, disasters - that follow in his wake. Seph is a wizard, orphaned and untrained, and his powers are escalating out of control. After causing a tragic fire at an after-hours party, Seph is sent to the Havens, a secluded boys' school on the coast of Maine. Gregory Leicester, the headmaster, promises to train Seph in magic and initiate him into his mysterious order of wizards. But Seph's enthusiasm dampens when he learns that training comes at a steep cost, and that Leicester plans to use his students' powers to serve his own mysterious agenda.

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    The Black Stallion and Flame

      Walter Farley
     The Black Stallion and Flame

While flying to a race, Alec Ramsay and the Black’s plane crash-lands in the stormy Caribbean. Chance brings the Black to the hidden island home of the giant red stallion, Flame. Such a small island can only support one alpha male. But before the two can fight–a fight that can only result in the death of one–a new danger appears. Together, can the stallions defeat the deadly foe which threatens the lives of the entire herd of wild horses? From the Trade Paperback edition.

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    Game

      Barry Lyga
     Game

Billy grinned. “Oh, New York,” he whispered. “We’re gonna have so much fun.” I Hunt Killers introduced the world to Jazz, the son of history’s most infamous serial killer, Billy Dent. In an effort to prove murder didn’t run in the family, Jazz teamed with the police in the small town of Lobo’s Nod to solve a deadly case. And now, when a determined New York City detective comes knocking on Jazz’s door asking for help, he can’t say no. The Hat-Dog Killer has the Big Apple–and its police force–running scared. So Jazz and his girlfriend, Connie, hop on a plane to the big city and get swept up in a killer’s murderous game.

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    The Friendship Matchmaker

      Randa Abdel-Fattah
     The Friendship Matchmaker

Lara Zany is known throughout the school yard as the Friendship Matchmaker--kids call on her expertise and follow her hard-and-fast rules to find best friendships. Lara's documented everything from friendship categories (the BOBF, or Bus Only Best Friend; the TL, or Total Loner; the LBC, or Loner By Choice) to strategies (BJF, or the Bungee Jump Friend; FTFP, or Field Trip Faux Pas). But when new kid in school Emily Wong questions Lara's methods, the two decide to compete by each finding a TL a best friend. But Lara, an LBC, doesn't bank on finding her own best friendship in the most unlikely of places. . . . In the tradition of "Clueless," this reimagining of Jane Austen's "Emma "for middle school readers is a funny and heartwarming story of celebrating individuality and finding acceptance.

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    Recipe for Murder

      Carolyn Keene
     Recipe for Murder

When Ned burns the barbecue, Nancy offers him a real culinary challenge--a course at the famed Claude DuPres International Cooking School in Chicago. The session is barely under way when Chef DuPres dies. Was it a heart attack or poison? Cook up huge sales with this perennial favorite.

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    Ravencliffe

      Carol Goodman
     Ravencliffe

Avaline Hall is no ordinary girl.  She’s a student at Blythewood Academy, an elite boarding school that trains young women to defend human society from the shadowy forces that live among us.  After the devastating events of her first year at Blythewood, Ava is eager to reunite with her friends—and with Raven, the compelling but elusive winged boy who makes her pulse race. She soon discovers, though, that the sinister Judicus van Drood hasn’t finished wreaking havoc on Blythewood—and wants to use Ava and her classmates to attack a much bigger target. Ava’s the only one with any hope of stopping van Drood. But to scuttle his plans, she must reveal her deepest secret to everyone at Blythewood. What’s she willing to sacrifice to do what’s right—her school?  Her love?  Or her life?

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    Raven's Ladder

      Jeffrey Overstreet
     Raven's Ladder

A DEADLY MENACE IS BREAKING THROUGH THE GROUND. THE PEOPLE OF ABASCAR MUST ABANDON THEIR STONE REFUGE AND FLEE INTO VULNERABILITY IN THE FOREST. BUT THEIR KING HAS HAD A VISION… Following the beacon of Auralia’s colors and the footsteps of a mysterious dream-creature, King Cal-raven has discovered a destination for his weary crowd of refugees. It’s a city only imagined in legendary tales. And it gives him hope to establish New Abascar. But when Cal-raven is waylaid by fortune hunters, his people become vulnerable to a danger more powerful than the prowling beastmen––House Bel Amica. In this oceanside kingdom of wealth, enchantment, and beauty, deceitful Seers are all too eager to ensnare House Abascar’s wandering throng. Even worse, the Bel Amicans have discovered Auralia’s colors, and are twisting a language of faith into a lie of corruption and control. If there is any hope for the people of Abascar, it lies in the courage of Cyndere, daughter of Bel Amica’s queen; the strength of Jordam the beastman; and the fiery gifts of the ale boy, who is devising a rescue for prisoners of the savage Cent Regus beastmen. As his faith suffers one devastating blow after another, Cal-raven’s journey is a perilous climb from despair to a faint gleam of hope––the vision he sees in Auralia’s colors. From the Trade Paperback edition.

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    Masks #11

      Laurie Halse Anderson
     Masks #11

After Sunita's beloved pet cat, Mittens, gets injured on her watch, she wonders if vet work is right for her. She takes an internship at a research lab, but learns that they test on animals and eventually put them to sleep. Sunita loves animals, but can she find a way to work with them without harming them?

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