With nowhere left to live after losing his parents and working his way through a long list of relatives on the mainland, Ollie finds himself at his grandpa’s house in Sueño Bay, "home of the supernatural." Miserable and intending to get away from the earthquake-prone, rain-soaked island on the next bus out of town, Ollie's getaway plans are altered abruptly when he and three classmates discover something they shouldn't have in a trailer in the woods. The four unlikely friends come together in a mystery involving supernatural creatures, a ticking clock and one angry gym teacher to save themselves, the creatures and Sueño Bay from a darkness that is infecting the island. If they succeed, will Ollie finally find a place to call home?
It's a rainy day; so, the boy and his elephant, Émile, decide the perfect way to pass their time is with a trip to the museum. Their problems start before they even walk through the doors. First, what door does an elephant fit through? And second, why does the grumpy guard assume they are going to cause problems?
Filip, the ten-year-old son of Croatian immigrants, lives in a boring suburb of the big city, where he passes his time either at school or in his cozy kitchen, googling everything from dinosaurs to the Hubble Space Telescope. When his favorite uncle gets sick, Filip turns to Google for answers. Instead he receives a visit from the Great Googlini, a tiny woman in Converse sneakers who swirls out of the computer vents. She's not really a genie, she explains: "I'm more of an archivist." Her visit is a little bit of magic that lets Filip see the magic all around him.
Cricket McKay has lived in Waterton all her life; so, she is surprised to discover an animal she hasn’t seen before: the long-toed salamander. She finds a band of them migrating from the pond to their hibernation grounds at Crandell Mountain. Crossing the road that lies between the pond and the mountain is dangerous enough, but now a newly constructed curb makes their journey even more challenging. Can Cricket and her friends come up with a solution to help the salamanders? Salamander Rescue is the second book featuring Cricket and friends.
Après avoir essayé la glisse sur luge, Lucy commence une nouvelle aventure de vitesse—Cette fois-ci, elle lace ses patins et essaie le patinage de vitesse sur courte piste. C'est plus difficile que ça en a l'air. Lorsqu'on patine en tournant très vite, on risque de tomber! Mais avec ses amies, Lucy avance sur la glace dans une course palpitante vers la ligne d'arrivée. Lucy fait du patinage de vitesse est le deuxième livre de la série Lucy Tries Sports conçue pour encourager les enfants à devenir actifs et à pratiquer des sports. After trying the sliding sport of luge, Lucy is back for another speedy adventure—this time, she laces up her skates and tries short track speed skating. It’s not as easy as it looks. When you skate really fast around tight turns, you just might crash! But with her friends at her side, Lucy skims across the ice in a thrilling race to the finish. Lucy Tries Short Track is the second book in the Lucy Tries Sports series, designed to encourage children to get active and participate in sports.
The dog shows up the way snow does on a winter's day. She just drifts in and stays, becoming the friend of a young Cree boy. The boy and the dog set out on an adventure that ends in a quandary involving quills and a big brother who swears to take revenge on the porcupine. But Lindy, a Cree elder and master carver, reminds the brothers of the importance of the great porcupine. After a day spent carving in town, the boy learns some truths about human nature and realizes that sometimes, like the porcupine, you must put your quills up to keep from getting pushed around.
A decodable book featuring four phonics stories specially designed to help children with dyslexia or other language-based learning difficulties find reading success. While Meg and Greg are visiting Greg’s family on Stardust Island they find themselves searching for one lost or missing item after another!
Four phonics stories specially designed to help children of all abilities overcome language-based learning difficulties. Besties Meg and Greg are off to sleep-away camp for the summer! Along with your standard camp activities (swimming and making crafts) the duo have a run-in with a skunk, sing a silly song about a king, go on a canoe trip that has one glitch after another, and make a mess in the lodge with a fresh batch of fudge!
Four phonics stories specially designed to help children of all abilities overcome language-based learning difficulties. Meg and Greg are hanging out for the summer doing what ten-year-olds do—helping an injured duckling, finding a lost pet fish, saving ranch animals from a wildfire and catching a wandering sloth!
Eager to try a summer sport, Lucy and her friends meet at the soccer field for their first game of three-on-three! Thanks to Coach Nick, Lucy and the rest of Team Blue learn a few basic skills as they prepare to face Team Red. In Lucy Tries Soccer, Lucy discovers how much fun it is to play on a team and learns why soccer is the world’s most popular game.
"This is intro to hockey, and it's time to begin!" Lucy and her family are skating on an outdoor rink when she sees a game of hockey going on. It looks like fun, but maybe too challenging. Supported by her parents, Lucy enrolls in an introductory hockey clinic, and thanks to an encouraging instructor, she and her friends learn basic hockey skills, have fun on the ice and decide to add hockey to their list of favorite sports!
Florence and Leon have never met. Florence is a swimming instructor. She has a small problem with her lungs: it's as if she's breathing through a straw. Leon is an insurance salesman. He has a small problem with his eyes: it's as if he's seeing the world through a straw. One day Florence and Leon bump into each other, literally, and this mishap turns their lives upside down. Over slushy drinks with proper straws, Florence and Leon find out how their differences make them alike.
Josh, Mark, Angela and their friends have been waiting for years to go on the class trip to Drumheller, Alberta. Now they are finally the oldest kids at Pleasant Valley grade school and can get excited about the overnight outing. But first, they have a lot of learn about what they'll see in the dinosaur capital of the world. And they have to raise money for all the pizza they are going to eat on the trip! Once they finally get going, a frightening encounter with a slithery serpent leads to an amazing discovery. One that might be even better than all-you-can-eat deep dish!
Billy Stuart is a young raccoon who aspires to be just like his grandfather, a globe-trotting adventurer who knows no fear. When he learns that his grandfather has found a way to travel through time and is leaving on another great voyage, he sets out to see him off (and maybe sneak along). Billy Stuart follows his grandfather's puzzling clues through a maze of caves and caverns to find him before he leaves, trailed by his Scout pack, the Zintrepids. What Billy doesn't know is that once they go down the fateful path his grandfather has taken, there will be no turning back. Brightly illustrated and enhanced with games and puzzles throughout, Billy Stuart and the Zintrepids is Billy's first adventure and is sure to amuse readers of all ages.
All aboard! The Bernsteins are heading off on a cruise, and Aunt Sharon offers to take care of the family pets, Lox (the fish), Creamcheese (the cat) and Bagels, an energetic puppy with a talent for escaping. Trouble is, Bagels is up to his usual disappearing act. When he turns up unexpectedly on the cruise ship, Josh and his little sister, Becky, must keep Bagels hidden. But when an onboard mystery begins to unfold involving two potential spies and a mysterious woman with a secret envelope, Bagels just might be able to help crack the case! Bagels on Board is the third book in the series about Bagels Bernstein, following Bagels Come Home and Bagels the Brave.
In the small village of Seuño Bay, famous for its mysterious crystals and legendary moon creatures, friends Kay, Ollie, Jenna and Sleeves try to help a lost moon creature at the lighthouse of Candle Point. When a wild winter storm rolls in and all the power goes out, Kay stays with her reclusive aunt, Gayle, the lighthouse keeper of Candle Point. On the long trek through the blustery snowstorm, Kay stumbles upon an injured moon creature. Kay smuggles her new friend into her aunt's lighthouse to take shelter from the cold. While exploring the lighthouse she discovers a network of tunnels and a colony of moon creatures. Kay tries to reunite the abandoned creature with its family but she can't do it alone.
A tiny island is experiencing extreme weather, a rash of shipwrecks and the disappearance of whole swaths of marine life. Is it climate change? A bad storm season? Or is something else going on?
In the small village of Sueño Bay, famous for its mysterious crystals and legendary moon creatures, friends Ollie, Jenna, Sleeves and Kay are building a go-kart for the annual Fall Fair competition. Living in the nearby hills are tiny moon creatures, the Hivers, who play a crucial role in the health of the local mushroom crop. But the Hivers' important job is interrupted when Sleeves, the youngest of the group, stumbles upon them. Feeling left out of the go-kart project, Sleeves claims the Hivers as his loyal subjects and locks them away when he’s not around. Without the Hivers, the island’s mushroom crop starts to take a turn for the worse. Stories say that the last person who messed with the Hivers, the Hillside Hermit, was cursed to roam alone and never return to Sueño Bay. Is Sleeves destined to suffer the same fate or can he and his friends return balance to the island in time? This is the third book in the Sueño Bay Adventures series, following Shadow Island and Otter Lagoon.
The summer is for sleuthing, and Lark and Connor have been served a double helping! It's time for the annual pet fair and the twins have been hard at work teaching their dog, Max, some new tricks. But on their way to the fairgrounds, they're offered not one, but two intriguing cases. Pets from the pet show have gone missing and their guardians are blaming each other for the disappearances. Meanwhile, Lark and Connor's frenemy, Sophie, thinks her house might be haunted and refuses to go inside. The twins split up to solve the mysteries, but can they find the vanished pets and the source of the spooky noises before the show has to start? Lark Has the Shivers is the fifth title in the Lark Ba Detective series, following Lark and the Desert Disaster, Lark Takes a Bow, Lark and the Diamond Caper and Lark Holds the Key.
It's a good thing young sleuths Lark and Connor Ba are always prepared because mysteries find them wherever they go. Lark and Connor are excited to visit the local art gallery where some of their classmates have been invited to exhibit their paintings. But when their friend Franklin is accused of stealing Kyle's masterpiece, the twins are sure Franklin is being framed—especially because Kyle has been nothing but mean to Franklin. Now the detectives are in a race to prove their friend's innocence as they collect clues and sort through red herrings. Will this be Lark and Connor's first unsolved case and is their friend doomed to be painted with a guilty brush? Includes bonus material as Lark shares the meanings behind her favorite words and idioms from the story. This is the sixth title in the Lark Ba Detective series, following Lark Has the Shivers, Lark and the Dessert Disaster, Lark Takes a Bow, Lark and the Diamond Caper and Lark Holds the Key.
Eleven-year-old Charlie Dembinski lives by the rules he writes down in his notebook. He knows that animals behave in predictable ways and it's easy for him to understand them. What Charlie doesn’t understand is why people aren’t the same way. Faced with a swarm of bees attached to a car, a cat with an unusual lump, a large dog who eats jewelry, a little dog who’s lost his confidence, and a best friend who’s upset for reasons he doesn’t understand, Charlie is put to the test. Can his rules help solve these problems? The third book in the Charlie's Rules series from bestselling author Sigmund Brouwer, Hush, Puppy is sure to delight young animal lovers. The straightforward plot, black-and-white illustrations and unique animal stories make this the perfect chapter book for early readers.
Kenyan orphans, Kitoo and Nigosi, spend their days studying, playing soccer, helping their elders with chores around the orphanage and reading from the limited selection of books in their library. When the librarian gives Kitoo a copy of Sports Around the World he becomes fascinated by an image of the Canadian national men's ice hockey team. Then one day the fates align and Kitoo finds a pair of beat up old roller blades, he teaches himself to skate and dreams of one day playing hockey like the men in his book. But you can’t play ice hockey in Kenya, can you?
When the tsunami destroyed Makio's village, Makio lost his father . . . and his voice. The entire village is silenced by grief, and the young child's anger at the ocean grows. Then one day his neighbor, Mr. Hirota, begins a mysterious project—building a phone booth in his garden. At first Makio is puzzled; the phone isn't connected to anything. It just sits there, unable to ring. But as more and more villagers are drawn to the phone booth, its purpose becomes clear to Makio: the disconnected phone is connecting people to their lost loved ones. Makio calls to the sea to return what it has taken from him and ultimately finds his voice and solace in a phone that carries words on the wind. The Phone Booth in Mr. Hirota's Garden is inspired by the true story of the wind phone in Otsuchi, Japan, which was created by artist Itaru Sasaki. He built the phone booth so he could speak to his cousin who had passed, saying, "My thoughts couldn't be relayed over a regular phone line, I wanted them to be carried on the wind." The Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011 destroyed the town of Otsuchi, claiming 10 percent of the population. Residents of Otsuchi and pilgrims from other affected communities have been traveling to the wind phone since the tsunami.
Lark and Connor are judges for the annual baking contest at the community center. When they arrive, they discover that someone has destroyed a contestant's entry. And not just any contestant’s entry—Sophie's! Sophie is Lark's best friend (she just doesn't know it yet). The twin sleuths can't simply roll with it. To save the contest they'll have to take a whisk risk and start investigating the other contestants. With the timer ticking, Lark and Connor have to find the culprit before someone actually takes the cake. Lark and the Dessert Disaster is the fourth title in the Lark Ba Detective series.
Just when Josh starts to think his break from school is going to be all chores and no cheer, his best friend, Mark, invites him to spend their break helping restore a historic home and mill in Oregon. With the help of their friends Angela and Mary Jane, and under the watchful eye of Aunt Sue and Uncle Doug, the kids spend weeks fixing up the grounds, basking in the freedom of country life and learning about the surrounding area. Not to mention eating bugs, domesticating feral cats and starring in a movie! But it's not all fun and filming. The mill is in financial trouble, and the kids have to figure out a way to help Aunt Sue and Uncle Doug keep it running, in spite of it being haunted. Ghost of the Mill House follows Bus to the Badlands, where we first met Josh and his classmates.
