How can you liven up a boring camping trip with your grandpa and your younger brother? Spencer has the answer: lose the new cell phone you weren't supposed to bring with you. Add a War of 1812 reenactment, a student film crew, an old flame of Grandpa's, Laura Secord's cowbell and a larcenous hardcore history buff, and you get a weekend that gives Spencer his first taste of independence and maybe a glimpse of his future, by way of the past. In this funny prequel to Jump Cut and Coda, the goofy and creative Spencer gets caught up in a War of 1812 reenactment.
When Adam's grandfather first suggests taking him on a quick trip to Sweden to celebrate his upcoming thirteenth birthday, visions of being in one of the coolest places on earth—and he's not thinking of the temperature—dance in Adam's mind. But on his way there he reads that Swedes have a darker past, and present, than he ever imagined. Then he finds himself alone and separated from his grandfather in busy Stockholm. He is followed by unsmiling strangers, chased by ghosts down alleyways and constantly watched by the strangest girl he's ever seen. And then another terror, perhaps bigger than the terror of being lost, begins to overwhelm him. In this fast-paced prequel to Last Message and Double You, the outwardly confident but often secretly anxious Adam wanders the streets of Stockholm.
A trip to a remote lake in northern Ontario with his grandfather doesn't thrill Steve, especially since his twin brother, DJ, was taken to Central America. Matters start to look up when his grandfather tells Steve about the mysterious death of the artist Tom Thomson and sets him the task of finding Thomson's missing skull. Steve loves mysteries, but when odd things begin happening and strange people start threatening him, Steve wonders whether this is part of his grandfather's plan. Is this still a simple puzzle, or is something far more sinister going on? In this thrilling prequel to Lost Cause and Broken Arrow, the history- and mystery-loving Steve ends up in remote northern Ontario.
Fishing for barracuda from a kayak in the Florida Keys. That's what Jim Webb thinks this resort vacation with his grandfather should be about. Except the dying resort owner holds the key to legend about a generations-old crime, a crime that is worth way too much to those who want the legend to be true. Webb soon discovers that what lurks in the sun, sand and shallow waters of the Keys is much more dangerous than a slashing game fish. And along the way, he learns an important truth about himself and his own past. In this exciting prequel to Devil’s Pass and Tin Soldier, the musically gifted and tenacious Webb finds himself caught in a dangerous mystery.
When Rennie's dad, the Major, goes overseas on assignment, he enlists his mother-in-law to babysit Rennie. Babysit! A guy who's about to turn fifteen! But Grandma is no surrogate drill sergeant. She has fun on her mind. That means ditching school and heading to avalanche country for a surprise ski trip. Nothing can ruin Rennie's vacation, not the lodge owner, who turns out to be Grandma's geriatric long-ago boyfriend, not the annoying backcountry guide or the crooked park ranger or the pushy businessman from Mumbai, not even the explosions. And definitely not the most beautiful girl in the world, whom he meets while stumbling onto a murder plot. In this hair-raising prequel to Close to the Heel and From the Dead, the loyal, smart and observant Rennie heads to avalanche country.
Sheila, Rusty and Katie are on the road again. Fresh from their adventures in Barkerville, the trio is now in southern Alberta. Sheila has been anxiously anticipating her reunion with her father and is worried about how they will get along. Her fears are confirmed when they arrive at the Triple W Ranch and he is not there to greet them. When the police arrive, Sheila finds that her father is in big trouble. Developers want to take over his land to build new housing and a golf course, and when the night watchman at the development is shot, all the evidence points to Sheila's father. Sheila tries to help out, but the clues she finds only make things worse. Is Sheila's dad guilty? She doesn't think so and with help from the others sets out to prove it.
Rusty, Katie and Sheila are sent out of town with Rusty's grandparents to keep them out of trouble. This time the trio is in historic Barkerville, a gold rush town with a secret. After witnessing what they take to be a ghost in the night, the three friends find themselves involved in a mystery from the past that seems to have a few other people interested as well. New information has come to light about a fortune in missing gold, a centuries-old curse and a missing miner. While the three budding detectives try and figure out which of the aging prospectors they keep running into is actually a ghost, they find they are in a race against time to recover the gold and return it to its rightful owners to avert a tragedy. Will they find the gold in time? Or will they suffer the fate of Three Finger Evans, the missing miner?
In The White Horse Talisman, Chantel, Adam, Holly and Owen must help Equus, the great white horse, find his mate and foal and regain his magical talisman. But as the horse rises, so does the dragon. The age-old battle between good and evil threatens the bond between Chantel and Adam and endangers the quest. Book 1 in the series.
In Volume Three of The Summer of Magic Quartet, Adam's turn to lead the adventure has arrived. The Wise One, Myrddin, needs Adam to retrieve his staff from the Crystal Cave deep inside Glastonbury Tor. The quest grows more dangerous, however, and fear rises. Equus and Ava are far away, the Lady will not wake, and Myrddin is in human guise, unable to use magic without alerting the Dark Being. The four children are on their own. And as the Dark Being approaches, the children discover that danger can find them even in their dreams. Book 3 in the series.
Hunter knows humans are dangerous to himself and the other cats of his colony. He avoids them, as all wild cats should. So when a neighborhood boy starts showing up in Hunter's junkyard to chase away dogs and bring the colony food, Hunter keeps his distance. But a new condo development puts the whole colony in danger, and Hunter soon realizes the only way to save his family is to put his trust in the boy. This is the sequel to Catboy.
In Book Two of The Summer of Magic Quartet, the four children from The White Horse Talisman seek Ava's circlet, buried within the ancient stone circle of Avebury. In Dance of the Stones, Chantel, Adam, Holly and Owen are eager to begin the next stage of their adventure. "The Stones have stirred," Ava, Hawkwoman and Wise One, tell Owen, "The time is near for the Circle Dance." The stones are the ancient stone circle of Avebury in England. But the Dark Being approaches, and her servant, a wraith, blocks the children's progress. When Ava is hurt, the children are thrown back on their own resources. They must discover the ritual that will release the circlet. Each child has a part to play in finding the circlet and holding back the Dark Being. Andrea Spalding's modern day characters jump off the page; Dance of the Stones, rich with legend, provides all that fantasy-lovers hunger for and lures also those who simply like a good tale, well told. Andrea traveled to Avebury to research her story, ensuring that all the historical and geographical details are correct. Dance of the Stones is the second of four books in The Summer of Magic Quartet. Book one is The White Horse Talisman. Book three is Heart of the Hill. Book four is Behind the Sorcerer's Cloak.
TJ overcame his fear of cats in TJ and the Cats and his fear of ghosts in TJ and the Haunted House. Now, he's not so keen on facing his fear of failure. His best friend Seymour is determined to come up with the latest greatest invention and TJ's gran expects TJ to build a rocket. The kittens, T-Rex and Alaska, are eager to get involved. When the first rocket that TJ builds plummets out of the sky, no parachute in sight, TJ is sure that his efforts are doomed. But are they?
In this sequel to TJ and the Cats, TJ and his best friend Seymour are back, joined by a classmate Amanda. TJ does not believe in ghosts. So when he agrees to create a haunted house in his own home as a fundraiser, he does not anticipate problems, at least not until it turns out that a ghost may inhabit the spare room in his century-old house. The ghost, real or imagined, leads TJ to some fascinating family history. TJ finds a way to bring that history alive for his family. The kittens, offspring of two of the cats from the first book, lead the way.
TJ may not like cats, but that doesn't stop a taxi from showing up at his door bearing his grandmother's four felines. Killer, Cleo, Kink and Maximillian the Emperor, Max for short, invade TJ's life and replace dinosaurs as the topic for his school project. His friend and partner for the project, Seymour, is deeply disappointed; the cats in his drawings all come out looking prehistoric. The animals' presence in TJ's house leads to a series of adventures, one involving the police and another involving a mass escape.
When master fact-gatherers TJ and Seymour are asked to join the school Quiz Kids team, TJ thinks Seymour should take the stage at the upcoming contest against the high-pressure Fairview School team. TJ is already more than occupied rescuing his cats and helping Gran get ready for her upcoming trip to Belize. When he goes with his dad to help with a renovation job on a huge house on Fairview Hill, he and T-Rex tangle with a rich girl and her giant dog, Frooie. Then Seymour develops stage fright, Alaska goes missing, and the girl from the big house shows up on the Fairview quiz team. TJ knows he has to sort things out - fast!
TJ Barnes is back, playing with his crazy cats, T-Rex and Alaska, helping out in his parents' hardware store and goofing around with his best friend, Seymour. When Seymour announces that he has signed them both up for a football team, TJ fears the worst. Neither of them is huge or mean or able to tackle, catch, throw, run or kick a ball down a field, but Seymour is determined to be a star. With the help of a stack of library books, TJ starts to understand the game but it takes more than a few books to figure out what's wrong with his best friend.
In this sequel to "Flight from Big Tangle," Kaylee is furious about being left to spend the summer with a girl her own age, Jaz, and Jaz's uncle, Jack. All she wants is time alone with her dog, Sausage. Things change quickly, though, when Jack is injured after his helicopter goes down near a group of grizzly bears. Kaylee and Jaz must team up to save him, and Kaylee finds herself once again at the controls of a plane.
While volunteering at the local zoo, Robyn, Nick and Trevor learn that grizzly bears are being poached and their gall bladders removed for use in alternative medicine. Always ready to solve a mystery, the kids set out to find the poachers. Bear is not only big game, they learn, but big money to poachers. The stakes are high and the suspects many, as the kids head into their most dangerous adventure yet.
When Trevor, Nick and Robyn visit the Royal Tyrrell Museum, Robyn is inspired to raise funds for a dinosaur dig that will close soon if it doesn't find funding. The kids are caught up in another mystery when a chain of suspicious events, including the disappearance of important fossils and a fraudulent discovery at the dig, leads them to wonder what's going on. Is the new visiting scientist behind the fraud, or did Robyn's enthusiasm to save the dig lead her astray?
Trevor, Nick and Robyn are ready to solve another mystery. When bobsledder Josh Gantz is accused of deliberately injuring a fellow competitor, he runs the risk of being thrown out of the sport -- right before the World Cup. Courtney Gantz asks Trevor, Nick and Robyn to help clear her brother's name. Can they find out who framed Josh? What is the meaning of the strange coded messages they keep finding around Olympic Park? Who eats orange bananas, anyway? The kids must unearth the clues in a race against time, before Josh's championship dreams end up on ice.
Nadia is playing for her local soccer team, and they have made it all the way to the national tournament - against some very determined opposition. Unfortunately, Nadia's challenges don't just come from her opponents but from her teammates as well. After their coach is injured in a suspicious accident and the threats against the team mount, it is up to Nadia and her younger brother Devin to pull the team together and take a run at the championship.
