In a far-off galaxy, entire worlds are dying. Their suns and other stars are being consumed by Star Eaters, members of an intergalactic corporation who use advanced technology to steal energy from planets to fuel a fleet of roving starships. But Destin, a young and newly minted Star Eater, is reluctant to destroy worlds he’s never even seen. When he finds a mysterious stowaway girl named Calla on his ship after his first solo mission, Destin is torn. He must decide between turning her in or helping her save her planet.
Misha is excited about visiting his favourite aunt, especially now that she has moved into a cottage that is more than a century old. What an opportunity to search out secret passages and hidden cellars. But Aunt Dora's home in the historic town of Belfountain has also raised the interest of others: a society of crows, including the mystic albino Old One, all intent on finding something hidden. Before he knows it, Misha is drawn into his aunt's secret. She is a Keeper, one of a line of wise caretakers of the ancient Pandora's Box, and it is her duty to keep it under lock and key.
Howard is a lonely, geeky tenth grader dealing with a father who's had some kind of breakdown, a flaky, overprotective mother and frightening waking dreams. Then he meets Cate, a strange girl who convinces him that he is an Adept, which means he can communicate through dreams with other dimensions and, under certain circumstances, travel between them.
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.
The city of Terra Nova was founded on a lie: the spirits who cross over from the spirit world are evil and must be captured for the safety of humanity. But Molly Stout and her family have learned that the spirits are thinking, feeling beings, enslaved to enrich the wealthy, especially the spirit-harvesting company Haviland Industries and its founder, Charles Arkwright. With the help of her family and the aetheric spirits Ariel and Legerdemain, Molly has been fighting to free the spirits. But Terra Nova runs on spiritual machinery, and for each factory they shut down, another takes its place.
Jennifer Mah has a secret — a big one. She can move objects with her mind. She knows if people learn about her abilities, she would be taken and subjected to horrible experiments. That’s why she and her father have been living in a new city under false identities. But when Jennifer uses her powers to save someone from being hit by a car, she exposes herself to the authorities. Her father is taken away by agents and Jennifer has to find a way to save him without getting caught herself.
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.
Two years after the death of his mother, Ewan's father was swept away by a magical cloud. Now Ewan lives with his little sister, Flora, his Grumple and his mischievous cat, Kipper. But something about his father's disappearance has never felt right to Ewan. He is certain his father wouldn't leave willingly. When he meets Mr. So-and-So, the owner of the mysterious Notion Shop, he is inspired to take destiny into his own hands. With his grandfather’s most reliable horse, the normally timid Ewan sets off from his home in Bucket Cove on a journey that will test his belief in himself while unraveling the secrets of his father's disappearance. When he is joined by Flora and Mr. So-and-So, he comes to understand that even grown-ups sometimes struggle to process their feelings, and that showing compassion to others is the mechanism through which we can begin to show compassion to ourselves.
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.
Lizzie Lane is used to life at the top of the food chain. Her near-perfect life is ruined when Rachel, a girl she socially destroyed, exacts her revenge by getting Lizzie in trouble for cheating on a test. Friendless and facing detention, Lizzie obsesses over finding the perfect revenge. When Stella, Lizzie's strange new neighbor, teaches Lizzie about magick, Lizzie can't resist creating a revenge spell. But she forgets the "rule of three," that whatever spell you cast comes back on you three-fold, and her zit spell backfires with dramatic results. When she asks for help from Stella's Baba, the only advice she gets is to "write the lesson of the zit on her heart." Can Lizzie find a way to teach Rachel a lesson without causing permanent disfigurement to herself?
One minute Jack's in math class. The next, he's on a dark, cobblestoned, empty street. Empty, that is, except for a skinny girl wrapped in a threadbare shawl. "Matches, mister?" she asks, and just like that, Jack's life collides with one of Hans Christian Andersen's grimmest tales. And just when he has almost convinced himself it was just a weird dream, it happens again. Suddenly, Jack's ideas about what is "real" or "possible" no longer apply. While he and his new girlfriend, Lucy, struggle to understand who or what the Match Girl is, they come to realize they must also find a way to keep Jack away from her. The Match Girl is not just a sad, lonely soul; she's dangerous. And each time Jack is drawn into her gray, solitary world, she becomes stronger, more alive...and more attached to Jack. She wants to keep Jack for her very own, even if that means he will die.
Molly grew up hearing the tales of Haviland Stout, her ancestor who discovered the dangerous magical spirits that inhabit the far corners of the world. Now, on the edge of the New World, in the British Dominion of Terra Nova, Molly and her family collect spirits aboard their airship, the Legerdemain. But when Molly captures a spirit that can speak and claims to have been Haviland's friend, her entire life is upended. What if everything she knows about the spirits, and her own history, is a lie? In her hunt for the truth, Molly will have to challenge the most powerful company in Terra Nova and find the courage to reshape her world.
The rooster has been kidnapped by the fox. What is the little hen to do? Go to the shed and build a paper wagon, that's what. With two Herculean mice in place of horses, the little hen heads for the fox's house deep in the forest. On the way, she is joined by a cat, a brick, a needle and a hairy spider, all desperate for a ride. Will they be able to complete the rescue? This is a retelling of a Dutch fairy tale.
The prime directive has been changed and four billion robots with atomic blasters are poised to take over the universe. Only Robbie Packford, Earth boy and grade six math nerd, can stop them. But when Robbie drinks the secret formula that is supposed to make him invincible, he turns into a mythical creature from the planet Kerbosky with a disturbing craving for raw meat. Will Robbie reach the nerve center in time to save planet Earth from destruction? And what do four billion not nice robots have to do with the chances of the Vancouver Canucks winning the Stanley Cup anyway?
Beloved illustrator Wallace Edwards invites us into the world of Professor I.B. Doodling, a traveling artist who takes suggestions from schoolchildren in order to create fantastical hybrid animals. The result of these visits is Unnatural Selections, a collection of magnificent beasts, from the stately Whalephant to the talented Lizabouboon. Sure to inspire the imagination, Wallace Edwards’s intricate illustrations invite you to pore over them again and again. A supplementary index lists additional creatures to spot throughout the book’s pages, encouraging readers to go back for a second, and a third, look.
Camrose, a perfectly normal 12-year-old, has inherited responsibility for an ancient bone flute, an object of quest for two time-wandering rivals, one of them lord of the Otherworld. With the help of her friend Mark and the not-quite-human Miranda, Camrose braves fire and much worse to claim the flute and restore it to its rightful and unexpected owner.
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.
Cassidy Silver is not having a good year. Her engineer father is in the Middle East, her artist mother is too busy to listen to the painful details of her daughter's grade seven life, her genius younger brother is being bullied, and her best friend Chiaki has abandoned her to hang out with the meanest girls in school. Then Cassidy meets Victoria, who is telekineticshe can move objects with her mind. Cassidy, desperate to not be the only ordinary person in her family, thinks learning telekinesis could be the answer to all her problems. But is Victoria telling the truth? And is telekinesis really the solution?
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.
The four volumes of Andrea Spalding's Summer of Magic Quartet are among her most exciting work. The White Horse Talisman was nominated for the Silver Birch, Hackmatack and Manitoba Readers' Choice Awards. Dance of the Stones was also a Silver Birch nominee. Heart of the Hill left one of her four characters in grave danger. Now, in Behind the Sorcerer's Cloak, as the Dark Being discovers our planet and takes one of the children hostage, the others must restore the balance between light and dark, but at what cost? Book 4 in the series.
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.
Mouse is small for his age and tired of being teased about it. Then one night he discovers, much to his surprise and delight, that he fits perfectly (well, almost perfectly) into the Undergarden, a subterranean world beneath his backyard. Mouse befriends the Undergardeners and helps them keep their existence safe from the dangerous world up top. All that, and he never has to change out of his pajamas!
The story of George continues. At the end of The True Story of George, George, a small plastic man, went for a ride on a rocket and flew apart. Now, with Katie and Mackenzie's help, all his parts must find each other. But his head has been frozen deep in a bag of blackberries. Will he ever be whole again?
George is hardly bigger than a child's middle finger. His knees and his elbows don't bend and his legs are fused together. When Katie and Mackenzie find him at the edge of the ocean, they are unimpressed, but George keeps turning up in their lives. And what may seem ordinary to a girl and a boy can be an awesome adventure if you are six centimeters tall.
Harriet has a large collection of stuffed animals. Her favorite is an intrepid bear, Theodora (Teddy, to her friends), who leads the others in a variety of attempts to boss Harriet around and to claim the spot of alpha animal in the household. It is all Harriet can do to get her own way once in a while.
