Culture Adventure

Tristan and his companions - the fiery archer Robard Hode and the assassin maid Maryam - have escaped to England. But tragedy has occurred to Tristans beloved abbey while they were on the Third Crusade, and Robards home in Sherwood Forest suffers under the rule of the Sheriff of Nottingham. Many obstacles still prevent them from delivering the Holy Grail into safe hands. Tristan must defeat the evil Sir Hugh in one final battle. And he must learn the secret of his birth.

When Sybella accompanies the duchess to France, she expects trouble, but she isn’t expecting a deadly trap. Surrounded by enemies both known and unknown, Sybella searches for the undercover assassins from the convent of St. Mortain who were placed in the French court years ago. Genevieve has been undercover for so many years, she no longer knows who she is or for what she’s supposed to be fighting. When she discovers a hidden prisoner who may be of importance, she takes matters into her own hands.

Nationally syndicated radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has long wanted to make history come to life for the children of his listeners. In this book, he travels back in time with fearless history teacher Rush Revere. With the help of his faithful talking horse, Liberty, Rush experiences American history as it happens, having adventure after adventure with exceptional Americans such as Paul Revere and George Washington.

Eleven-year-old Kevin Cartwright can hardly believe his ears when his father, a brave soldier wounded in the Revolutionary War, announces that he is leaving Philadelphia and never coming back. He is heading into the untamed wilderness of New Jersey, where he hopes to find a peaceful place to raise Kevin and his little sister. But in 1783, New Jersey is filled with secret traps and hidden dangers. Before the family has traveled far, Kevin is captured by the mysterious Captain Grey and his murderous band of pirates. These lawless men of the sea say they have killed the boy’s father and sister. Will Kevin be next?

Debut novelist Karen Healey taps Maori mythology for this fresh spin on the fantasy genre. Seventeen-year old Ellie Spencer has a crush on the cute and mysterious Mark. That’s the normal part of her life. But something terrifying also haunts Ellie and her community. People are being killed—and their eyes are being removed. Ellie soon learns two shocking truths. First, Mark is part patupaiarehe, the Maori equivalent of a fairy. Second, a war is brewing.

The Castaways finds Tom Tin and four other convicts drifting on the ocean when they come upon an empty ship. Shortly after, they also encounter two men who appear to be refugees from the abandoned vessel. But these two are not what they seem, and they become an obstacle for Tom as he travels home.

In this colonial adventure tale, set on the Pennsylvania-New Jersey border in 1768, Everett Shinn is enlisted in a search for two runaway indentured servants. Eager for adventure and to become a hero by capturing the runaways himself, 12-year-old Peter York, Shinn’s adopted son, volunteers to join the search. Peter assumes that the runaways are swarthy ruffians. When he discovers, however, that they are mistreated children seeking freedom in Pennsylvania, Peter’s purpose turns from capturing them to helping them escape. Will Shinn, a devout Quaker of few words, foil Peter’s plans, or will the young man receive help from an unexpected source?

On this adventure we're going to need to turn the sound up as we're learning all about musical instruments! From the instruments you can make in your own house, to some of the most talented musicians around the world, we're going to have a musical blast and learn more about what music means in different cultures.

Washed up on a foreign shore, Tristan is lucky to be alive. As before, it seems to be a miracle - the Holy Grail the young Templar squire is protecting has saved his life yet again. But now he is lost in a strange land, and he doesn't know if his friends, the fiery archer Robard Hode and the Saracen assassin maid Maryam, still survive. Tristan's knack for getting into trouble is alive and well, though.

In 1767, 11-year-old Nicholas Young stowed away on Captain James Cook's "Endeavour". Cook's three-year mission was secret: he was charged by the British Navy to search for a lost continent, believed to be located between the southern tip of South America and New Zealand. Young's journal charts the voyage and with every port of call a new adventure awaits. This is the story of a great voyage of discovery seen through the eyes of a boy who was actually there.

With Nazis bombing London every night, it's time for 13-year-old Ken to escape. He suspects his stepmother is glad to see him go, but his dad says he's one of the lucky ones - one of 90 boys and girls to ship out aboard the SS City of Benares to safety in Canada. Life aboard the luxury ship is grand-nine-course meals, new friends, and a life far from the bombs, rations, and his stepmum's glare. And after five days at sea, the ship's officers announce that they're out of danger. They're wrong.

A Newbery Medal Winner. An Incan boy who tends llamas in a hidden valley in Peru learns the traditions and secrets of his ancestors.

In the critically acclaimed Leisureville, Andrew Blechman delves into life in the senior utopia, offering a hilarious firsthand report on everything from ersatz nostalgia to the residents' surprisingly active sex lives. But this is more than just a romp through a retirement paradise; Blechman traces the history of the age-segregated retirement phenomenon, and travels to Arizona to show what has happened to the pioneering developments after decades of segregation.

Just as Martine is settling into life on the wildlife game reserve, she is whisked away on a school trip. Her class is going on an ocean voyage to witness the Sardine Run, a spectacular natural phenomenon, off the coast of South Africa. What begins as an exciting adventure quickly turns perilous when a storm blows up and Martine and her classmates are thrown overboard into shark-infested waters. They are saved by a pod of dolphins, only to end up marooned on a deserted island.

Famed inventor Henry "Hank" Witherspoon has gone missing, and it's up to Jack and his brilliant siblings, Ava and Matt, to find him. At Hank's ransacked lab, the siblings discover clues to the project he's been working on - a new way to generate and store electricity, inspired by the electric eels of the Amazon.

England, 1486. King Henry VII has recently snatched the English Crown and now sits on the throne, while young Prince Edward, who has a truer claim, has apparently disappeared. Meanwhile, a penniless kitchen boy named Lambert Simnel is slaving away at a tavern in Oxford - until a mysterious friar, Brother Simonds, buys Lambert from the tavern keeper and whisks him away in the dead of night. But this is nothing compared to the secret that the friar reveals: You, Lambert, are actually Prince Edward, the true King of England!

After young Carlo Chuchio is dismissed from the service of his merchant uncle for daydreaming too much, he finds a treasure map and plunges headlong into an unimaginable adventure across Asia.

Laura Amy Schlitz wrote the Newbery Medal winner Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! for the students at the school where she is a librarian. The 22 monologues introduce readers to everyone in a medieval village, from the town half-wit, to Nelly the Sniggler, to the Lord's daughter.

In The Winter Pony, Iain Lawrence pens the mesmerizing tale of a young white Siberian pony who escapes a group of cruel masters only to enter the company of Englishman Robert Falcon Scott. Joining Scott’s men and their race to the South Pole, the pony is soon given a name, James Pigg, as he and the rest embark on a thrilling race to reach the bottom of the world - a race in which not everyone will survive.

Set in 1853 in Japan, this novel follows Yoshi, a Japanese boy who dreams of someday becoming a samurai. Unfortunately, as part of the serving class, Yoshi can never become a warrior. He is taken up by Manjiro, the protagonist of Preus' Heart of a Samurai, and becomes his servant and secret watchdog. Meanwhile, Commodore Matthew Perry and his USS Susquehanna squadron of steamships arrive in Edo Bay....