Family Life Science

Back from their adventure on the high seas, Jaundice and Kale are settling into a quiet life in Dullsville, just the way they like it. The tea is tepid, the oatmeal is tasteless, and the socks are ripe for darning - that is, until Aunt Shallot shows up and reveals herself to be anything but the dull relation they were expecting. Instead, she tells her nieces that she is Magique, Queen of Magic, and that she's on her way to a big show and is in need of two willing assistants. As Magique and the Bland sisters board the Uncanny Express, they meet a cast of mystifying characters. And when Magique goes missing, it's up to Jaundice and Kale to solve the mystery - with the help of famous detective Hugo Fromage.

Ice princess Stella Starflake and her father Felix are in trouble: President Fogg has expelled them from the Polar Bear Explorers' Club and banned them from going on any further expeditions. Stella's not going to be put off by rules and regulations, though. She knows her friend Shay is in danger of turning into a witch wolf himself, since receiving a deadly bite on their last adventure. It's vital that Stella and her friends set out to find the spellbook that could save his life, even if it means travelling over the cursed Black Ice Bridge.

Stella Starflake Pearl is eagerly anticipating her next expedition. Suddenly disaster strikes when Stella's father, Felix, is snatched by a fearsome witch. Stella must bring her magic ice princess tiara to Witch Mountain or she will never see Felix again! But no one ever returns from Witch Mountain.... Stella, Ethan, Shay, Beanie and reluctant Jungle Cat explorer Percival set off into the unknown. They will face terrifying bat caves, poisonous apple groves, outraged vultures, argumentative mushrooms and deranged broomsticks in their quest to rescue Felix.

Ellen's life is turned upside down by the hilarious Mirror-Belle, a spirited princess who claims to be from somewhere mysterious and far away. She appears out of mirrors to tell Ellen magical stories and take her on exciting escapades. From exploring a hospital after Ellen falls off her bike to chasing after Mirror-Belle's magic ball, going to the seaside and joining the unusual pets club, you can always guarantee that wherever Mirror-Belle goes, trouble will follow.

Pi in the Sky stars Joss, the seventh son of the Supreme Overlord of the Universe, whose job is to deliver magical pies - ones that happen to hold the secrets of the cosmos. But when planet Earth suddenly disappears, Joss must figure out a way to bring it back - even if it means enlisting the help of an outspoken Earth girl named Annika.

Conor and Grace are twins, recently orphaned after their widowed father's death. They decide to set sail for new pastures in their father's last possession, his sailboat. But a vicious storm capsizes their boat, and the twins are separated. Two mysterious ships sail to their rescue, each picking up one twin before disappearing into the mist. Conor wakes to find himself on a pirate ship; Grace finds herself locked in a darkened room, as the vampirates wait for night to fall and their feasting to begin.

Twig lives in Sidwell, where people whisper that fairy tales are real. After all, her town is rumored to hide a monster. And 200 years ago, a witch placed a curse on Twig's family that was meant to last forever. But this summer, everything will change when the red moon rises. It's time to break the spell.

When Una Fairchild stumbles upon a mysterious book buried deep in the basement of her school library, she thinks nothing of opening the cover and diving in. But instead of paging through a regular novel, Una suddenly finds herself Written In to the land of Story - a world filled with Heroes and Villains and fairy-tale characters. But not everything in Story is as magical as it seems. Una must figure out why she has been Written In - and fast - before anyone else discovers her secret. Together with her new friend Peter and a talking cat named Sam, Una digs deep into Story's shadowy past.

Ten-year-old Michael was looking forward to moving into a new house. But now his baby sister is ill, his parents are frantic, and Doctor Death has come to call. Michael feels helpless. Then he steps into the crumbling garage. What is this thing beneath the spiders' webs and dead flies? A human being, or a strange kind of beast never before seen?

When the storied Staff of Moses - responsible for summoning the plagues of ancient Egypt - vanishes from the museum in Perilous Falls, Will Wilder is suspect number one. Desperate to prove his innocence and stop the thief from unleashing terrors upon the town of Perilous Falls, Will must use his supernatural gift to locate the beast - but it's nowhere to be found.

Moql's mother is Folk, one of those tiny fairies who live hidden from mere mortals, and her father is human. Young patrons will empathize as this tiny changeling experiences the fear, sadness, and danger of not belonging. Set against the backdrop of a charming medieval setting, this award-winning audiobook addresses problems that are still, sadly, quite contemporary.

Mirabelle is part of a very unusual family. Between Uncle Bertram transforming into a ferocious grizzly bear and Aunt Eliza’s body being made entirely of spiders, it’s safe to say they are an extraordinary lot. To the human residents of Rookhaven Village, the family is a threat. So long ago, a treaty was reached between them - in return for sundries and supplies, the monsters won’t eat the townspeople - and an invisible glamour was set around the perimeter of the Manor to keep strangers out. But it also keeps Mirabelle and her family hidden from those who would do them harm.

Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble. That it's been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply-but that almost seems beside the point now. Maybe that was always beside the point. Two days before they're supposed to visit Neal's family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can't go. She's a TV writer, and something's come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles.

Will Wilder yearns to join the Perilous Falls Middle School football team. But he was never big enough or strong enough to make the cut, until he comes in contact with a talisman containing the fabled locks of Samson. But using the Amulet of Power attracts dark forces to Perilous Falls like moths to a flame. Suddenly, hunched creatures are shadowing people around town, graves are being disturbed, the music of a mysterious DJ lulls half of Perilous Falls into a stupor, and to top it all off, Will is convinced that a teammate may be a demon himself!

From the author of The Walled City comes a fast-paced and innovative novel that will leave you breathless. Her story begins on a train. The year is 1956, and the Axis powers of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan rule. To commemorate their Great Victory, they host the Axis Tour: An annual motorcycle race across their conjoined continents. The prize? An audience with the highly reclusive Adolf Hitler at the Victor's ball in Tokyo. The resistance has given Yael one goal: Win the race and kill Hitler.

Medieval history is often written as a series of battles and territorial shifts. But the essential contributions of women during this period have been too often relegated to the dustbin of history. In Women in the Middle Ages, Frances and Joseph Gies reclaim this lost history, in a lively historical survey that charts the evolution of women’s roles throughout the period and profiles eight individual women in depth.

"I am alone in the dark, turning the world around in my head as I struggle through another bout of insomnia, another white night in the great American wilderness." So begins Paul Auster's brilliant, devastating tale about the many realities we inhabit as wars flame all around us. Seventy-two-year-old August Brill is recovering from a car accident in his daughter's house in Vermont. When sleep refuses to come, he lies in bed and tells himself stories, struggling to push back thoughts about things he would prefer to forget—his wife's recent death and the murder of his granddaughter's boyfriend.

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres and the New York Times best-selling Last Hundred Years Trilogy, a captivating, brilliantly imaginative story of three extraordinary animals - and a young boy - whose lives intersect in Paris.

Brothers Cole and Tinn are determined to solve a mystery almost as old as they are: What happened to their long-missing father? Joseph Burton vanished without a trace, leaving the babies’ mother to raise them—one human, one a goblin changeling—alone. Some say Joseph abandoned his family, others that he met foul play looking for a way to get rid of the changeling imposter. Cole is determined to learn his father’s true fate, so he and Tinn set out on a dangerous quest to the deepest, most deadly limits of the Oddmire.

Jacob Reckless continues to travel the portal in his father's abandoned study. His name has continued to be famous on the other side of the mirror, as a finder of enchanted items and buried secrets. His family and friends, from his brother, Will, to the shape-shifting vixen Fox, are on a collision course as the two worlds become connected. Who is driving these two worlds together, and why is he always a step ahead?