Historical Trees

Nominated for both the Agatha and Anthony awards, national best-selling author Susan Wittig Albert introduces a garden club of lady sleuths in Depression-era Alabama. The Darling Dahlias have just inherited a new clubhouse and garden, complete with two beautiful cucumber trees. But before long, these genteel ladies must unravel the mystery about what’s buried beneath one of these trees and the enigma of the dead body that soon turns up.

Set in post-revolutionary Iran from 1983 to 2011, this stunning debut novel follows a group of mothers, fathers, children, and lovers, some related by blood, others brought together by the tide of history that washes over their lives. Finally, years later, it is the next generation that is left with the burden of the past and their country’s tenuous future as a new wave of protest and political strife begins. Children of the Jacaranda Tree is an evocative portrait of three generations of men and women inspired by love and poetry, burning with idealism, chasing dreams of justice and freedom.

In 1947, American historian and World War II veteran Martin Mitchell wins a Fulbright Fellowship to document the end of British rule in India. His wife, Evie, convinces him to take her and their young son along, hoping a shared adventure will mend their marriage, which has been strained by war. But other places, other wars. Martin and Evie find themselves stranded in a colonial bungalow in the Himalayas due to violence surrounding the partition of India between Hindus and Muslims.

In 1914, while visiting her friend Madeleine, Lady Elspeth Douglas's life is thrown into chaos when war breaks out and the Germans quickly overrun Belgium, threatening France. Having just agreed to marry Alain, Madeleine's dashing brother, Lady Elspeth watches him leave to join his unit, and then she sets out for England, only to find herself trapped on the French coast.

Cuba has fought three wars for independence, and still she is not free. Her people have been rounded up in reconcentration camps, where there is always too little food and too much illness. Rosa knows how to heal sickness with medicines made from wild plants. But with a price on her head for helping the rebels, Rosa dares not go out in the open. Instead, she turns hidden caves into hospitals for those who know how to find her.

Jack and Annie set off to find an original copy of an ancient Chinese myth. Armed only with their magic library cards, they must take on a book-burning emperor. But with the help of a scholar and a silk weaver, they triumph again.

As a young bride, Susannah Page was rumored to be a Civil War spy for the North, a traitor to her Virginian roots. Her great-granddaughter Adelaide, the current matriarch of Holly Oak, doesn’t believe that Susannah’s ghost haunts the antebellum mansion looking for a pardon, but rather the house itself bears a grudge toward its tragic past.

Jack and Annie are off in search of another story in jeopardy, this time at a monastery in ancient Ireland. Trouble arrives when Vikings land, and Jack and Annie must find a way to escape!

As the nineteenth century draws to a close, the struggle for women’s suffrage has finally reached New Zealand. But when the tide of change rolls in, it threatens to engulf two young women from very different backgrounds, who are coming of age amid the tumult.

When war breaks out in Europe in 1939, a young unknown writer journeys from his home in neutral Ireland to conflict-ridden Paris and is drawn into the maelstrom. With him we experience the hardships yet stubborn vibrancy at the heart of Europe during the Nazis' rise to power, his friendships with James Joyce and other luminaries, his quietly passionate devotion to the Frenchwoman who will become his lifelong companion, his secret work for the French Resistance and narrow escapes from the Gestapo....

When 15-year-old Tisha Crowder gets caught shoplifting, Attorney Nolan Duffy tries to protect her from consequences that could rattle her already troubled life. His daughter, Jillian, feels like she's the one being punished instead - by having Tisha assigned to work with her on a backlog of genealogy files. Tisha doesn't seem interested in taking the job seriously, and Jillian's patience wears thin. Besides, everyone in Canyon Mines knows the Crowder family has experienced generations of brokenness. Then a sliver of hope turns up.

1914: Sixteen-year-old Etterly, running from something, hides inside the trunk of a tree and disappears. The police search but find no trace. Her family and friends wrack their brains but come up with nothing. And so slowly life returns to normal. The hole in the tree is boarded up, and the village of Sackwater moves on. Only Etterly's best friend, Betty, clings to hope, insisting she can hear her friend calling for help. 1940: A skeleton is discovered buried in the woods....

In Lions at Lunchtime, the Magic Tree House whisks Jack and Annie to the vast plains of Africa. Before Jack can find out where the lions are, Annie starts to help hundreds of wildebeasts cross a rushing river. Next, they follow a honey of a bird and meet an awesome Masai warrior. Jack hopes any lions will just stay away. Jack is about to be very disappointed.

In book two of the Tree Street Kids series, Jack and his friends learn some survival skills at the church’s summer camp. They’ll need them! Determined to find Ruthie’s lost cat and protect Jack’s new puppy from Fang, the local wildlife, the kids head deep into the woods. Just when they think they’ve cornered the “enemy”, the kids realize someone has gone missing. Is Fang up to no good? Or will faith and friendship be enough to see the kids make it out alive?

As the daughter of the chief, Marion McEwan has no say in who her husband will be—a troublesome fact when the one man she doesn’t wish to marry, her awful cousin Simon, is the leading contender for her hand. So when Marion’s father hosts a gathering for the purpose of choosing her husband, she welcomes the broader selection. He invites a few select men—her cousin included—to participate in a series of contests to test their strength, fortitude, and worthiness. The victor will win her hand in marriage.

We are warriors! Jack and Annie have met knights, pirates, ninjas, and Vikings, but they have never met the most fearsome warriors of all: Roman soldiers. When the magic tree house whisks them back to the early AD 100s, Jack and Annie find themselves in a Roman camp. Their mission: Be like a warrior. That is easier said than done! The Roman soldiers are much scarier in person - and suspicious of strangers. Then, a mysterious man riding a black horse gives Jack and Annie some advice to help them on their mission.

Beware of avalanches! When the magic tree house whisks Jack and Annie back in time to the highest pass in the Swiss Alps, they discover an ancient monastery filled with monks and Saint Bernard dogs. Annie can’t resist offering to train a wild young dog named Barry, but he is quite the handful! Before the night is over, Jack and Annie will be forced to use some crazy magic!

Play ball! Jack and Annie aren’t great baseball players... yet! Then Morgan the librarian gives them magical baseball caps that will make them experts. They just need to wear the caps to a special ballgame in Brooklyn, New York. The magic tree house whisks them back to 1947! When they arrive, Jack and Annie find out that they will be batboys in the game - not ballplayers. What exactly does Morgan want them to learn? And what’s so special about this game? They only have nine innings to find out!

Raef Skallagrim wants to take the sea road. His ship is fast and sleek, his crew skilled and eager, and they will seek out new lands and win fame in the eyes of the gods. But Raef’s father refuses to allow the journey and when a stranger brings word that the king is dead and a gathering has been called to choose a successor, Raef must set aside his dream for his duty to his ancestral lands and his father. When factions split at the gathering, Raef finds himself mired in bloodshed and treachery.

Surrounded by her large family, Loma is happy living in the judería of Alcalá de Henares, Spain, and wants nothing more than to someday have a family of her own. Still, when her intimidating grandfather, her Belo, decides to bring her along on his travels, she's excited to join him. Belo has the ear of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, and Loma relishes her adventures with him, adventures that are beyond the scope of most girls of the time. She soon learns just how dangerous the world is for the Jews of Spain, and how her grandfather's influence keeps their people safe.