Home Library

Nobody wants to adopt the Shluffmuffin twins. Wally's feet stink something awful, and Cheyenne is allergic to everything. Then why are the Mandible sisters so eager to take them home? And what sort of old maids would choose to live in a place called Dripping Fang Forest, where zombies wander the woods singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and 10-foot-long glowing slugs want to suck the feet right off your ankles?

Orphan Benjamin Bartholomew Piff closed his eyes, blew out the candle, and wished with all his might. Soon after, sirens wailed all over the Wishworks Factory: Ben had followed every rule of birthday wishing to a T and had made the most dangerous wish of all...a wish for unlimited wishes.

Can you hear the distant howling of hounds and the thunder of ghostly hooves? It's All Souls' Eve and Zamiel the Demon Huntsman has come to claim his prey! He's headed straight for Castle Karlstein, where the evil count has hatched an evil plan; he'll sacrifice his two young nieces to save himself. Can Lucy and Charlotte outwit their uncle and his oily henchmen to escape their dreadful fate?

Annabel Grey is primed for a proper life as a young lady in Victorian England. But when her mother suddenly disappears, she's put in the care of two eccentric aunts who thrust her into a decidedly unladylike life, full of potions and flying broomsticks and wizards who eat nothing but crackers. Magic, indeed! Who ever heard of such a thing?

In this eagerly awaited sequel to A House Called Awful End, Eddie Dickens narrowly avoids being blown up, trampled by horses, hit by a hot-air balloon, and arrested...only to find himself falling head over heels for a girl with a face like a camel's and into the hands of a murderous gang of escaped convicts, up on the misty moors, who have a "little job" for him to do.

It was a dumb idea, but one of those dumb ideas that accidentally turns out to be brilliant - which, I’ve come to realize, is much worse than being dumb. My name’s Antsy Bonano - but you probably already know that - and unless you got, like, memory issues, you’ll remember the kid named the Schwa, who I told you about last time. Well, now there’s this other kid, and his story is a whole lot stranger. It all started when Gunnar Ümlaut and I were watching three airborne bozos struggle with a runaway parade balloon. That’s when Gunnar tells me he’s only got six months to live.

Take one part Roald Dahl, a pinch of Mysterious Benedict Society, and a dash of Lemony Snicket, then add a league of adventurous children, a little magic, and a centuries-old feud with witches, and you get this quirky and hilarious middle-grade series! After their narrow escape from a nefarious kidnapping ring, Anastasia, Ollie, and Quentin (a.k.a. the League of Beastly Dreadfuls!) are looking forward to a relaxing vacation from danger! Intrigue! Catastrophe! Sadly, they’re not going to get one.

Fynn has always lived in a lighthouse—just like his father, and his father, and his father before him. His dad insists that living in a round house with a big lightbulb on top is special, but Fynn doesn't see how. All he knows is that it's weird—and often inconvenient. Exasperated by trying to fit all his favorite things in a round house and tired of being so different from everyone else, Fynn runs away from his lighthouse, seeking adventure on the sea. But when the winds and waves rise and things get very dark, Fynn finds that the light he needs most is the one that he's known all his life.

Four orphans have escaped from the Home for Friendless Children. One is Lucy, who used to talk and sing. No one knows why she doesn't speak anymore; silence is her protection. The orphans find work and new friends at a traveling circus. Lucy loves caring for the elephants, but she must be able to speak to them, and to warn others of danger. If Lucy doesn't find her voice, she'll be left behind when the circus goes on the rails. Meanwhile, people are searching for Lucy, and her puzzling past is about to catch up with her.

Some families look alike, some don't. Some families are formed through birth, and some families are formed by adoption. But as the little girl in this heartwarming book makes clear, being a family isn't about who you look like or where you were born - it's about the love that binds you together. Adoptive families are sure to delight in the special story of the narrator's adoption - from her parents' excited preparations and long journey by airplane to meet her, to their life together as a family. A reassuring look at how one little girl came into her parents' world - and made them a family forever.

On her 10th birthday, Leah receives a surprise gift from glamorous Aunt Olivia, Mama's only sister, who lives in Los Angeles. It is a red rose box. Not many people in 1958 Louisiana have seen such a beautiful traveling case, covered with red roses, filled with jewelry, silk bedclothes, expensive soaps...and train tickets to California.

When 12-year-old Casey's sole guardian - her stepmother Sylvia - doesn't come home one night, Casey believes she's run off with her boyfriend. The question is - will Sylvia come back? And even more urgent - how will Casey fend for herself in their New York City apartment?

The year is 1926. Dave's beloved father is dead and his stepmother doesn't want him. Only the HHB will take him in. "Hebrew Home for Boys" better known as the "Hell Hold for Brats". But Dave is tough and a troublemaker. He can take care of himself. If he doesn't like the Home, he'll run away and find a better place. Only it's not that simple.

A ghost saved 12-year-old Maddie's life when she was an infant, her Granny Lane claims, so Maddie must always remember that she is special. But it's hard to feel special when you've spent your life being shuttled from one foster home to another. And now that she's at the East Tennessee Children's Home, Maddie feels, well, less than ordinary. Six-year-old Ricky Ray, who came to the Home after his parents failed to come back from a party, thinks Maddie's the cat's meow. But what does a little boy like that know?

Best friends Ray and Jose are not your typical teenagers. They've escaped foster care and juvenile detention centers to live on their own together in an abandoned stationhouse in New York City's Ten Mile River Park. Ray and Jose are as close as brothers. But then they meet Trini, the smart, beautiful, and confident girl from their local barber shop, and they both fall for her immediately. As tension creeps into their relationship, Ray must struggle to find an identity separate from Jose and try to envision a future for himself beyond Jose and Ten Mile River.

Introverted Bicycle has lived most of her life at the Mostly Silent Monastery in Washington, D.C. When her guardian, Sister Wanda, announces that Bicycle is going to attend a camp where she will learn to make friends, Bicycle says no way and sets off on her bike for San Francisco to meet her idol, a famous cyclist, certain he will be her first true friend. Who knew that a ghost would haunt her handlebars and that she would have to contend with bike-hating dogs, a bike-loving horse, bike-crushing pigs, and a mysterious lady dressed in black.

Joined by Hiram the farmhand, Katie begins the journey west. At first, she is unsure if the mustang will follow, but much to her relief, he seems to trust her. Soon, Katie and Hiram meet up with a large family who invite them to join their caravan. For the first time, it seems as though they might really make it to Oregon. But then tragedy strikes, and Katie finds herself having to choose between parting ways with Hiram, or abandoning her dreams of going west - and giving up on the chance to return the mustang to his homeland.

Through a series of fascinating events, Homer's older brother has been illegally sold to the Union Army. It is up to Homer to find him and save him. Along the way, he encounters strange but real people of that era: two tricksters who steal his money, a snake-oil salesman, a hot-air balloonist, and finally, the Maine regiment who saved Little Round Top at the Battle of Gettysburg and won the war for the Union.

Eleven-year-old Sallie March is a whip-smart tomboy and voracious reader of Western adventure novels. When she and her sister, Maude, are orphaned for the second time, they decide to escape their new self-serving guardians for the wilds of the frontier and an adventure the likes of which Sallie has only read about. This time, however, the wanted woman isn't a villain out of a dime novel: it's Sallie's very own sister!

Ten-year-old Babo has grown up on an abandoned circus camp in a war-torn country. She sleeps in the old lion cage and takes care of the other parentless "leftover kids" telling them fantastical stories about the old circus days and finding ways to make them laugh. They need her. So Babo is not one single bit happy when an American couple wants to adopt her and change her name to Betti. How will her real parents ever find her all the way in America?