Nature Mysteries

The murders scarred him for life. Can he face it again when a copycat resumes the butchery? Detective Alex Penfield’s hope for humanity hangs by a slender thread of justice. But even slamming the darkly disturbing serial killer behind bars can’t make up for the brutal loss of his dear friend 10 years ago. And he vows she won’t have died in vain when he’s recruited by the FBI to catch a vicious predator with the same blood-soaked calling card. Can the determined detective trap the mystery killer and put his demons to rest?

Sea monsters have a long history in lore and literature. Homer first wrote of them in 700 BCE. What Do We Know About the Kraken? lets curious young listeners explore what we actually know about this mysterious sea monster's long history. Dive into the facts behind this massive squid-like creature that was first described using the word "Kraken" in the beginning of the eighteenth century.

Mr. Whiskers is a street-wise stray dog with a nose for trouble and a fondness for two girls he calls the Shenanigan Sisters. So when Misty and Zelda’s professor father is kidnapped, Mr. Whiskers follows that car, picking up vital clues. Then the two intrepid girls and one great dog follow the trail through the streets of San Francisco, discovering hidden passageways, buried secrets, and even pirate treasure.

When Quinn and Riley set out on a family vacation with their parents, the trip ends before it begins. Mother Nature interferes with their plans, setting off a sequence of events that thrusts the teens into a hostile landscape. Stranded with limited supplies and struggling to figure out who they can trust along the way, they must determine how to survive nature’s evolving fury.

On the eve of Shiloh, one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, a mysterious visitor appears at General William Tecumseh Sherman's camp. Without family or home, with only a uniform and the name of Jesse, this prepossessing stranger is an intriguing mix of naiveté and wisdom, ignorant of the most basic conventions of warfare yet uncannily familiar with even the most intimate details of Sherman¿s personal life and career.

When we turn our attention to the subject of elemental Intelligences or Nature-Spirits, we are confronted by this immediate difficulty, that we are led at the very beginning beyond and behind the world which we know through the channels of the senses. Sense perception does not help us at all in our study of that mysterious realm of life which constitutes the invisible background of physical manifestation. Madame Blavatsky warned us long ago that to describe Nature-Spirits or Elementals as having definite and corporeal form was likely to lead into great error.

Rome, 1948. Twenty women are brutally murdered, their throats slit and their faces removed with surgical precision. Then the murders stop as abruptly as they started, and the horrifying crimes and their victims are lost to history. Now over 60 years later, the killings have begun again. This time in America. It's up to homicide detectives Marcus Carter and Angela Darden to stop the murders, but how can they catch a serial killer who leaves no traces of evidence and no apparent motive?

The Chameleon Wore Chartreuse: Chet Gecko loves a good mystery. Almost more than he loves his fee - stinkbug pie. So when fellow fourth grader Shirley Chameleon asks him to find her missing brother, Billy, Chet expects the case to be as easy as pie. But Billy's disappearance is part of a larger plot. The Mystery of Mr. Nice: Most folks know him as the best lizard detective at Emerson Hicky Elementary, but it's not all knuckles and know-how with Chet Gecko. He's also got his artistic side. If it wasn't for his art, he might never have been sent to Principal Zero's office, where he stumbled onto the mystery of Mr. Nice.

A local schoolteacher is missing, and the only thing fishier than the circumstances surrounding his disappearance is the smell coming from the bag he left behind. All clues point to billionaire businessman Frank Pandini Jr. - but why would Pandini get his paws into the illegal fish trade?

Young dairymaid Begonia has lost her cow Alfalfa. So she has set off on a search across the countryside even though she has nothing but a magical map to guide her. Along the way she meets a mother and baby, a woodcutter, a very dirty young man, and an eight-foot ostrich. Meanwhile, the emperor has gone missing from the royal palace in a most mysterious manner. Was it murder? Was it magic? It will take all of Begonia's wits to save the empire and get Alfalfa home safely.

Fairies abound in the realms of myth and folklore. They have enchanted humans for centuries—but are these mischievous, ethereal creatures more than just myth? One could ask for no better guide to the fairy realm than Ralph Harvey, one of England's foremost modern-day witches. In Fairy Lore he intersperses his own intriguing fairy encounters (among them, a mysterious musical interlude in an Irish valley) with succinct yet interesting introductions to the folktales of the fae.

The Tarpon Anglers Rodeo is back in Sanibel Island, and Doc Ford is watchful of the million-dollar competition. When Lucas O. Jones notices a boat rigging a net to injure fish, Doc and Luke are certain there's something wrong happening behind the scenes. The kids of Sharks Inc. have a special talent of finding themselves in odd situations. So when they stumble onto a private island protected by a gate, "No Trespassing" signs, and three scar-faced dogs, they ask a detective to visit the island, but find it empty when police arrive.

Case brief: The opening of the Kalamazoo City Dome - the world's largest indoor/outdoor amusement complex - has everyone in the city buzzing, especially because it's going to be the shooting site for Chase Mercy's new blockbuster film. But that's when things start to go haywire, and Mayor Saunders suspects foul play. Who would want to sabotage the Dome, and why?

Peter Bell the Third, accidentally named from the title of a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, is called upon to renew his old friendship with Rowland Usher, who was deliberately named after the protagonist of a story by Edgar Allan Poe. In the new House of Usher that Rowland is building in the Orinoco Delta, Usher explains the scientific work in genetics that he's doing there to Peter, while they both mourn Rowland's dead twin sister, Magdalen, who has apparently committed suicide for reasons that no one quite understands.

The Great Zoodini—aka Radar the fennec fox—has never fit in. In fact, his only friend is a stuffed rabbit. Ever since his first family abandoned him, he’s had one goal: become world famous and show everyone how wrong they were about him. But no matter how many daring escapes Zoodini’s tried, he’s never even made the Association of Animal-Themed Attractions newsletter.

Der gefährlichste Kriminalfall des faulen Palastkaters. Ra, der faule und verfressene Kater des Pharao, begleitet den Kronprinzen Dedi und seine kleine Schwester Kija auf einer Reise den Nil hinauf. Ihr Ziel ist ein furchterregender Palast, um den es von Krokodilen nur so wimmelt. Die dortige Herrscherin Satiah verhält sich sehr seltsam und auch andere merkwürdige Gestalten treiben ihr Unwesen. Als der Sohn des Pharao plötzlich verschwindet, wittert Ra ein Komplott. Zum Glück ist sein treuer Gefährte Kepri, der Mistkäfer, bei ihm. Gemeinsam versuchen sie, den Prinzen zu retten.

Marine Biologist Doc Ford has a new mission for Sharks Inc.: visit Sanibel Island’s remote Bone Field to find a wild orange tree that's survived a disease destroying Florida’s citrus. There, the members of Sharks Incorporated find oranges unlike any they’ve ever seen but can’t find the tree Doc needs. Worse, the area is protected by a massive saltwater crocodile.

It was a soft buzz, not sharp, and without warning, it stopped. Nine-year-old Lark opened her eyes. A honey bee had landed on her arm. First-year beekeeper Lark Oakmyer has been given the rare invitation to join her old friend, W, at his bee yard with thousands of honey bees. But then, through a series of strange occurrences, Lark, her brothers, and their friends find themselves discovering clues to a bigger mystery than the bees. Through their faith in God (and a bit of help from the bees), they make the impossible, possible.

Lily is not your usual terrier. In fact, she's not a terrier at all. She's a pterodactyl who has the power (among others) of clouding people's minds. Join Lily, her owner - 13-year-old Celeste, and the other members of PAWS (Private Army of Warrior Sleuths): Fuzzy Wally MacGee (a Chinese crested/rhino), Lucy Marmoset Higgins (a Great Dane/orangutan), and Prince Alphonse Saed (a miniature dachshund/mountain lion) as they fight crime wherever they encounter it.

The O’Malleys have fostered dozens of cats in their bookshop over the past several years, but a new arrival named Regular is unlike any of their previous feline guests. This is Regular’s tale, but it is also Mack and Mavis O’Malley’s. It is about two “finds of a lifetime”: Kris, their young apprentice, opens a box to reveal a book that may be so valuable that it could make national headlines, and the O’Malleys discover something even more wonderful that will change their lives forever.