Showing results by author "Bruce Coville" in All Categories

Nina Tanleven and her best friend Chris are delighted to spend the remainder of the summer with Nina’s architect father at the rambling old country inn he has been hired to restore. On the afternoon they arrive, the girls pause for a closer look at some faded Civil War photographs hanging in the hallway, fascinated by one picture in particular of a handsome Confederate soldier whose dreamy eyes hold them enthralled. But in the midst of all their oohing and aahing a shivery sensation passes between them, like an icy hand on the back of their necks.

A sixth grade student is convinced that an odd substitute teacher is from another planet. Will she be able to prove she's right before he completes his evil plan? Starring Lisa Bonet as Susan Simmons. Adapted for radio. A BBC co-production recorded at KCRW in Santa Monica in October 1992.

The first day of seventh grade is probably the worst day of Duncan Dougal's life. He knows that things are really bad when he finds an alien's hand in a Dumpster and then gets plugged into an alien brain fryer! Can Duncan find out which of the four new teachers in his school is an alien before his brains get fried to a pulp - or before the aliens try to fry the whole planet?

A story described by Katherine Paterson as "didactic camp", a very funny but also thought-provoking fantasy about the issue of gayness. This controversial tale has given enormous comfort to many young people struggling with their own sexual identity.

For sixth-grader Nina Tanleven, trying out for a part in a play is pretty scary. But nothing can compare to seeing a ghost, a woman in white, sitting in the audience! Nina senses that she has nothing to fear from this apparition, but she is intrigued. Nina learns that 50 years ago, a beautiful actress was murdered - on this very stage! According to legend, she has haunted the theater ever since.

Ranging from the hilarious to the horrifying, this acclaimed collection of nine short stories - five of them read by full casts - showcases the remarkable variety of Bruce Coville's work. Listeners will meet a ghost who haunts a kitchen after a tragic baking accident, visit the goblin world with an unconventional princess, and fly with Justin Jones to an enchanted island that requires a heartbreaking decision. A rich, varied, and dazzling set of listening experiences!

Purple and perplexed, Pleskit Meenom needs advice on how to deal with the challenges of his new life on Earth. Normally he would ask his best friend, Tim Tompkins, but the two boys have been tricked into a feud. So instead he turns to his Grandfatherly One - or, at least, the brain of that wise old man, which is all the family has left of him. But perhaps the Grandfatherly One is not as wise as they all would like to believe, since he convinces Pleskit to take him to school in the portable Brain Transport Device. And that's when things really start to go wrong.

Pleskit Meenom, the first alien to go to school on Earth, is starting to fit in with his new class. It's not easy, given how slippery the language is. (Just how many meanings does the word "cool" have, anyway?) But the biggest problem is Jordan Lynch, the class bully who just can't resist picking on the new kid. Finally Pleskit and his new best friend, Tim Tompkins, decide to take action. But taking action when you have alien technology at your disposal can mean taking things just a little too far...and we do mean little!

The aliens have made contact! But because they consider Earth a small, backwater planet, they send only one ambassador. The ambassador brings along his son, Pleskit, and (for political reasons) insists the boy should attend a regular school. Science-fiction loving Tim Tompkins is desperate to befriend the alien...and Pleskit is going to need a friend, because someone is trying to sabotage the mission.

The first of Bruce Coville's acclaimed "Oddlies". This collection of stories is performed by some of Full Cast's favorite narrators (including Bruce himself). Some are funny, some are scary, some are both. The topics range from unicorns to werewolves, vampires to angels to brownies.

Jonathan is attracted to the ornate mirror from the first moment he sees it in the antique shop where he works after school. But there is something wrong with the mirror, something evil - as Jonathan will discover after he accidentally gets a trace of his blood on its surface in this disturbing tale of terror.

Some kids bring home puppies or kittens. Edward has brought home a monster named Oggledy Nork. The thing is, Edward explains to his mother, Oggledy Nork isn’t really a monster. He’s just under a curse. With the help of his friends Moongobble the Magician, Urk the Toad, and Fireball the Dragon Edward sets out to break that curse.Their quest will take the little band to Flitwick City and the Society of Magicians, then on to the Forest of Night, and finally deep underground....

One stormy night, sixth-grader Jacob Doolittle finds a baby in a basket on his front porch. To Jake's surprise, his mother decides to care for the baby, hoping its mother will return. However that surprise is nothing compared to what happens to "Little Dumpling" the first time there's a full moon….

Moongobble and Edward are off on another Mighty Task, even more dangerous than the first. Urk the toad, Fireball the dragon, and the Rusty Knight are coming along, too, of course. This time their adventures will lead them right into the fearsom Forest of Night.

When the messiest kid in Minnesota is saddled with her family's obsessively tidy brownie, the sparks are sure to fly. Warning: you may not want to listen in public, since this story will have you laughing out loud!

Moongobble must complete one last Mighty Task before he is accepted into the Society of Magicians. But this one is a doozy: he must retrieve "The Queen's Belly Button", an enchanted stone that has turned an entire elf village bad! Soon Edward and Moongobble, along with Urk the Toad, Fireball the Dragon, and the Rusty Knight, are off on their greatest adventure yet. Can they regain the stone without turning evil themselves?

Set in a chilling future that seems more and more possible each year, this unforgettable story asks the question, "When the government becomes too controlling, what does it really mean to be a patriot?"

Keeping her promise to her dying father, young Fortune Plunkett is leading his acting troupe west. But fulfilling his dream of establishing a successful theater in San Francisco is an immense challenge for someone who is only 16. Since Plunkett’s Players have joined a wagon train, they have had one adventure after another. Fortune has almost died in a fire, drowned in a flood, and slid over the edge of a cliff with their wagon. Despite the danger, she has managed to find romance with a stranger whose real identity will surprise everyone in the troupe.

Moongobble has completed his three mighty tasks. But just when Edward begins to fear that their adventures might be over, an annoying little monster called Snelly comes bounding into their lives.

Benjie Perkins' parents make their living by buying old houses and fixing them up to sell, so Benjie is used to odd noises in the night. But this time, it's different. This time what he hears is the ghost of Elvira Thistledown, who is kept from moving on to glory by a truly strange curse. Can Benjie free her restless spirit?