Count Hamnet Thyssen is a minor noble of the drowsy old Raumsdalian Empire. Its capital city, Nidaros, began as a mammoth hunters? camp at the edge of the great Glacier. But that was centuries ago, and as everyone knows, it?s the nature of the great Glacier to withdraw a few feet every year. Now Nidaros is an old and many-spired city; and though they still feel the breath of the great Glacier in every winter?s winds, the ice cap itself has retreated beyond the horizon.Trasamund, a clan chief of the mammoth-herding Bizogots, the next tribe north, has come to town with strange news. A narrow gap has opened in what they'd always thought was an endless and impregnable wall of ice. The great Glacier does not go on forever--and on its other side are new lands, new animals, and possibly new people. Ancient legend says that on the other side is the Golden Shrine, put there by the gods to guard the people of their world. Now, perhaps, the road to the legendary Golden Shrine is open. Who could resist the urge to go see? For Count Hamnet and his several companions, the glacier has always been the boundary of the world. Now they'll be traveling beyond it into a world that's bigger than anyone knew. Adventures will surely be had...

On his eleventh birthday, sad, orphaned Benjamin Bartholomew Piff accidentally adheres to all of the wishing rules—and, in wishing for the mother lode of limitless wishes, he unknowingly sets into a motion a chain of events that threatens to disrupt the balance between the magical realm of wishes and curses. Before long, Benjamin has been recruited by the Wishworks Factory director himself to fight the evil henchmen of the Curseworks Factory. In the process, Benjamin will reclaim his original wish—giving new credence to the old adage: “Be careful what you wish for . . . ”

Thirteen-year-old Stewart Hale dreams of Space Academy and becoming a famous pilot like his mother, and like his hero Val Thorsten. But after his mother’s death, his father has forbidden any talk of Stewart going into space. And Stewart suspects there’s something that is being kept hidden from him, something they don’t want him to remember from his past. A chance encounter with a washed-up old spacer gives Stewart an unexpected opportunity to sneak off on his own mission to the Moon. But when the old spacer’s intentions turn out to be less than honorable, Stewart realizes he hasn’t found his big break—he’s been shanghaied!

Carole Hanson and Stevie Lake have been best friends ever since they met at Pine Hollow Stables. So when Lisa Atwood joins their ridinggroup, the girls aren't sure she's got what it takes. Lisa may be the smartest student in the classroom, but she's got a lot to learn when it comes to horses. . . .