Reader! Your attention is greatly needed. We have left things unresolved! What began as your average story of a boy stumbling upon a pig in a teeny hat and a secret international explorers society has turned into an adventure of epic proportions.
* The bad news: The boy (Sebastian) has been kidnapped by a trio of troublesome thugs.
* The good news: His new friend Evie has promised to rescue him!
* The bad news: Sebastian has been taken halfway around the world.
* The good news: Evie has famous explorer and former Filipendulous Five member Catherine Lind at her side!
* The bad news: There's still the whole matter of Evie's grandfather (and the leader of the Filipendulous Five) somewhere out there in grave danger.
* The good news: Pursuing Sebastian will lead Evie and Catherine to another member of the Filipendulous Five, who might be able to help!
This missive is a call to action and an invitation to join in mystery, bravery, and danger. There will be new people to meet, new places to see, and some dancing along the way. And one amazingly reckless rescue.
PRAISE FOR THE FIRST BOOK IN THE SERIES: THE EXPLORERS: THE DOOR IN THE ALLEY:
"[A] wildly funny adventure. . . . Animals in teeny hats, Wonderland-style logic, and loads of wordplay and sarcasm will keep readers giggling all the way through."-Kirkus Reviews
"Exhilarating. . . . Fans of a Series of Unfortunate Events will be drawn to this."-Booklist
"A rollicking read, full of derring-do and old-fashioned villainy."-School Library Journal
"Funny, offbeat, and subversive . . . occasional footnotes and other humorous asides from the omniscient narrator break the fourth wall and ramp up the playfulness."-The Horn Book
"Narrated with a smart, brisk tone and plenty of snark. . . . The Explorers: The Door in the Alleypacks plenty of twists, turns and danger."-Shelf Awareness
Kyra needs the medallion Austin's grandfather left him to fix a beacon on a distant planet and prevent intergalactic war from breaking out. Austin's not about to let some stranger run off with his beloved memento, but, when war-hungry, shapeshifter aliens known as Dethcors show up at his school to get him to surrender the medallion, he teams up with Kyra and heads into deep space to draw the aliens' attention away from his friends and family. It's no mean feat for Austin to raise his hand in class on a good day, so how does Kyra expect him to convince other aliens to be their allies and negotiate safe passage to the beacon? Middle school is hard enough without being impersonated by Dethcors and breaking through starship blockades. And can the kid who has a hard time completing a sentence when talking to a girl really become the hero who saves the universe?
Rob Briggs is known for two things: being the son of a former soccer pro and being a varsity soccer star. He had plans to follow in his dad's footsteps, but after joining his friend's band, Rob starts to wonder if there could be more to life than just soccer. When a local Battle of the Bands competition winds up taking place on the same day as a major soccer tournament, Rob will have to choose which matters more.
Tessa knows a soccer scholarship is her best chance at going to college. She's the best player on her small-town high school team—but that doesn't mean much in the big world of college soccer.
Luckily, her best friend's sister plays for a nearby university. She offers to help Tessa make the team—but not for free. Tessa must join her snobby sorority, and ditch her high school boyfriend, who is simply not fraternity material. Tessa wonders if it's all worth the cost of admission.
Malik's senior soccer season is off to a great start. He's the team captain, he plays with his best friend, and Coach Washington treats him more like a coach than player. But everything changes when several other teammates—including his best friend—and Coach Washington are accused of participating in a cheating scandal. As Malik struggles to come to terms with what they have done, he must learn how to work with a new coach and lead his new teammates to victory.
Thirteen-year-old Ghalib wishes his life could go back to normal. He wishes he could still hang out at the market with his friends, root for his favorite soccer team, even go to school. But civil war has destroyed his home.
As violence rages around them, his family makes the difficult choice to flee Syria. Together they start out on a dangerous journey toward Europe. Along the way, they encounter closely guarded borders, hardscrabble refugee camps, and an ocean crossing that they may not survive.
The gripping story of one boy's journey to find refuge pays tribute to struggles millions of Syrians face in today's real-world crisis.
Iris Wildling and Cael Wildling are Princess and Prince of the kingdom of Weirderland. This is a kingdom filled with magic and adventure, where danger and new friends wait around every corner. These young royals spend their time questing. Going on unexpected adventures helping and finding new friends, saving the kingdom, or simply rescuing a horse. These are the first three adventures of young Prince Cael and Princess Iris. Their first adventure is to recover a flying horse named Ruben that their parents have misplaced in their too-large castle, but the magical castle has more than one surprise behind its many doors. The Prince and Princess' second quest comes while they are on holiday at the beach and a mermaid named Undine asks them for help saving her kingdom, but in the sea, there are more dangers than they can imagine. For their third adventure, they are veterans now, but when Terrance, a foxlike Fairy asks them to help recover the missing Fairy Fire, the source of all their magic, the Prince and Princess find themselves in more danger than ever before. Through these quests, the royal siblings are forced to contend with many things they did not believe they were capable of facing. Turning an enemy to a friend, seeing a friend fall, failing, and taking wrong turns. They run toward danger because they never once thought of saying no when someone asks for help.
Discovered in a swamp and raised by hillbillies, Jellybean 'Gator Bait' Skratcher leads a pretty sheltered life, until one fateful day he accidentally tears a hole in the fabric of the universe, whilst attempting to remove fluff from his bellybutton.
He's whisked away on an epic adventure across hostile worlds teeming with ravenous demons, mischievous beard pixies, and deadly hunchback cooking, all the while led by a scatterbrained stork who's made it his mission in life to deliver Jellybean to the right parents, or die trying.
But when your best friend's a goat, and your greatest hope for survival relies solely upon a talentless magician who can't even do proper card tricks, nothing is likely to go as planned!
The Last Of The Navel Navigators is a children's comedy fantasy that should appeal to fans of The Phantom Tollbooth, The Little Prince and Roald Dahl's James and The Giant Peach.
Elle Deluca is a seventh grader who is tall--not just sort of tall. She's six feet tall. And for a twelve-year-old girl, this means that her basketball team has high hopes for her changing positions and becoming their starting center. But a new position is not the only footwork she has to learn. Her class's dance unit in gym is coming up, and that means she has to learn ballroom dance steps with a boy much shorter than her--and perform publicly for a grade.
In the first book in WNBA MVP and Olympic gold medalist Elena Delle Donne's Hoops series, Elle must figure out a way to remain herself when others want her to be someone else.
For decades, Gusty's Café has been a beloved staple in Maiden Rock, Maine. Quinnie Boyd's dad runs the café, just like Quinnie's granddad before him. But the family business has new competition when a bad-boy chef from Boston opens his own place in the small vacation town.
The new restaurant takes fancy dining to the extreme. Still, that's not a crime . . . but when things start to go wrong at Gusty's, Quinnie suspects foul play. Are the people behind Restaurant Hubert trying to squash the Boyds' family café? Quinnie is about to find out if it is a coincidence--or sabotage.
Evan has always dreamed of being a superhero, and on his sixteenth birthday he discovers the ability to stretch and bend his body in impossible ways. He decides that's it's time to make the most of his super stretchiness and become a real-life superhero—except he can't find any actual crime to fight.
When a video of his superpower goes viral, Evan gets a taste of the fame he has ever hoped for, but he knows he hasn't really done anything besides a few cool tricks. After an accident on the freeway causes everyone to look to him for help, Evan will learn if he's truly up to be the hero he wants to be.
Tony has preferred to fly under the radar for most of his life. He doesn't even notice he's developed the ability to turn invisible until he walks into school the day after his sixteenth birthday and realizes no one can see him.
Soon another student finds out about Tony's superpower, and he uses it to blackmail Tony into stealing and helping him cheat. Can Tony stand up for himself and do the right thing—even if it means exposing his ability to the rest of the school?
Magic is in the air when Allie and Jay Cameron visit their ancestors’ ancient Castle Keep in Scotland, tucked in its unspoiled loch. The twins wake the mischievous shape-shifting Boggart and his infamous cousin Nessie, of Loch Ness fame. But a summer of fun-loving trickery with the Old Things is invaded by a dangerous real estate developer called William Trout.
Trout has big plans for a luxury resort on the loch, and little care for its people or the law. Bulldozers get to work. The future of the loch, its seals, and all its beauty are threatened. The twins and Angus Cameron, their grandfather, mobilize to save his shop and the loch, but it’s soon clear they will need help of a different sort…
In a race against time, the Boggarts recruit help from other Old Things of Scotland: hair-raising creatures of the Wild Magic. But are the Blue Men of the Minch and the Nuckelavee too terrifying for humans to handle? How can they drive out the invader? What’s certain is that Mr. Trout is in for a wild ride in this comical, page-turning adventure from Newbery Medalist Susan Cooper.
Everyone needs their own special corner...
It's 1969 and ten-year-old Davy is in a predicament. With two weeks remaining of the summer holidays, he's expelled from the public pool for sneaking into the deep end and almost drowning. How will he break the news to his hard-working single mother? She's at the diner all day, Davy has no friends, and he's too young to stay by himself.
The answer lies in his rescuer, mysterious thirteen-year-old Ellis Wynn. Visiting her Grammy for the summer, Ellis offers to babysit Davy. She teaches him about "corners"-forgotten or neglected areas fixed up special. Together, the kids tackle several "corners" and Davy learns what it means to bring joy to others.
Davy begins to wonder, though. Why does Ellis want to be his friend? Why doesn't she ever smile? And is Davy just one of Ellis' "corners?"
Foster Sumner is ten years old. He likes toy soldiers, tadpole hunting, going to school, and the beach. Best of all, he likes listening to his dad's stories.
But then Foster's dad starts forgetting things. No one is too worried at first. Foster and Dad giggle about it. Dad goes out for milk and comes back with cat food, when the cat has been dead for five years. But then the forgetting gets worse. And suddenly no one is laughing anymore.
A heartbreaking story about what it means to forget and to be forgotten, as well as the devastating effects of Alzheimer's and the strong families behind those who suffer from it.
"Heartbreakingly realistic." --SLJ
"Touchell presents honest, believable characters in this heart-wrenching account of one family's attempt to cope with an unexpected life-altering event." --Bulletin
"Heartwarming, heartbreaking and honest...a great family read." --The Monitor
