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The Wizard Test
Hilari Bell
Synopsis:

Dayven has passed the test he wanted most desperately to fail -- he's been proven to have the powers of a wizard.

He had promised never to become one of the deceitful, disloyal sorcerers who believe in nothing and alter people's true destinies -- but now he has no choice. Thrown into an apprenticeship with a roguish wizard, Dayven discovers that loyalty and trust are never simple, and wizards are more deceptive than he could ever imagine.

The path that was once clear -- his friendships, his future, his destiny -- is now shadowed with dangerous twists and turns, and the world he knows must change forever.

Publication Date: 02/15/05
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
The Dark Hills Divide
Patrick Carman
Synopsis: An extraordinary debut weaving magic and heroism into a classic tale of good and evil, featuring a heroine you'll never forget.

Inquisitive twelve-year-old Alexa Daley is spending another summer in the walled town of Bridewell. This year, she is set on solving the mystery of what lies beyond the walls. Legend says the walls were built to keep out an unnamed evil that lurks in the forests and The Dark Hills. But what exactly is it that the townspeople are so afraid of?
As Alexa begins to unravel the truth, pushing beyond the protective barrier she's lived behind all her life, she discovers a strange and ancient enchantment -- and exposes a danger that could destroy everything she holds dear.
Publication Date: 02/01/05
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Jay
W. Royce Adams, Royce W. Adams
Synopsis: In this colorful sequel to "Me & Jay," 16-year-old Jay Thornton is orphaned and "catches out" on a freight train to avoid placement in a foster home. Instead of a romantic hobo lifestyle, Jay discovers constant physical dangers, frequent hunger, and the fear of being caught by train gangs or angry railroad police. His adventures on the run, and contact with homeless drifters, force him to examine his personal values and the friendships he's left behind. He must decide whether to join a subculture on the fringe of society, or return to a new life in the familiar place he's known as home. The story delivers action-packed excitement, tempered by hard lessons that show why a romantic escape fantasy often proves harder than facing reality.
Publication Date: 02/01/05
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Jennie's War: The Home Front In WWII
Synopsis: Time Period:  July 1943 - June 1944  Ten-year-old Jennie Fleming is doing what she can to help win a war-she's hoeing weeds in her "Victory Garden." In 1944, with the United States battling both Germany and Japan in a worldwide conflict, everyone must play a part in the overall war effort. Jennie's War uses actual historical events to tell the intriguing fictional story of a young girl on the "home front"-and her suspicions that a new man in the neighborhood might be a spy. The compelling reading makes it a favorite of eight- to twelve-year-old girls.
Publication Date: 02/01/05
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Maggie's Dare: The Great Awakening
Synopsis: Time Period:  1744  Slavery confuses Maggie Baldwin. It's 1744, and the tenderhearted twelve-year-old can't understand why her friend was given a young female slave as a Christmas present-or why her friend mistreats the miserable Caribbean girl. When a major spiritual revival breaks out, Maggie is convinced she must dare to help the slave. Using actual historical events to tell a compelling fictional story, Maggie's Dare explores both the Great Awakening and the early stirrings of the abolition movement, while showing young readers that they, too, can serve God by serving others. Sisters in Time books offer learning and fun, at a great price!
Publication Date: 02/01/05
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Carrie's Courage: Battling The Powers Of Bigotry
Synopsis: Time Period:  1923  For ten-year-old Carrie Moe, friendship with a Jewish immigrant is perfectly normal. So why are many of her other friends uptight about that? Sadly, in 1924, bigotry is a powerful force in society-so much so, that the white-robed members of the Ku Klux Klan plot violence against Jews. Carrie's Courage is the story of a young girl who stands up for a friend in the face of persecution. Using actual historical events as a backdrop, this young readers' novel shows that standing up for others, though not always popular, is always right. It's a perfect teaching tool, at an even better price!
Publication Date: 02/01/05
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Emma's Secret: The Cincinnati Epidemic
Synopsis: Time Period:  1832  Twelve-year-old Emma Farley has a secret hope-but in 1832, in the rough frontier city of Cincinnati, will she ever be able to live her dream? The odds are against her, considering society's views of "women's work," as well as the more immediate and frightening problems she face-a massive flood of the Ohio River and an epidemic of cholera. Using actual historical events to tell a compelling coming-of-age story, Emma's Secret shows young readers that God-given dreams are meant to be followed. Combining fiction with real events is an ideal way to teach history and faith-especially at this price!
Publication Date: 02/01/05
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Elise The Actress: Climax Of The Civil War
Synopsis: Time Period:  Jan. 1864 - April 1865  With the nation convulsed by civil war, Elise Brannon wants people to look past the depressing news that arrives daily from the battlefields: Through her love of acting, she'll make them laugh and forget-at least for awhile. But even her optimism is challenged when a family friend dies from battle wounds. . .she's captured by a band of deserters. . .and President Lincoln is assassinated. Elise the Actress uses actual historical events to tell the poignant fictional story of a ten-year-old girl growing up in very trying times. It's an excellent tool for teaching both history and the Christian faith!
Publication Date: 02/01/05
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
The Abominable Snowman
R. A. Montgomery
Synopsis: You head to the Himalaya in search of the mythical abominable snowman, But when your climbinb pal Carlos goes missing, your search takes a very different turn.
Publication Date: 04/28/25
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Gypsy Prince: War Horse
Synopsis: "Tom Townsend has written a compelling story of World War II...and has just the right touch."-JoAnn W Martin in the Review of Texas Books Spring 2006

Gypsy Prince was born small, the last foal of an of an old German war horse who had survived World War I. The stablemaster expected that because of his small size, the horse would end up pulling a beer wagon. But it was the late 1930s, and the Reich needed every horse for the conflict to come. And it needed all the expertise it could find to care for the horses, and so Gypsy Prince, and Hans the stable boy who had looked after the horse, ended up in the same unit of the German Army paired for the duration of the conflict. They go into battle on the Eastern Front as part of the invasion of the Soviet Union. Together they make it as far as Stalingrad, where with the Russians encircling the Germans, Gypsy Prince is turned loose rather than be turned into a stew for the hungry troops. With extraordinary luck, he makes it through enemy lines back to the German forces, where he is once again pressed into the war effort. This time he is shipped to the Western Front where he is taken and used by the French Resistance after the invasion at Normandy. Eventually, the horse finds himself loose and travels through France to German. He crosses the Rhine at Remagen just ahead of the American troops and continues to make his way across the countryside until he reaches the farm where he was born.

Through the eyes of the horse and the perspective of his interaction with humans-kind and unkind-Tom Townsend has provided a very basic and comprehensible history of the Second World War. This perspective is superb at allowing kids to see the values of the participants in the war without being didactic or preachy.
Publication Date: 04/28/25
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Adventure
Beyond The Orphan Train
Donna Nordmark Aviles
Synopsis: Oliver and Edward Nordmark are young boys in 1906 when they are plucked from their New York orphanage and placed on one of America's Orphan Trains to Kansas. After being sent to different farms, the brothers lose track of one another. In 1913, fifteen-year-old Oliver decides to hop a freight train and strike out on his own in hopes of finding his lost brother. Follow Oliver's true story of adventure and discovery as he learns to live by his wits and survive on his own - a child alone in a man's world. Where will he go? How will he earn a living? What kind of people will he meet along the way? Will he be able to find Edward? All your lingering questions will be answered in this, the companion story to the author's first book, Fly Little Bird, Fly!
Publication Date: 12/01/04
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
11,000 Years Lost
Peni R. Griffin
Synopsis: Fascinated with the archaeological dig that is going on near her Texas home, eleven-year-old Esther magically travels back in time to the Pleistocene era and discovers first-hand how people lived at that time.
Publication Date: 11/01/04
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
The Darkest Evening
William Durbin
Synopsis: A thrilling novel of a young boy's devastation when his father uproots him and moves their family to Russia, where a society of Finnish-Socialists attempt to found a workers' paradise.

Jake's life is turned upside down when his father gets caught up in the Socialist fervor washing over their Finnish mining community in Minnesota. His father decides to move their family to a new, Finnish state inside the Soviet Union, a change that fills Jake with dread. Where his father dreams of creating a worker's paradise, Jake and his family find disappointment and hardship. The story culminates with a thrilling escape--on skis--from Russia to Finland.
Publication Date: 11/01/04
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
The Burning
Kathryn Lasky
Synopsis: Soren and his band are sent to the mysterious Northern Kingdoms to gather allies and learn the art of war in preparation for the coming cataclysmic battle against the sinister Pure Ones. Meanwhile, in the Southern Kingdoms, St. Aggies has fallen to the Pure Ones and they are using its resources to plan a final invasion of The Great Ga'Hoole Tree. With the future of all Owldom in the balance, the parliament of Ga'Hoole must decide whether or not to join forces with the brutal Skench and Sporn and the scattered remnants of St. Aggies who remain faithful to them. A great battle is on the
Publication Date: 11/01/04
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Children Of The Lamp
P.B. Kerr, P. B. Kerr
Synopsis: You can tell from the very first page that P. B. Kerr had great fun writing his novel, The Akhenaten Adventure. The way the author introduces his cleverly named characters, the atmospheric setting, the fun tone of his narration--all indicate that a hugely entertaining story is in store. The first installment of his Children of the Lamp sequence is set firmly in the present day, but it soon breaks away and encompasses several wonderfully colorful parts of the globe, England and Egypt included.

John and Philippa Gaunt, two twelve-year-old not-very-identical twins, live a privileged life on the Upper East of Manhattan with their wealthy parents and two curiously-mannered Rottweilers named Alan and Neil. The twins realize there's something amiss with their world when a string of strange things begin to happen after their wisdom teeth are extracted--they dream the same dreams, become stronger, their zits clear up, and wishes wished in their presence inexplicably come true. And, when their estranged Uncle Nimrod asks them to come to England for the summer during one such shared dream, the discovery of their destiny is set in motion.

John and Phillippa discover that they are descended from a long line of Djinn, have great inherent powers. They must call on these powers a lot sooner than they anticipated, though, because the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten is not as dead as history has so far declared and his legion of seventy magical djinn could tip the balance of power in the magical realm and affect the whole world order.

P.B. Kerr, under his given name Philip Kerr, is the author of several bestselling thrillers for adult readers. His debut novel for children is a slick, zeitgeisty fantasy adventure that is sure to win him a new raft of fans. The Blue Djinn of Babylon is next up for those who get hooked. (Age 10 and over) --John McLay

Publication Date: 10/01/04
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
A Fast and Brutal Wing
Kathleen Jeffrie Johnson
Synopsis: She leapt, a perfect arc, lithe muscles propelling her through the air, leaving what was human behind, clothes fallen to the ground. She was cat, claws unsheathed, teeth bared. Loving the hunt, the chase, the pounce and the strike, her teeth sinking into flesh, blood spurting in her mouth.

Animal justice: ruthless and swift. And totally satisfying.

A provocative, richly layered, and utterly compelling novel that asks the answerable: what is truth, and what does it mean to be human?

Niki and Emmet are siblings with a secret: their ability to change from human to animal, and back-their ability to transform-she to a cat, he to a hawk. Their mother is clueless, but how much does the elusive writer Slanger know? Is their classmate Doug as superficial as he seems? Is the psychiatrist a caretaker or an enemy? And what did she have to do with their father's disappearance?

Alternating 4 voices, paralleling the transformations of adolescence itself, this book is also about the transformative power of great literature, on the border between the darkest fantasy and our own reality.
Publication Date: 10/01/04
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure

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