The Summer of the Bonepile Monster
Before cell phones, before Nintendo, summer in the country meant the deep woods beckoning—and a mystery to solve down in Bonepile Hollow.
Eleven-year-old Hollis Orr is worried. His parents aren’t getting along so he and his sister are sent to spend the summer with their great-grandmother Grancy in rural Alabama while their parents “work things out.” Near Grancy’s house they pass a road called Bonepile Hollow, barred by a gate with warning signs and a real skull and bones mounted on a board. Hollis is told not to talk about that road or ever go near it, because “things that go down that road don’t ever come back.”
Thus begins the mystery of The Summer of the Bonepile Monster and an unfolding adventure that plunges Hollis into danger.
Winner of the Alabama Library Association Award, the Milkweed Prize for Children’s Literature, and the Connecticut Library Association Nutmeg Book Award. This beloved classic is now available again for a new generation of readers. Read more about it or purchase here.
Treasure of Panther Peak
Twelve-year-old Page Williams is on the run with her mother. She’s leaving behind her abusive dad and the only home she’s ever known, heading for Texas and the remote canyons of Big Bend National Park, where her mom will teach in a one-room schoolhouse.
At first reluctant and angry, Page soon grows curious and intrigued. When she is greeted by a mountain lion named Carmencita and a family of skunks that parades across her patio at night, she discovers there is much more to her new neighborhood than dry heat and rattlesnakes. Just beyond the schoolhouse, the Ghost Mountains rise, home to panthers and legends of lost gold. Soon, Page finds herself at the center of adventure and treachery as she sets out to uncover the secrets of Panther Peak. But what is the real treasure of Big Bend? It’s not what Page expects.
A novel that breathes with the spirit of the West, Treasure of Panther Peak is packed with wild animals, horses, ghosts, and hidden dangers. Most of all, this is a story of two people—mother and daughter—discovering new strength and independence.
Chosen for the New York Public Library Best Books for the Teenage and the Sunshine State Young Readers list. Read more about it or purchase here.
The Horses of Lost Valley
Tillery Hubbs, a twelve-year-old wimp in 1960’s San Diego, discovers a neglected horse in Lost Valley. Struggling against the horse’s wealthy owner—and his own family—Till succeeds in saving the horse. He gains the courage to fight flood and fire and protect the other horses of Lost Valley. But when a new danger threatens, Till may be powerless to stop it.
Winner of two Purple Dragonfly Children’s Book Awards. Read more about it or purchase here.
Hard Times for Jake Smith: A Story of the Depression Era
It’s 1935, and the hard times of the Great Depression, it seems, are here to stay. Each day, something else is gone: first the pig, then the cow, finally even the beloved dog is sold. Then 12-year-old MaryJake Wildsmith and her brothers are told to get in the car and the family sets off. For where? MaryJake wonders, but her parents are silent.
A few hours later, Pa stops the car and Ma leans into the back seat, giving MaryJake a handkerchief with something tied inside and instructions to walk down the path into the forest, take the left fork into town, and present the handkerchief at the rock house. Then the car—and with it, Ma, Pa, and MaryJake’s brothers—drives away.
So begins the adventure of an abandoned girl who chooses her own path (neither left fork nor right), dyes her hair in a stump full of walnut-colored water, and disguises herself as a boy in order to survive. MaryJake Wildsmith is now Jake Smith, soon to discover that she is not the only one keeping secrets.
Winner of the Alabama Library Association Award. Read more about it or purchase here.
The Monkey Thief
When twelve-year-old Steve Hanson goes to Costa Rica to visit his uncle, he discovers a world unlike anything he can see from the cushions of his couch back home. It’s a world filled with giant trees and insects, mysterious sounds, and the constant companionship of monkeys swinging in the branches overhead.
Steve hatches a plan to capture a monkey for himself. But his quest for a pet leads him into dangerous territory—and into a secret conspiracy of smugglers. It will take all of Steve’s survival skills, and the help of new friends, to get him out of trouble.
Filled with authentic, meticulously researched information about the rain forest, The Monkey Thief is an adventure of individual responsibility and courage.
Chosen by the New York Public Library Best Books for the Teen Age. Previously published by Scholastic Books and Milkweed Editions. Read more about it or purchase here.