Journey is eleven the summer his mother leaves him and his sister, Cat, with their grandparents. He is sad and angry, and spends the summer looking for the clues that will explain why she left. Journey searches photographs for answers. He hunts family resemblances in Grandma's albums. Looking for happier times, he tries to put together the torn pieces of the pictures his mother shredded before her departure. And he also searches the photographs his grandfather takes as the older man attempts to provide Journey with a past. In the process, the boy learns to look and finds that, for him, the camera is a means of finding things his naked eye has missed--things like inevitability of his mother's departure and the love that still binds his family. From the Trade Paperback edition.

In TalkTalk E. L. Konigsburg presents a selection of speeches she has given over a period of 25 years. In her introduction to the first speech, and to the book as a whole, she explains: "While each of my books has been written because I had a story I wanted to tell, these speeches were written because I had something I wanted to say. The audience for the former is children; for the latter, adults.... I recognize -- with a measure of amused detachment -- that some were written as a reaction to trends; others, to fads. I have given these talks in cafetoriums, auditoriums, and the public rooms of Holiday Inns. Even though I have not always been on a stage when addressing an audience, I have tried to set the stage. Between talk and talk, I have written passages connecting the speeches to the time in which they were written and to one another. And that is TalkTalk." Always a thought-provoking speaker, she has chosen nine speeches that capture the essence of her years as a writer for children. When brought together, they enrich one another and provide a chance to look back at what children's books have been, to observe where they are now and to offer an insightful look at what books may continue to mean to children in the years to come. Written by an outstanding author, these speeches, individually and together, represent a vision of the need for books and the role books have played and should continue to play in the lives of children.

*Also see: Alternate Cover Editions for this ISBN [ACE] * ACE #1 Nancy Drew tackles a mystery professional detectives failed to solve--finding a valuable centuries-old message in a hollow oak tree in Illinois. The story is based on the original title of the same name first published in 1935. The plot is vastly different in this extensively revised and shortened version.

Big Audrey is a girl . . . with cat s whiskers . . . and sort of cat s eyes. But, is there an other cat-whiskered, sort of cat-eyed girl? Big Audrey waves goodbye to her friends Iggy and Neddie, Seamus, and Crazy Wig, in Los Angeles and hitches a ride with bongo-playing-while-driving Marlon Brando across the country to Poughkeepsie, New York, city of mystery. She finds she has questions needing answers and a bit of inter-plane-of-existence traveling to do. Big Audrey and her telepathic friend Molly zigzag off on an incredibly strange and kooky adventure, and solve the mystery of the cat-whiskered doppelganger."

Virginia Lee Burton won the Caldecott Medal in 1943 for her memorable picture book The Little House, a poignant story of a cute country cottage that becomes engulfed by the city that grows up around it. The house has an expressive face of windows and doors, and even the feelings of a person, so she’s sad when she’s surrounded by the dirty, noisy city’s hustle and bustle: “She missed the field of daisies / and the apple trees dancing in the moonlight.” Fortunately, there’s a happy ending, as the house is taken back to the country where she belongs.

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency often helps people find things they have lost. But they have never had to help a client find herself—until now, in this latest installment of Alexander McCall Smith’s bestselling and beloved series. A kindhearted brother and sister have taken in a woman known only as “Mrs.”—a woman with no memory of her name or of how she came to Botswana. And so it’s up to Precious Ramotswe and her new co-director, Grace Makutsi, to discover the woman’s identity. Meanwhile, motherhood proves to be no obstacle to Mma Makutsi’s professional success. As she settles into her role as partner at the agency, she also launches a new enterprise of her own: the Handsome Man’s De Luxe Café, a restaurant for Gaborone’s most fashionable diners. But even Miss 97 Per Cent isn’t fully prepared for the temperamental chefs, drunken waiters, and other challenges that come with running one’s own business. Help may come from an unexpected source, if only Mma Makutsi can swallow her pride and ask. And next door to the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni is all too familiar with the difficult decisions of business owners. He is finally forced to make a tough choice, one that will bring major changes to both Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors and the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency—and that will require all of Mma Ramotswe’s finesse and patience to sort out.  With sympathy and indefatigable good humor, Mma Ramotswe and her friends see one another through these major changes and discover along the way what true friendship really means.

Getting to know new kids and their families is one of the best parts of baby-sitting. So when Claudia goes to sit for the Nicholls kids, she's excited. Only something's not quite right at the Nicholls house. Joey and Nate are sweet, but they don't seem very happy. In fact, they seem. . .scared. Of their own father. Claudia thinks he's hurting them. But saying or doing the wrong thing will only make matters worse. And what if she's mistaken? One thing is certain: Claudia needs to find out what's really going on. And if she's right, she needs to get help--fast.

As Halloween approaches, the three Malloy sisters find themselves continually trying to get even with the four Hatford brothers, who have been playing tricks on them since the Malloys moved from Ohio to West Virginia.

Newbery Honor author Ann M. Martin's gripping, widely acclaimed novel of a girl confronting the perils of friendship and the conflicts of community. Belle Teal's life isn't easy, but she gets by. She lives with her mother and grandmother far out in the country. They don't have much money, but Belle Teal feels rich with their love. As school begins, Belle Teal faces unexpected challenges. Her best friends are up against some big problems. And there are two new students in Belle Teal's class: a shy boy caught in the town's furor over desegregation, and a snob who has problems of her own. As her world falls apart, Belle Teal discovers the importance of sticking together.

From the moment young Egan arrives in Instep, he senses the spell cast over the villagers by the Megrimum--the mysterious something that lurks on the mist-wreathed peak of Kneeknock Rise. Everyone shudders in horror--delicious horror--whenever the Megrimum's unearthly wail floats down to the village. Before long, Egan is climbing the Rise to find a practical explanation for those wails.

Claudia's loving the October weather and her many friends, both in school and in the BSC. But when she throws a party to bring her two groups of pals together, she creates more problems than she solves.

Fans of Karen Cushman's witty, satisfying novels will welcome Meggy Swann,newly come to London with her only friend, a goose named Louise. Meggy's mother was glad to be rid of her; her father, who sent for her, doesn't want her after all. Meggy is appalled by London,dirty and noisy, full of rogues and thieves, and difficult to get around in--not that getting around is ever easy for someone who walks with the help of two sticks.Just as her alchemist father pursues his Great Work of transforming base metal into gold, Meggy finds herself pursuing her own transformation. Earthy and colorful, Elizabethan London has its dark side, but it also has gifts in store for Meggy Swann. Reading Level: Age 10 and Up

In the first volume of her autobiography, The Sun in the Morning, M.M. Kaye detailed the first eighteen years of her life in India and England and introduced readers to her love affair with India. She brought to life its people, scents, vibrant colors, and breathtaking landscapes. In the second volume, Golden Afternoon, she happily returned to her beloved India after years in a British boarding school. New to the glories of the Delhi social season, M.M. Kaye recounted her delightful exploits as a vivacious young woman in Raj society. Now, in Enchanted Evening, M.M. Kaye is a young woman forced to leave her cherished home in India when her father takes a new post in china. Though at first disoriented by the unfamiliar customs and confusing protocol of her new surroundings, it is in China that she discovers the pleasures that come from independence. Coming into her own as a painter, Kaye first meets with artistic success in China and then moves to cramped quarters in London's South Kensington neighborhood, where she begins to flourish as a writer. With vivid descriptions and the wisdom that comes with age, M.M. Kaye looks back on the years she spent as a young woman in a world as yet unmarked by World War II's devastation.

*A quest for freedom. The magic of the gods. A storm to destroy a world.* Trouble has a way of finding Nicolas Calva, and it’s not likely to leave him alone any time soon. With Caesar’s magic bulla, the Malice of Mars, and the possibility of a Jupiter Stone in play, all the powers of Rome are circling Nic. He’ll have to maneuver his way through scheming government officials and reawakened magical beasts to save the Empire. Can he manage to keep his friends and family safe, claim his own freedom once and for all, and rescue the Empire—before the magic gets the better of him?