The first installment in an action-adventure series about a boy on a rescue mission—part Pinocchio, part fantasy, and all fun! Meet Charlie. He lives a quiet life with his protective father, an inventor and clockmaker. When Charlie’s father is kidnapped by a shadowy group called the Anti-Human League, it’s up to Charlie to save him. But the league’s plan is much more sinister than Charlie could have imagined. And as he unravels their secrets, he also uncovers his father’s own secrets—about his family, the league, and even himself. . . . Can Charlie and his gang—a terrifying but well-meaning troll and a pair of high-flying young aeronauts—rescue Charlie’s father from the dastardly villains who have kidnapped him? And will Charlie be able to come to terms with who he really is? The journey begins here! “Reminiscent of both Pinocchio and The Great Mouse Detective, this novel is tailor-made for young readers who love adventure narratives and steampunk fiction.” —Kirkus “A page-turning adventure.” —School Library Journal “The fast-paced plot is action-packed. . . . [The Kidnap Plot] should satisfy fans of fantasy and adventure.” —Publishers Weekly

"There are two things that men should never weary of, goodness and humility; we get none too much of them in this rough world among cold, proud people. - Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped Kidnapped (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson is a coming-of-age novel that recounts the adventures of a teenager named David Balfour during the Jacobite Rebellions in 18th century Scotland. Following his father's death, David reaches out to an uncle, who betrays his nephew and sells him to a slave-trader headed for America. David's rescue from the slave ship by a Jacobite refugee starts David on a series of adventures that ensure his passage into manhood.

Meet Charlie. He lives a quiet life with his protective father, an inventor and clockmaker. When Charlie’s father is suddenly and mysteriously kidnapped by a shadowy group called the Anti-Human League, it’s up to Charlie to save him. Before long, he has assembled a motley crew to help. From the terrifying but well-meaning troll Grim Grumblesson to the high-flying young aeronauts Bob and Sir Oliver, this team will follow the trail anywhere. But the league’s plan is much more sinister than Charlie could have imagined. And as he unravels the secrets of the league, he also uncovers his father’s own secrets—about his family, the league, and even himself... Can Charlie and his gang rescue his father from the dastardly villains who have kidnapped him? And will Charlie be able to come to terms with who he really is? The journey begins here!

Victor Vifquain?s memoir is an engaging, firsthand account of a bold attempt to kidnap the president of the Confederate States of America. Archived for nearly a century, the chronicle of this previously unknown and daring plot has been brought to light by historians Jeffrey H. Smith, Vifquain?s great-great grandson, and Phillip Thomas Tucker in a meticulously edited and annotated volume. ø The plot to ride into Richmond and capture Jefferson Davis was concocted by three brash adventurers, who, using pseudonyms from The Three Musketeers, were soon involved in escapades worthy of Dumas's trio. This stunning story provides a fresh perspective on Richmond during the Civil War and a personal account of a scheme devised to bring an early end to the war.

The New York Times described what happened to New York businessman Jack Teich as a “front page horror.” Two hundred FBI agents and Nassau County police officers combined forces to form a dragnet, hunt for his kidnappers, and rescue him. Teich lay handcuffed and chained to the walls of a closet in the Bronx with a medical bandage wrapped around his head to cover his eyes. His captors demanded that his wife, Janet, drop a bag with $750,000 (the equivalent of four million dollars in today’s currency) in a locker at Penn Station, making the Jack Teich ransom one of the highest in U.S. history at the time. FBI and Nassau County police detectives spent over a year before finally uncovering the meticulously planned kidnapping ploy hatched by radical mastermind Richard Warren Williams. The FBI internally dubbed the Jack Teich kidnapping operation “Jacknap.” The real-life crime drama that followed proved stranger than fiction, involving a tense across-the-country manhunt, a trailer in California stuffed with tens of thousands of ransom dollars hidden inside, a contentious jury trial that dominated NYC headlines for months; a guilty verdict that was overturned twenty-one years later on a controversial technicality; a retrial stymied by a mysterious fire that incinerated court records; and a civil verdict ruling that the kidnapper pay Jack Teich back the ransom money, plus interest. Operation Jacknap tells the incredible true crime story that continues even now. Indeed, as of this writing, no one knows where the majority of the ransom money is located. Inside, Teich also details his offer of a reward to anyone helping track down the still missing money and kidnappers.

Full account of the 4 years between the baby's kidnapping, March 1, 1932, and the execution of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, April, 3, 1936.

Michael is on a mission. After a run-in with his sworn enemy, Angus, Michaels brilliant payback plan BACKFIRES. Now hes in the school productionas a treehis WORST NIGHTMARE! When Michael discovers a twisted KIDNAP PLOT, his troubles soon multiply. Its obvious that rich-kid Angus is the target. Can Michael and his motley bunch of mates solve the kidnap mystery and destruct a planet-threatening plan BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE? A high-tech adventure by the award-winning author of How I Alienated My Grandma.

Soon to be a major motion picture from Steven Spielberg. A National Book Award Finalist The extraordinary story of how the vatican's imprisonment of a six-year-old Jewish boy in 1858 helped to bring about the collapse of the popes' worldly power in Italy. Bologna: nightfall, June 1858. A knock sounds at the door of the Jewish merchant Momolo Mortara. Two officers of the Inquisition bust inside and seize Mortara's six-year-old son, Edgardo. As the boy is wrenched from his father's arms, his mother collapses. The reason for his abduction: the boy had been secretly "baptized" by a family servant. According to papal law, the child is therefore a Catholic who can be taken from his family and delivered to a special monastery where his conversion will be completed. With this terrifying scene, prize-winning historian David I. Kertzer begins the true story of how one boy's kidnapping became a pivotal event in the collapse of the Vatican as a secular power. The book evokes the anguish of a modest merchant's family, the rhythms of daily life in a Jewish ghetto, and also explores, through the revolutionary campaigns of Mazzini and Garibaldi and such personages as Napoleon III, the emergence of Italy as a modern national state. Moving and informative, the Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara reads as both a historical thriller and an authoritative analysis of how a single human tragedy changed the course of history.

When young Charlie Pondicherry sets out to rescue his inventor-father from kidnappers, he uncovers a dastardly plan that he must help to foil, and discovers a great truth about himself.

From the author of "The Bravest Battle, Special Mission" reveals how Hitler and Pope Pius XII plotted against one another in 1943 as the lives of Rome's Jews were held in the balance.