Sent to San Francisco to live with her beloved aunt and uncle, newly orphaned Emily expectantly enters their once-happy mansion only to find unimaginable horrors.

Emily Luccock is looking forward to living at Sugar Hill Hall....She remembers her aunt and uncle's grand old mansion well, with its enormous, elegant parlor, marble fireplace, and white china cups filled with hot chocolate. But this time things are different. Her aunt's once bright and lively home is now dead with silence. Evil lurks in every corner, and the dark, shadowed walls watch and whisper late at night. And no one ever speaks. Everything's changed at Sugar Hill Hall, and Emily knows something awful is happening there. What's become of Uncle Twice? Why is Aunt Twice a prisoner in her own home? Emily is desperate to uncover the truth. Time is running out, and she must find a way to save the people and home she cares so much about.

This enchanting story of a sheep that grows multicolored wool has "the brevity, simple style, and layered meanings of the classic fables. . . . All told, a natural for reading aloud".--School Library Journal. Full color.

A young orphan, afraid of being sent to the workhouse, finds himself at the mercy of the unsavory owner of a tavern in Alexandria, Virginia, while he tries to solve the mystery surrounding his past and a missing twin.

One flight up the narrow, steep stairs, Robin finds himself swallowed up by the darkness, terrified and hating the thought of the misery and fear his knock will bring to the wretched families who huddle behind every door in the building. Thus begins the story set in a grim tenement district of New York City before the turn of the twentieth century. It is there that Robin, once protected by a loving mother and father, both now dead, must contend with a brutal stepfather, Hawker Doak. Yet Robin is faced with only two choices: remain in the ruthless charge of Hawker, collecting the hated rents, and, perhaps worse, being sent to work in a factory or escape into the treacherous slum streets, haunted by, among other horrors, the bullying boys who work and live in the streets, and whom Robin so fears. Either choice provides a sure recipe for a very short life. But in the end it is fear for the life of his baby brother that makes Robin's agonizing decision for him. The answer to whether or not they survive will only be found when Robin discovers the secret guarded by a place called St. Something. Within this true picture of tenement life, Barbara Brooks Wallace has created another chilling mystery that starts with one kind of terror, only to weave its way into yet another, deepened by intrigue and unspeakable treachery.

When eleven-year-old Jenny arrives at her grandfather's house but is not recognized as one of the family because of a servant's intrigue, the young orphan endures a difficult fate.

“Edgar-winning Vaught, a neuropsychologist, has both personal and professional experience to draw on in crafting a narrator who is admirably smart and resilient despite an ‘itchy’ brain and a compulsion to count things.” —Booklist (starred review) “Deeply smart and considerate.” —BCCB “An absorbing mystery.” —Kirkus Reviews “A strong addition to help diversify realistic fiction collections to include neuroatypical characters and heroines.” —School Library Journal In this Edgar Award–winning novel by mystery superstar Susan Vaught, Jesse is on the case when money goes missing from the library and her dad is looking like the #1 suspect. I could see the big inside of my Sam-Sam. I had been training him for 252 days with mini tennis balls and pieces of bacon, just to prove to Dad and Mom and Aunt Gus and the whole world that a tiny, fluffy dog could do big things if he wanted to. I think my little dog always knew he could be a hero. I just wonder if he knew about me. When the cops show up at Jesse’s house and arrest her dad, she figures out in a hurry that he’s the #1 suspect in the missing library fund money case. With the help of her (first and only) friend Springer, she rounds up suspects (leading to a nasty confrontation with three notorious school bullies) and asks a lot of questions. But she can’t shake the feeling that she isn’t exactly cut out for being a crime-solving hero. Jesse has a neuro-processing disorder, which means that she’s “on the spectrum or whatever.” As she explains it, “I get stuck on lots of stuff, like words and phrases and numbers and smells and pictures and song lines and what time stuff is supposed to happen.” But when a tornado strikes her small town, Jesse is given the opportunity to show what she's really made of—and help her dad. Told with the true-as-life voice Susan Vaught is known for, this mystery will have you rooting for Jesse and her trusty Pomeranian, Sam-Sam.

“Well written fantasy with strong character emphasis and empathy” from the author of the sci-fi classic Escape to Witch Mountain (Kirkus Reviews). At night, Little Jon’s people go out to watch the stars. Mesmerized by a meteor shower, he forgets to watch his step and falls through a moss-covered door to another land: America. He awakes hurt, his memory gone, sure only that he does not belong here. Captured by a hunter, Jon escapes by leaping six feet over a barbed-wire fence. Hungry and alone, he staggers through the darkness and is about to be caught when he is rescued by a kind family known as the Beans. They shelter him, feed him, and teach him about his new home. In return, he will change their lives forever. Although the Beans are kind to Little Jon, the townspeople mistrust the mysterious visitor. But Jon has untold powers, and as he learns to harness them, he will show his newfound friends that they have no reason to be afraid.

A missing diamond, a mysterious neighbor, a link to Shakespeare—can Hero uncover the connections?

A scientifically-minded fifth grader finds himself in a frightening predicament when he proves that his teacher is a witch.