With help from her new friend Ryan, thirteen-year-old Cassie explores the mysteries surrounding a mansion in Maine that was once an Underground Railroad stop and is now a retirement home.

This book is an essential reference for anybody who has watched birds in this amazing county. The County Avifaunas give full details of the status and range of every species recorded in the county in question. Each title covers all species on the county list, with a detailed breakdown of rarity records, and each has introductory sections describing the county's general ecology, climate, weather patterns, its ornithological history and conservation record. Essex is of national and international importance to many migrating and wintering wildfowl and waders, which can be found on the estuaries. Further inland, the Lea Valley harbours important populations of several species within the complex of reservoirs and gravel-pits. Elsewhere, the diverse habits of woodland and parkland, heaths and commons, agricultural land and urban areas mean that at all times of year there is the opportunity to see upwards of 100 species in a day with little effort. This book analyses and summarises all the data collated and documented over the last 200 years and includes available records to the end of 2004. Introductory chapters discuss the geology and habitats of Essex and the amazing fossil bird record. The individual accounts provide an up-to-date status of each species and patterns of occurrence within Essex. A distribution map is included for most breeding species. A breakdown and analysis are provided for all county rarities. Superb line drawings and photographs illustrate the book, all by talented local artists and photographers.

When Wendy Midwinter’s grandfather is on his deathbed, he tells her he has been the guardian of a tome for a very long time, one that has all the weather inside it. As his last request, he asks her to take it to Mr Allbright, the new chief weatherman at the Exeter Weather Station. Wendy finds the book as he requested, and the next day, she and her friend Raine take it with them to the Weather Exhibition at the Exeter Station. The exhibition is packed, however, so the two girls go up to the roof—where Wendy is suddenly snatched away by a tornado! She finds herself whisked away to Heligoland, a cloud castle situated at the heart of a low pressure front barely rising above the Irish Sea and the home of the Foul Weather-Makers. Imprisoned in the dungeons there by German Bight, the castle genius, Wendy must find her way home in order to warn people about the urgent changes needed to save the planet. In this novel, a girl comes into possession of a magical tome that grants the power to create extreme weather and ends up in the middle of a war over weather and climate change.