Ages 8 to 14 years. Jorge lives in a shanty town on the outskirts of Paris. Bill, a controller, has an army of child thieves at his command-and Jorge is one of them. But soon Jorge faces an even bigger threat. His home is to be bulldozed. Where will Jorge sleep? What will happen to his friends, Ada and Gino? Could a burgeoning friendship with Australian chef, Sticky-Ricky, help Jorge to stop Bill and save the army of child-thieves? And will he do it before he loses Ada forever? Jorge can't keep...
When Lizzie and Ben discover a homeless lady living in their neighborhood, they must reconcile their desire to help her with their mother's admonition not to talk to strangers.
Shaozhen has no intention of staying in his remote Henan village and becoming another poor farmer: he'll finish school, and then, hopefully, work in a factory in one of the major cities, just like his father. But when Shaozhen returns home for the summer holidays, imagining days filled with nothing but playing basketball with his friends, he's in for a shock. The worst drought in over sixty years threatens the crops that the entire village relies on for income. As the water situation becomes dir...
Harbledown Heal (Harbledown, #1)
by Andrew Buller and Catching Lives
2 The clock mounted on the face of the organ loft made a muted click as it measured off another minute. Charles glanced up at it – 4:30. It would soon be safe to leave for home. The inside of the old church was dim. The only light came through the stained glass windows that ran along both sides of the nave. For the first few minutes after you walked in, it felt as if you’d come into a cave walled in colored glass. But as your eyes adjusted to the lower light, the space took shape around you. T...
Inspired by the true story of an African childhood lived on the edge of destitution, award-winning Elizabeth Laird's new novel takes readers on an unforgettable emotional journey. When Mamo's mother dies, he is abandoned in the shanties of Addis Ababa. Stolen by a child-trafficker and sold to a farmer, he is cruelly treated. Escaping back to the city, he meets another, very different runaway. Dani is rich, educated -- and fleeing his tyrannical father. Together they join a gang of homeless stree...
Felix Knutsson is nearly thirteen, lives with his mother and pet gerbil Horatio, and is brilliant at memorising facts and trivia. So far, pretty normal. But Felix and his mom Astrid have a secret: they are living in a van. Astrid promises it’s only for a while until she finds a new job, and begs Felix not to breathe a word about it. So when Felix starts at a new school, he does his very best to hide the fact that most of his clothes are in storage, he only showers weekly at the community centre,...
"Rosy-cheeked and quite antique, Miss Pinkeltink / carried everything but the kitchen sink. / Her purse was so big that it dragged on the floor. / When she rode on the bus it got stuck in the door." Generous and eccentric, Miss Pinkeltink fills her huge purse with everything from a toilet plunger to roller skates, and then gives it all away. She offers tape to fix a flat tire and a bone to a kitty: Miss Pinkeltink’s gifts never quite hit the mark, / but she gave what she had, and she gave from t...
A beautifully crafted epic adventure spiced with magic from the acclaimed author of Hour of the Bees.Fished from the river as an infant and raised by a roving band of street urchins who call themselves the Crowns, eight-year-old Duck keeps her head down and her mouth shut. It’s a rollicking life, always thieving, always on the run – until the ragtag Crowns infiltrate an abandoned cathedral in the city of Odierne and decide to put down roots. It’s all part of the bold new plan hatched by the Crow...
An atmospheric and riveting fantasy adventure, perfect for fans of Frances Hardinge and Cornelia Funke.Pip lives on his wits in the city of Clarel. When he pickpockets the wrong man, he finds himself in possession of a strange object – a heart in a silver casket. What’s more, the heart seems to be trying to communicate with Pip, and the royal officials who lost it will stop at nothing to get it back.Pip has unwittingly broken an ancient spell, and his theft will have far-reaching consequences fo...
Welcome to the show! Bienvenidos! This rags-to-riches tale of a doggy mother-daughter singing act in the Nuevo Wild West will enchant dog lovers, music lovers, and anyone looking for new Latinx voices. This spellbinding original story opens in a cantina crowded with desert animals, cowboys, and cowgirls all excited to see the glamorous Luna Ranchera mother-daughter singing duo. Long ago, Luna was down on her luck, starving and struggling to feed her pups, reduced to thieving from nearby rancher...
In her eagerly awaited new novel, Kate DiCamillo conjures a haunting fable about trusting the unexpected - and making the impossible come true.What if? Why not? Could it be? When a fortune teller's tent appears in the market square of the city of Baltese, orphan Peter Augustus Duchenne knows the questions that he needs to ask: Does his sister still live? And if so, how can he find her? The fortune teller's mysterious answer (an elephant! An elephant will lead you there!) sets off a chain of even...
A House Without Walls is a powerful story of family, hope and redemption amidst the refugee crisis in Syria from the award-winning Elizabeth Laird, illustrated by Lucy Eldridge. Thirteen-year-old Safiya and her family have been driven out of Syria by civil war. Safiya knows how lucky she is - lucky not to be living in a refugee camp, lucky to be alive. But it's hard to feel grateful when she's forced to look after her father and brother rather than go back to school, and now that she's lost her...
A boy's casual wish leads him into a dark and mysterious world in this thrilling adventure from the creator of Alex Rider. For Tad Spencer, only son of a fabulously wealthy businessman, every day is like Christmas. Until he makes the mistake of wishing he was someone else. The next morning he wakes up as Bob Snarby, trapped in a cruel and squalid funfair world inhabited by hopeless criminals, mysterious fortune tellers and - worst of all - the murderous Finn. But he's there for a reason, as Tad...
Her parents are gone, and her brother and sisters sent to live with other people. Lyddie Worthen is on her own. When Lyddie hears about the mill jobs in Lowell, Massachusetts, she heads there with the goal of earning enough money to reunite her family. Six days a week from dawn to dusk Lyddie and the other girls run weaving looms in the murky dust - and lint-filled factory. Lyddie learns to read - and to handle the menacing overseer. But when the working conditions begin to affect her friends' h...