Sink or swim to survive Solway's black water... Down by the coast, black water swirls and hides its secrets. Dumfries, 1792. Henry may only be twelve, but he has already begun his training in the Excise, combating smuggling like his father does. But when a large smuggling schooner is stranded nearby, the stakes are high - even with reinforcements, and the newly recruited officer, a poet called Robert Burns. Musket fire, obstructive locals, quicksand and cannonballs-it is a mission of survival. As it turns out: Henry has a crucial part to play. A Scottish smuggling novella based on real events.

Twelve-year-old Ronnie has just made the difficult decision to live for a whole year with his crotchety great-grandfather instead of in a boarding school. Now, stuck in an old house in Ontario, Ronnie wonders what he has gotten himself into as he and his ninety-year-old roommate constantly clash. But Ronnie has no idea that one evening after being sent to the attic for punishment, he will make an amazing discovery that will change his life forever.

Ronnie has been haunted all his life by a spirit bear who now seems to be leading him straight to the corner of the attic. Frightened, Ronnie summons his great gran'dad to help him empty a mysterious leather bag he finds inside a dresser drawer. After a necklace tumbles out, Ronnie holds the artifact and is suddenly propelled back in time to the War of 1812 and into the body of one of his ancestors, who has been adopted by the Indian war chief, Tecumseh. Now trapped between the past and the present, Ronnie must overcome great challenges in order to return both the artifact and the bear to their rightful places.

"Tecumseh's Artifact" is a tale of friendship, family, and compassion for others as a boy travels through an exciting period in history and learns more about himself than he ever imagined.

On one side of the underwater street is the remains of a house . . . It's beautiful here, and eerie, a lost kingdom, a ghost village . . . It's the near-future and Britain is having yet another heatwave. Of course, the government have put in the normal curfews for this kind of weather, and shops are forced to shut again. For Polly, it's the sort of heat that makes her do wild, out-of-character things just to cool down. Like face her fear of deepwater. Essential when she and her brother have been sent to their aunt's eco lake-side house for the summer. But Truthwater Lake is beginning to dry up. As the water level diminishes, a lost village emerges. Swimming over the rooftops at midnight, Polly dives down and is suddenly able to breathe, to hear church bells and bird song . . . Polly has discovered an underwater gateway . . . to the past!

There it is again, hope. The defeat and the despair I can stand, but it's the hope that kills me, as if the Cause wasn't lost, as if Father hadn't died in vain. As if any one of us could possibly come out of this alive... Following the death of his father, 13-year-old Archie MacDonald has lost faith in the Jacobite Cause. Having witnessed their clan's terrible defeat at the Battle of Culloden, Archie and his feisty cousin Meg flee back to Lochaber to lie low. Or so they think. Until the fugitive Prince's life depends on them. When Prince Charles Edward Stuart looks to the people of Borrodale for help, will the young stable boy support the rebellion that has cost him so dearly? With enemies closing in, the Prince's fate now rests in the hands of a stable boy and a maid with a white cockade. Who will survive this deadly game of hide-and-seek?

In "Escape by Night," Ten-year-old Tommy and his sister Annie are intrigued by the new soldiers arriving in their Georgia town. Since the Civil War started, wounded men waiting to be treated at the local church-turned-hospital have been coming in by droves. When Tommy sees a soldier drop his notebook, he sends his dog, Samson, to fetch it. Tommy soon meets the soldier and is faced with the hardest decision he's ever had to make: whether or not he should help a Yankee escape to freedom.
Filled with intriguing suspense and tackling difficult questions about slavery, this story, told in accessible short chapters by Laurie Myers, will appeal to history buffs as well as those who appreciate a faithful dog.