A heart-lifting, heartbreaking story by Michael Morpurgo, the second-biggest children's author in the UK. In the Imperial War Museum is a wooden Dachshund, carved by a German prisoner of war for the children of the British family with which he stayed after the fighting ended. This is the story of how it got there... When the Bismarck sinks, one of the only German survivors is taken on board a British ship as a prisoner of war. Sent to live with a host family, Walter must adapt to a new way of life, in the heart of an enemy country. Gradually, though, he finds a friend in ten-year-old Grace. So when the time finally comes to go back to Germany, it's an emotional parting, with Walter leaving Grace with only a carved wooden dog to remember him by. The question is, will Walter and Grace ever meet again? In 1966, with the World Cup coming to Britain, that opportunity may just have come along.

Ruth Ainsworth is a happy, confident teen living in Massachusetts in 1947. She has a strong circle of friends and a secure family, and she excels at her studies. She is full of optimism for her senior year, mostly because she's dating Rex Gardner, the star of the Hampden High School football team.

They start their last school year, and everything is going well for Ruth-until Rex suddenly breaks up with her and begins dating a junior cheerleader. Ruth is heartbroken, but she fights off the pain by focusing on school and the girls' basketball team. When Ruth meets Maurice Langlois, a French-speaking Canadian immigrant, he helps her forget about Rex. As their love grows, however, they realize they will soon be separated by hundreds of miles when they leave for college. Their attempt to resolve problems related to their separation gets even more complicated when Rex makes a surprising reappearance in Ruth's life. Will Ruth and Maurice's love for each other survive?

Welcome to the Caribbean: Sandy beaches, sunny weather... and vicious pirates

Fulfilling a promise from their last adventure together, Sam Foster travels from 2006 back to nineteenth-century Oregon to visit his spunky friend, Meg Clayton. This time, though, Meg gets to choose where they will visit next, and she already has a place in mind: Kingston, Jamaica, in 1717.

The Clayton family farm in Oregon is in danger of being lost, and Meg seeks a priceless family heirloom to save it. That means traveling back to Jamaica to retrieve the treasure before it can disappear ... even if the area in question is crawling with cutthroat pirates.

The two time travelers venture to this dangerous spot with the best laid plans ... only to find them going woefully wrong from the start. Separated almost from the first, they are taken aboard different ships and faced with a litany of problems the history books never mentioned. Neither is prepared for the sunburn, seasickness, and squalor they experience, and their goal quickly shifts from finding Meg's heirloom to staying alive, reuniting-and returning home.

Will Sam and Meg's change of course help them return to the safety of their own time periods, or will they be marooned in the eighteenth century, left to live the rest of their lives with-or die at the hands of-a band of cold-blooded pirates?