Ketchvar III travels to Earth to inhabit the body of an average teenager and assess the damage humans have done to their planet. But even his highly advanced alien intelligence can't prepare him for life as an American teen.

Michael O'Brien, a somewhat spoiled 12-year-old, is puzzled when his workaholic mom insists on a two-month road trip, to New Mexico, in the middle of the school year.

Verne's 1865 tale of a trip to the moon is (as you'd expect from Verne) great fun, even if bits of it now seem, in retrospect, a little strange. Our rocket ship gets shot out of a cannon? To the moon? Goodness

But in other ways it's full of eerie bits of business that turned out to be very near reality: he had the cost, when you adjust for inflation, almost exactly right. There are other similarities, too. Verne's cannon was named the "Columbiad"; the Apollo 11 command module was named "Columbia." Apollo 11 had a three-person crew, just as Verne's did; and both blasted off from the American state of Florida. Even the return to earth happened in more-or-less the same place.

Coincidence -- or "fact ?" We say you'll have to read this story yourself to judge.

Jules Verne is best known for such novels as "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," "Around the World in 80 Days," and "Journey to the Center of the Earth," but he did a great deal of other work as well -- he published two books a year for decades, and left behind an "oeuvre" that approaches vast.

In this novel, published in this edition as "An Antarctic Mystery" but also known as "The Sphinx of the Ice Fields, " Captain Len Guy's brother is on the ship "Jane" when it goes missing, and the Captain must convince the crew of the "Halbrane" to take a long and dangerous trip to Antarctic in hope of finding his brother and any other survivors of the "Jane." But strange as the journey may be, it's nowhere near as strange as what they will find waiting at its end. . . .

LOST ON AN ISLAND

Five Union soldiers in the American Civil War escape in a balloon. Driven by tremendous find themselves castaways on a strange island somewhere deep in the Pacific Ocean.

They call it Lincoln Island -- and through luck, pluck and the help from a mysterious hidden benefactor, they not only survive but become more like colonists than castaways. With their leader -- an engineer named Cyrus Smith -- they recreate the wonders of nineteenth century civilization with what they find on the island. Along the way, the "colonists" rescue Ayrton (a character from another Jules Verne novel, "In Search of the Castaways") who has been living like a wild creature. In this book, the third part of "The Mysterious Island," they must deal with Ayrton's former shipmates -- bloodthirsty pirates . . . and discover "The Secret of the Island." Namely, their mysterious benefactor, who turns out to be none other than one of the most famous characters of science fiction -- with his wonderful invention

"I don't love Sonny Flannery."

That's the lie Kelley Winslow told to protect the boy she loves from a power he doesn't know he possesses. Sonny is devastated, but Kelley's not about to let things end in heartbreak. To get Sonny back, she needs to find out who's after his magick--and how to use her own. But can she do it without getting dangerously distracted by Fennrys Wolf, whose legendary heart of stone seems to suddenly melt whenever he's around her?

Australian Flower Fairies Address Book Generations of children have loved Cicely Mary Barker's English Flower Fairy Books - here now are their Australian cousins. Twenty-six exquisitely detailed illustrations by well-known artist Elizabeth Alger adorn this brightly coloured book, featuring the Lilly-Pilly Fairies, the Wattle Fairies, the Gum Tree Fairies and more. Each picture is accompanied by a verse, written by nature-inspired gardener, artist and poet Margaret Thornton. Her three daughters also contributed poems. The book contains pages for recording the contact details of friends and family. It is the companion volume to the Australian Flower Fairies Birthday Book, the Notebook and the Diary.

P.T. Mudd is a boy with an active imagination who loves to tell tall tales. But his wildest stories become reality when he discovers a magical stone that transports him to Muddlia, a land where he becomes the crown prince.

There's only one problem: everyone in Muddlia believes everything they're told. So, they naturally believe P.T. when he tells them that he is the greatest hero in the world, and they also trust him when he says that the Ultimate Evil of the Universe, Blotto Ratspaw, is putting together an army on the edge of their fair land.

Although the people of Muddlia have never known war, they follow P.T.'s advice to create their own army to save Muddlia from Ratspaw. Joined by new friends Chicki-Baby, a big blue talking chicken, and Belinda Bosh, a girl his own age who dreams of being a great champion, P.T. leads the trusting Muddlians off to war.

As P.T. boldly leads his loyal subjects, things begin to go terribly wrong. Unexpectedly, P.T. and his army are fighting against a very real, very nasty enemy. Now, P.T. must make an awful choice. Will he save the innocent Muddlians, or think only of himself and escape back to home and safety?

THE TEENAGED CAPTAIN

"The sailors knew that they were lost. All rose, giving a terrible cry, which was perhaps heard on the "Pilgrim," A terrible blow from the monster's tail had just struck the whale-boat underneath. The boat, thrown into the air with irresistible violence, fell back, broken in three pieces, in the midst of waves furiously lashed by the whale's bounds."

Young Dick Sand has just been a sailor on the "Pilgrim," a whaler on a Pacific Ocean hunt between South America and New Zealand.

But the captain and the rest of the crew have been killed trying to harpoon a whale.

Now fifteen year old Dick was captain

Nor was this to be a simple voyage to safety, even as he tries to train castaways from another shipwreck Tom, Acton, Austin, Bat, Nan and even Dingo the dog to help him with the vessel.

For the cook, Negoro, has other plans for the crew and passengers of the "Pilgrim,"

Trick the boat to a course to Angola -- and sell Dick and all the others into slavery

Here's salty sea adventure of the finest caliber by story master Jules Verne.

"Men are strange creatures! I think I'll hunt one some day just to teach him a lesson," says Lightfoot the Deer to his new friend, Peter Rabbit.

Lightfoot is glad of all the animal friends he meets in the Green Forest -- especially Paddy the Beaver, who saves him from harm. But what about these men? There's that strange one -- the farmer. Should Lightfoot trust this man -- when a second one is stalking him with a terrible gun?

Thornton Burgess's tales of woodland and meadow have delighted readers young and old for nearly a century.

Mars stinks

It's hot. The air reeks of burning fuel; the rivers and lakes seethe with sulfur. In the shadows, evil men plot terror and beasts hunt the innocent. Out on the barren crags of the terraformed planet, there is nowhere to hide. No one to heed a call for help.

No one, except Durango.

The world will soon face the evil written in the chapters of Revelation. The devil's hatred for all humanity continues to brew, and now he has come to exert his true power. The final reckoning is upon the entire human race, and many will succumb to the lies and glamour of wickedness, rising up to battle against their own kind.

With the end near, the Kingdom of Galath must gather with other nations to fight the terrible army brought forth by Lucifer. But they struggle against a mighty force: buildings crumble as the dark armies decimate cities, and demons from the abyss terrorize the human race. In a well-calculated move, the devil reveals a beast, mortally wounded but miraculously healed, who takes human form to snatch the minds of people. He is the dreaded false prophet, and the weak and easily seduced fall to him in droves.

Hope is fading . but not lost. Dark and light collide in "The Earthen Realm," a spellbinding fantasy novel about the final battle between good and evil.

Australian Flower Fairies Birthday Book Generations of children have loved the English Flower Fairy Books - here now are their Australian cousins. Twenty-six exquisitely detailed illustrations by well-known artist Elizabeth Alger adorn this brightly coloured book, featuring the Crimson Bottle-Brush Fairies, the Waterlily Fairies, the Yellow Everlasting Daisy Fairies and more. Each picture is accompanied by a verse, written by nature-inspired gardener, artist and poet Margaret Thornton. Her three daughters also contributed poems. The book contains pages for writing down birthday dates of friends and family, to help you remember. It is the companion volume to the Australian Flower Fairies Address Book, the Notebook and the Diary.

Grandfather Frog has a hard time keeping a straight face -- for Buster Bear has outsmarted that rash Little Joe Otter! But then along comes Farmer Brown's boy, and --

"'Twas just a sudden odd surprise"
"Made Farmer Brown's boy's hair to rise!"

And now who's outsmarting whom?

Readers will take joy as their familiar friends -- Billy Mink, Blacky the Crow, Jerry Muskrat, and Sammy Jay -- tangle and cavort in the magical woodland of Thornton Burgess.