A swashbuckling thriller, part three of THE HIGH SEAS ADVENTURES, set on the oceans at the turn of the nineteenth century - drama, horror, adventure... "There's pirates in the West Indies. Cannibals. They cook you alive. They shrink your head to the size of a walnut," says Mr Spencer to his son. These words will haunt sixteen-year-old John Spencer as he embarks on his first voyage to foreign lands. Carrying cargo destined for Jamaica, John and his Dragon crew set off from London for waters few of them have sailed before. When they come upon a lifeboat adrift at sea, some are wary of the sailor aboard. His name is Horn, and something about this imposing and mysterious sailor isn't right. He carries a chest full of clinking glass, and his story doesn't quite make sense. Still, John respects the stranger's awe-inspiring seamanship. With Horn on deck, both John and the ship's captain believe the Dragon is in the best of hands. But is Horn to be trusted? The answers become more and more complicated as the Dragon encounters a very real - and very dangerous - pirate ship. Now John starts to believe his father's warnings, especially after he becomes separated from his shipmates and is stranded on an island reputed to conceal buried treasure. A place teeming with buccaneers... Brimming with furious high-seas adventure, this companion to The Wreckers and The Smugglers concludes with a bloodcurdling tale of pirates - and a surprise ending...

It is 1799. John Spencer is fourteen when his father?s ship, the ill-fated Isle of Skye, is shipwrecked on the coast of Cornwall as she makes for her home port. John survives the disaster, but soon learns to his horror that the villagers are not rescuers but wreckers ? pirates who lure ships ashore in order to plunder their cargo? When John discovers that his father is alive but being held prisoner, he must try and rescue him ? without knowing who can be trusted to help.

'The new wooden soldier was screaming. His eyes were huge holes, his mouth like a wound. He seemed to be stretching his hands towards the sky. 'He's laughing,' said Auntie. 'Johnny, he's 'laughing''.'

It's 1914 and Johnny's father has gone to war, to the mud and the trenches of France. He has made Johnny an army of toy soldiers, and Johnny fights hard with them, like a real soldier, like his dad.

But soon, the letters that arrive from France tell the ugly truth – and the new soldiers Johnny's father carves and encloses begin to show the strain. Suddenly Johnny is afraid. When he fights his battles out in the garden, could he be controlling his father's fate, and even the outcome of the war itself?

A modern-day adventure and classic in the making, in the vein of "The Call of the Wild, " "Hatchet, " and "The Cay, " by award-winning author Iain Lawrence.

Less than forty-eight hours after twelve-year-old Chris sets off on a sailing trip down the Alaskan coast with his uncle, their boat sinks. The only survivors are Chris and a boy named Frank, who hates Chris immediately. Chris and Frank have no radio, no flares, no food. Suddenly, they ve got to forage, fish, and scavenge the shore for supplies. Chris likes the company of a curious, friendly raven more than he likes the prickly Frank. But the boys have to get along if they want to survive.

Because as the days get colder and the salmon migration ends, survival will take more than sheer force of will. Eventually, in the wilderness of Alaska, the boys discover an improbable bond and the compassion that might truly be the path to rescue.

?Steer clear of that ship,? warns the mysterious gentleman who shares the coach to Dover with John Spencer and his father. ?Death she?ll bring you. It?s the way of a ship that was christened in blood.?

This is an ominous introduction to the schooner John is about to be entrusted with for a voyage north to London. But he?s too charmed by the pretty Dragon to heed the advice. The ship looks clever and quick, and John, now sixteen, can?t wait to sail her. She was a smugglers? vessel once, but that was in the past. Now she?s the Spencers? Dragon, and she will proudly carry wool for honest trade.

But soon John will be forced to consider the gentleman?s warning. Could a ship that?s seen a smuggling run truly be spoiled for anything else? And what does John really know about his ?bonny? crew of four?

Alive with breathtaking action and unforgettable characters, this companion to The Wreckers is masterfully entertaining ? a rousing nautical adventure full of danger and surprise.

"A girl's imagination transports polio-afflicted kids into a fantastic world." The spring of 1955 tests Laurie Valentine's gifts as a storyteller. After her friend Dickie contracts polio and finds himself confined to an iron lung, Laurie visits him in the hospital. There she meets Carolyn and Chip, two other kids trapped inside the breathing machines. Laurie's first impulse is to flee, but Dickie begs her to tell them a story. And so Laurie begins her tale of Collosso, a rampaging giant, and Jimmy, a tiny boy whose destiny is to become a slayer of giants. As Laurie embellishes her tale with gnomes, unicorns, gryphons, and other fanciful creatures, Dickie comes to believe that he is a character in her story. Little by little Carolyn, Chip, and other kids who come to listen, recognize counterparts as well. Laurie's tale is so powerful that when she's prevented from continuing it, Dickie, Carolyn, and Chip take turns as narrators. Each helps bring the story of Collosso and Jimmy to an end--changing the lives of those in the polio ward in startling ways. "From the Hardcover edition."

Harold Kline is an albino—an outcast. Folks stare and taunt, calling him Ghost Boy. It’s been that way for all of his 14 years. So when the circus comes to town, Harold runs off to join it.

Full of colorful performers, the circus seems like the answer to Harold’s loneliness. He’s eager to meet the Cannibal King, a sideshow attraction who’s an albino, too. He’s touched that Princess Minikin and the Fossil Man, two other sideshow curiosities, embrace him like a son. He’s in love with Flip, the pretty and beguiling horse trainer, and awed by the all-knowing Gypsy Magda. Most of all, Harold is proud of training the elephants, and of earning respect and a sense of normalcy. Even at the circus, though, two groups exist—the freaks, and everyone else. Harold straddles both groups. But fitting in comes at a price, and Harold must recognize the truth beneath what seems apparent before he can find a place to call home.