Book 5 in the Magnificent Devices series You can choose your friends, but you cannot choose your family ... or can you? Now sixteen, the twins Lizzie and Maggie are educated young ladies who have not been called the Mopsies in years ... except by their guardian, Lady Claire Trevelyan. With the happy prospect of choosing their own future, the girls can leave their dodgy past behind, and Lizzie can bury her deepest childhood memories where they can do no harm. Upon her graduation from school, Lizzie is awarded an enormous honor-but can she pay the price? Is she ready to be separated from Maggie and become the woman she believes she was meant to be-or will old habits tempt her into defiance and plunge her into disaster? On a dare, Lizzie picks the wrong man's pocket and nearly loses her life. But these frightening events bear unexpected fruit: The dream Lizzie holds closest to her heart comes true in a most unexpected way. But this dream, too, comes with a price. Lizzie must decide whether her true family is the one she was born to ... or the one she chose that long-ago day when the Lady of Devices steamed into their lives ...

Book 6 in the Magnificent Devices steampunk series You can choose your friends, but you cannot choose your family ... or can you? Under normal circumstances, Maggie and Lizzie would be delighted to meet their long-lost relatives and be reunited with those who had believed them dead, but when are the Mopsies' circumstances ever to be considered normal? With her half-brother Claude Seacombe, Lizzie travels to Cornwall to meet her mother's parents. Maggie goes along, too, since she is part of the family ... or so one might assume. But the more time she spends in her grandparents' clifftop mansion, the more she realizes that something is not right, and the events surrounding her own mother's death are more mysterious-and dangerous-than anyone alive suspects. For an old nemesis is preying on the weak and proud, and no matter how well dressed or well educated a young lady might be, she cannot stand by and watch evil destroy a beloved cousin's future. Maggie must straighten her spine and plunge into danger for Lizzie's sake ... and prove that no matter the name she bears, she is first and foremost what the Lady of Devices believes her to be ... a lady of spirit.

Every life has value ... even the smallest. When Danny and Cara find a hummingbird trapped in the car, they know they have to save him. But what do hummingbirds eat? Will they be able to help him in time? And if they do, will they try to keep him inside, or let him go free out in the garden where he belongs? Learn about these fascinating birds known as "nature's jewels" in this gentle but suspenseful story. Based on true events, for early readers aged 6 to 8.

Book 4 of the Magnificent Devices series A lady of resources has the power to change the world-if she can stay alive long enough to do it. Lady Claire Trevelyan had been looking forward to glittering balls, congenial society, and relief from pursuit during her stay with Lord and Lady Dunsmuir in the Canadas. Well, perhaps not entirely. Being pursued by a handsome airship captain is rather diverting, especially when it appears her erstwhile employer, Andrew Malvern, is becoming much too distracted by a certain blond mechanic. But a shot fired in the night puts an end to such diversions, and instead plunges her and her orphaned band of children into a fight for their very survival. Between secret conversations at the highest levels of society and skullduggery in the diamond mines, Claire must discover who is behind a series of alarming attempts on her friends' lives-before her mother is compelled to make funeral arrangements yet again. "This is another immensely fun book in an immensely fun series with some excellent anti-sexist messages, a wonderful main character (one of my favourites in the genre) and a great sense of Victorian style and language that's both fun and beautiful to read." -Fangs for the Fantasy: The latest in urban fantasy from a social justice perspective

Book 3 of the Magnificent Devices series An air voyage to remember turns into a disaster no one may survive. With her orphaned charges, Lady Claire Trevelyan joins the Earl of Dunsmuir's family on an airship voyage to the Americas. If she can stay out of Lord James Selwyn's way until her eighteenth birthday, she will be of age and cannot be forced into marriage. What she doesn't know is that Lord James is in the Americas, too, with Andrew Malvern closing in on him?and the wonderful device he stole. But when a storm cripples the airship and air pirates swoop in like carrion birds, Claire and the children must live by their wits to make their way across a harsh landscape. Will Andrew ever see her again and right the wrong he believes he has done? Will Lord James succeed in his monumental thievery? And how exactly does Rosie the chicken evade the soup pot? Tighten your goggles, pull on your gloves, and prepare yourself for stratagems and strangeness in the third book in the series, Magnificent Devices The Magnificent Devices series continues to wow me book after book?this time around with pirates, automatons, trains and explosions and the wild, wild west ? ?Amy's Book Den

In the small, Old Order Mennonite community of Mitternacht, Iowa, the people pray that God will deliver them from evil. They should have been more specific. Sophia Brucker is on the threshold of womanhood, standing in the door between her religion's way of life and the possibilities of the world outside. She is also torn between two young men: David Fischer, whom she has known since childhood, and Gabriel Langford, the new arrival. In a community that only grows when people are born into it, a convert-young, single, and male-is the most exciting thing that has happened in years. When Sophia's uncle is found dead in the barn with his throat slashed and bitten, the community grieves-except Sophia, who has been abused by him for years. And when the local mean girl is killed the same way, Sophia hardly dares to voice what she suspects: that only the worst among them are being weeded out. Under the elders' approving eyes, it seems Gabriel is dedicated to worshipping God. But his methods may not stand up to too close a scrutiny . . . and Sophia is getting very close indeed . . .