"‘Has all the characteristics of his work ... pace, action, mystery and cool’ SUNDAY TIMES
Max, Fang, Iggy, Gasman, Nudge and Angel are six extraordinary avian hybrids. The result of a cruel Biotech experiment which manipulated their DNA and turned them into recombinant life forms with wings. This flock has endured a turbulent upbringing and they have been continually faced with evil. Evading capture on a daily basis, they have endured torture and been pushed to the very brink of sanity.
Hunted all their lives, they've had to fight life-threatening and belief-defying battles pitting their strength against the fearsome force of their shadowy enemies. But as their predators evolved, their unique ability to fly is no longer enough to save them. With their genes mutating to astonishing affect, the flock establishes a new set of skills to unleash as they strive for survival. But just as they struggle to get to grips with these physical changes, emotionally they face new challenges too: life on the fringe of society can be a lonely existence.
Driven to the wastelands of Antartica, each day brings a new threat for the flock. Danger is never far away and while fighting to save their own skin, they have a new mission to undertake - one with devastating global consequences..."
"In the wilds of Transylvania, a legend is about to be born as a wolf pack races through the bitter snows to find a birthing den for two cubs, one black, one white. In the birth of Fell, and his sister Larka, a race is on to defeat the wicked Morgra, and to come to terms with the extraordinary powers of The Sight."
"Synopsis of Zephrum Gates and The Purple Haze
Zephrum Gates and The Mysterious Purple Haze is a coming of age story of a tom-boyish girl, named Zephrum. Zephrum has some powerful abilities that were bestowed upon her at a very young age. Learning to work with her innate and unusual aptitudes is part of her challenge and part of what also makes her so special.
Zephrum has had an unusual upbringing with her Great Aunt Gussie, who is a bit of a loon. In fact, there are a number of unusual adults in her life. Her adult side-kick, Dexter Droudy, gets her into trouble without even trying. Magical creatures also enter Zephrum’s life with greater frequency as she gets closer and closer to discovering who she really is.
Zephrum is a core player in uncovering the mystery of the “purple haze” that has enveloped her closest town, Haversville. Following clues to uncovering the mystery, Zephrum encounters spiritual beings, strange wind phenomena, fairies, moss folk, goblins, a leprechaun, a very wild horse ride, and the very scary man behind the chair. As she gets closer to solving the mystery of the “purple haze”, a variety of hidden talents reveal themselves to her. The most important thing that she discovers in the midst of all of her challenges is that being herself is the best gift she can give to the world. It is also the thing that helps save her and all of her friends from the looming presence of the “purple haze.”
This book is filled with wild characters, strange situations, funny dialogue, and a deep message for us all. "
"Martin lives in a perfect world. Every year, a new generation of genetically-engineered children is shipped out to meet their parents. Every spring the residents of his town take down the snow they’ve stuck to their windows and put up flowers. Every morning his family gathers around their television and votes, like everyone else, for whatever matter of national importance the president has on the table. Today, it is the color of his drapes. It’s business as usual under the protective dome of suburb HM1.
And it’s all about to come crashing down. Because a stranger has come to take away all the little children, including Martin’s sister, Cassie, and no one wants to talk about where she has gone. The way Martin sees it, he has a choice. He can remain in the dubious safety of HM1, with danger that no one wants to talk about lurking just beneath the surface, or he can actually break out of the suburb, into the mysterious land outside, rumored to be nothing but blowing sand for miles upon miles."
"Meg Cabot is the New York Times best-selling author of The Princess Diaries series. Susannah Simon is a teenager who can see ghosts. As a bridge between the living and the dead, she gets called on to help ghosts take care of unfinished business. After she and her mother move from New York City to sunny California, Suze meets the sexiest boy she's ever seen -too bad he's a ghost, too."
"“I’ve got my entire life planned out for the next ten years–including my Ph.D. and Pulitzer Prize,” claims sixteen-year-old overachiever Vassar Spore, the daughter of overachiever parents, who named her after an elite women’s college. Vassar expects her sophomore summer to include both AP and AAP (Advanced Advanced Placement) classes. Surprise! Enter a world-traveling relative who sends her plans into a tailspin when she blackmails Vassar’s parents into forcing their only child to backpack with her through Southeast Asia.
On a journey from Malaysia to Cambodia to the remote jungles of Laos, Vassar is faced with things she isn’t prepared for–adventure, danger, a Malaysian cowboy-slash-bodyguard her own age–and in learning to “live in the moment” uncovers a family secret that turns her world upside-down. Vassar Spore can plan on one thing: She’ll never be the same again."
"Author John Dickinson's debut novel is a welcome addition to the flourishing genre of medieval fantasy. Phaedra, a young noble, has reached the age of marriage, and is waiting for the man who appears in her dreams. When he finally arrives, she leaves her home and family to join him. But Phaedra is unprepared for the consequences her new union brings. 'Dark and intelligent-for the sophisticated fantasy reader.'-Kirkus Reviews"
"When young Henry Atherton helps Mr Fogarty clean up his house, he expects to find a mess and a cranky old man; what he doesn't expect to find is Pyrgus Malvae, crown prince of the Faerie realm, who has escaped the treacherous Faeries of the Night.
A demon prince, greedy glue factory owners Brimstone and Chalkhill, and the nefarious Lord Hairstreak, leader of the Faeries of the Night, all dream of ruling the Faerie realm and are out to kill Pyrgus. Enlisting the help of his new friend Henry, Pyrgus must get back to the Faerie world alive before one of his many enemies gets to him..."
"In this beautifully crafted novel, the first of the Annals of the Western Shore trilogy, Ursula K. Le Guin writes of the proud cruelty of power, of how hard it is to grow up, and of how much harder still it is to find, in the world's darkness, gifts of light.
Scattered among poor, desolate farms, the clans of the Uplands possess gifts.
Wondrous gifts: the ability—with a glance, a gesture, a word—to summon animals, bring forth fire, move the land. Fearsome gifts: They can twist a limb, chain a mind, inflict a wasting illness.
The Uplanders live in constant fear that one family might unleash its gift against another. Two young people, friends since childhood, decide not to use their gifts.
One, a girl, refuses to bring animals to their death in the hunt. The other, a boy, wears a blindfold lest his eyes and his anger kill.
'A brilliant exploration of the power and responsibility of gifts.'—Publishers Weekly, starred review"
"Anna, a young countess, has lived in the glittering city of St Petersburg all her life. But when revolution tears Russia apart, her family is forced to flee to England. Armed with an out-of-date book on housekeeping, Anna determines to become a housemaid and she finds work at the Earl of Westerholme's crumbling but magnificent mansion.
The staff and the family are sure there is something not quite right about their new maid - but she soon wins them over with her warmth and dedication. Then the young Earl returns home from the war - and Anna falls hopelessly in love. But they can never be together: Rupert is engaged to the snobbish and awful Muriel - and anyway, Anna is only a servant. Or so everybody thinks..."
"On a storm-ravaged night, a nineteen-year-old girl is murdered. Three days later, her two younger brothers set out in search of her killer. Cole is a dark-eyed devil who doesn't care if he lives or dies, while Ruben is a strange child who sometimes, inexplicably, experiences sensations above and beyond his own.
This is the story of the boys' journey from their half-gypsy home in a London junk yard to the ghostly moors of Devon, where they hope and fear to find the truth about their sister's death. It's a long road. It's the road of the dead..."
"In a vast African landscape four teenagers and a journalist vanish without trace. As Ella, the sister of one of the missing girls, helps the police piece together what happened, she realises there are terrifying possibilities for her sister and the others. There has been sinister behaviour and bullying in the camp where the missing were staying. Has there been foul play? Then one of the missing turns up - but with no memory of what has happened..."
