The Scorpions of Zahir

The Scorpions of Zahir
Author: Christine Brodien-Jones
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2012
Genre: Adventure stories
ISBN: 0385739338

Eleven-year-old Zagora Pym, who possesses an otherworldly stone, travels to the Moroccan desert with her archaeologist father and astronomy-obsessed brother on a quest to save the ancient city of Zahir.

The Scorpions of Zahir

The Scorpions of Zahir
Author: Christine Brodien-Jones
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2012-07-10
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0375897496

Zagora Pym has always wanted to be a desert explorer. Her father, Charlie Pym, is exactly that, and she's always loved to look over his maps of far away exotic places. One day she'd be trekking through the deserts of Africa and China, discovering hidden treasures from lost tribes. But Zagora would never have guessed that her chance to prove herself would come so soon. Like most adventures, it starts with a mysterious letter. The question is, how will this adventure end? Zagora's dreams of desert exploration are about to come ture, but are she and her father and brother being followed? And will they ever make it back to civilization?

The Glass Puzzle

The Glass Puzzle
Author: Christine Brodien-Jones
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2013-07-09
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0307979938

Eleven-year-old Zoé Badger, imaginative, carefree and adventurous, lives a transient life, moving with her mother from one town to the next—except for summers, when she stays with her granddad in Tenby, Wales. But when she and her cousin Ian discover a glass puzzle that's been hidden away for decades, ancient forces are unleashed that threaten to change their safe-haven summer town in sinister ways.

The Owl Keeper

The Owl Keeper
Author: Christine Brodien-Jones
Publisher: Yearling
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2011-04-05
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0385738153

Maxwell Unger has always loved the night. He used to do brave things like go tramping through the forest with his Gran after dark. He loved the stories she told him about the world before the Destruction--about nature, and books, and the silver owls. His favorite story, though, was about the Owl Keeper. Max's Gran is gone now, and so are her stories of how the world used to be. The forest is dangerous, the books Gran had saved have been destroyed, the silver owls are extinct, and Max is no longer brave. But when a mysterious girl comes to town, he might just have to start being brave again. The time of the Owl Keeper, Gran would say, is coming soon.

Summer and Bird

Summer and Bird
Author: Katherine Catmull
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2012-10-02
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1101591595

An enchanting--and twisted--tale of two sisters' quest to find their parents When their parents disappear in the middle of the night, young sisters Summer and Bird set off on a quest to find them. A cryptic picture message from their mother leads them to a familiar gate in the woods, but comfortable sights quickly give way to a new world entirely--Down--one inhabited by talking birds and the evil Puppeteer queen. Summer and Bird are quickly separated, and their divided hearts lead them each in a very different direction in the quest to find their parents, vanquish the Puppeteer, lead the birds back to their Green Home, and discover the identity of the true bird queen. With breathtaking language and deliciously inventive details, Katherine Catmull has created a world unlike any other, skillfully blurring the lines between magic and reality and bringing to life a completely authentic cast of characters and creatures.

The Spy Princess

The Spy Princess
Author: Sherwood Smith
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2012-08-02
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1101575549

Just right for fans of Tamora Pierce and Patricia C. Wrede! When twelve-year-old Lady Lilah decides to disguise herself and sneak out of the palace one night, she has more of an adventure than she expected--for she learns very quickly that the country is on the edge of revolution. When she sneaks back in, she learns something even more surprising: her older brother Peitar is one of the forces behind it all. The revolution happens before all of his plans are in place, and brings unexpected chaos and violence. Lilah and her friends, leaving their old lives behind, are determined to help however they can. But what can four kids do? Become spies, of course!

Soft Rain

Soft Rain
Author: Cornelia Cornelissen
Publisher: Yearling
Total Pages: 129
Release: 2009-09-02
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0307568253

It all begins when Soft Rain's teacher reads a letter stating that as of May 23, 1838, all Cherokee people are to leave their land and move to what many Cherokees called "the land of darkness". . .the west. Soft Rain is confident that her family will not have to move, because they have just planted corn for the next harvest but soon thereafter, soldiers arrive to take nine-year-old, Soft Rain, and her mother to walk the Trail of Tears, leaving the rest of her family behind. Because Soft Rain knows some of the white man's language, she soon learns that they must travel across rivers, valleys, and mountains. On the journey, she is forced to eat the white man's food and sees many of her people die. Her courage and hope are restored when she is reunited with her father, a leader on the Trail, chosen to bring her people safely to their new land. Praise for Soft Rain: "An eye-opening introduction to this painful period of American history."--Publisher's Weekly "The characters themselves transform a sorrowful story of adversity into a tale of human resilience."--Kirkus Reviews "This gentle child's-eye view will move readers enormously."--Jane Yolen

Legendtopia Book #1: The Battle for Urth

Legendtopia Book #1: The Battle for Urth
Author: Lee Bacon
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2016-11-08
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0553534041

Welcome to LEGENDTOPIA, where fantasy meets reality in a new series from the author of JOSHUA DREAD! Two kids--Kara, a girl from our world, and Prince Fred, a royal boy from the kingdom of Heldstone--join forces to save Urth. Have you ever been on a school trip that went totally, epically wrong? That’s what happens when Kara visits Legendtopia, a fantasy-theme restaurant with her class. She’s just trying to retrieve her prized necklace when she stumbles through a small wooden door . . . and into a magical world where dragons breathe fire and an evil sorceress is out to get her! Luckily, Prince Fred is ready to be at Kara’s service. He’s desperate for someone in the kingdom of Heldstone to recognize his bravery—and he knows exactly how to handle ogres and elves. But he’s clueless when it comes to Urth, a mystical and thrilling place with cars and cell phones. That’s exactly where he ends up when he follows Kara back through the door. And he’s not the only one after Kara. . . . Magic is spreading. A dark kingdom is rising. And the fate of not one, but two worlds rests in Kara’s and Fred’s hands.

Summer at Forsaken Lake

Summer at Forsaken Lake
Author: Michael D. Beil
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2012
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0375867422

Twelve-year-old Nicholas and his ten-year-old, twin sisters, Hetty and Haley, spend the summer with their Great-Uncle Nick at Forsaken Lake, where he and their new friend Charlie investigate the truth about an accident involving their families many years before.

Plague and Empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean World

Plague and Empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean World
Author: Nükhet Varlik
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 355
Release: 2015-07-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107013380

This is the first systematic scholarly study of the Ottoman experience of plague during the Black Death pandemic and the centuries that followed. Using a wealth of archival and narrative sources, including medical treatises, hagiographies, and travelers' accounts, as well as recent scientific research, Nükhet Varlik demonstrates how plague interacted with the environmental, social, and political structures of the Ottoman Empire from the late medieval through the early modern era. The book argues that the empire's growth transformed the epidemiological patterns of plague by bringing diverse ecological zones into interaction and by intensifying the mobilities of exchange among both human and non-human agents. Varlik maintains that persistent plagues elicited new forms of cultural imagination and expression, as well as a new body of knowledge about the disease. In turn, this new consciousness sharpened the Ottoman administrative response to the plague, while contributing to the makings of an early modern state.