The Silver Donkey

The Silver Donkey
Author: Sonya Hartnett
Publisher: Penguin Group Australia
Total Pages: 123
Release: 2007-10-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1742281508

One bright spring morning in the woods of France, a soldier, blinded by the war, is found by a little girl named Coco, and her older sister Marcelle. In return for their kindness, the soldier tells the sisters marvellous tales, each story connected to the keepsake he carries in his pocket: a perfect, tiny silver donkey. As the days pass and they struggle in secret to help the soldier reach home, Coco and Marcelle learn the truth behind the silver donkey, and what the precious object means: honesty, loyalty, and courage. This is a joyful and enchanting novel for all ages.

The Silver Donkey

The Silver Donkey
Author: Sonya Hartnett
Publisher: Penguin Group Australia
Total Pages: 123
Release: 2007-10
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 0143301578

One bright spring morning in the woods of France, a soldier, blinded by the war, is found by a little girl named Coco, and her older sister Marcelle. In return for their kindness, the soldier tells the sisters marvellous tales, each story connected to the keepsake he carries in his pocket: a perfect, tiny silver donkey. As the days pass and they struggle in secret to help the soldier reach home, Coco and Marcelle learn the truth behind the silver donkey, and what the precious object means: honesty, loyalty, and courage. This is a joyful and enchanting novel for all ages.

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
Author: William Steig
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 42
Release: 2022-01-19
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1665925116

The charming Caldecott Medal–winning story about a magic pebble that makes wishes come true is now available as an adorable Classic Board Book! When Sylvester finds a magic pebble that will grant any wish, he can’t believe his luck! But after an unexpected scare on the way home, Sylvester makes a wish that has big repercussions.

Last of the Donkey Pilgrims

Last of the Donkey Pilgrims
Author: Kevin O'Hara
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2005-02-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1429931507

Kevin O'Hara's journey of self-discovery begins as a mad lark: who in their right mind would try to circle the entire coastline of Ireland on foot—and with a donkey and cart no less? But Kevin had promised his homesick Irish mother that he would explore the whole of the Old Country and bring back the sights and the stories to their home in Massachusetts. Determined to reach his grandmother's village by Christmas Eve, Kevin and his stubborn but endearing donkey, Missie, set off on 1800-mile trek along the entire jagged coast of a divided Ireland. Their rollicking adventure takes them over mountains and dales, through smoky cities and sleepy villages, and into the farmhouses and hearts of Ireland's greatest resource—its people. Along the way, Kevin would meet incredible characters, experience Ireland in all of its glory, and explore not only his Irish past, but find his future self. “One of the finest books about contemporary Ireland ever written...In a style evocative of Steinbeck's Travels with Charley, O'Hara writes memorably of his most unusual way of touring his ancestral home of Ireland.” —Library Journal At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Silver Pigs

The Silver Pigs
Author: Lindsey Davis
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2006-10-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1429956933

The Silver Pigs is Lindsey Davis' classic novel, which introduced readers around the world to Marcus Didius Falco, a private informer with a knack for trouble, a tendency for bad luck, and a frequently inconvenient drive for justice. When Marcus Didius Falco, a Roman "informer" who has a nose for trouble that's sharper than most, encounters Sosia Camillina in the Forum, he senses immediately all is not right with the pretty girl. She confesses to him that she is fleeing for her life, and Falco makes the rash decision to rescue her—a decision he will come to regret. For Sosia bears a heavy burden: as heavy as a pile of stolen Imperial ingots, in fact. Matters just get more complicated when Falco meets Helena Justina, a Senator's daughter who is connected to the very same traitors he has sworn to expose. Soon Falco finds himself swept from the perilous back alleys of Ancient Rome to the silver mines of distant Britain—and up against a cabal of traitors with blood on their hands and no compunction whatsoever to do away with a snooping plebe like Falco....

The Midnight Zoo

The Midnight Zoo
Author: Sonya Hartnett
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2011-09-13
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0763656321

Master storyteller Sonya Hartnett crafts a magical and moving fable about war and redemption . . . and what it means to be free. When the Germans attack their Romany encampment during World War II, Andrej and his younger brother, Tomas, flee through a ravaged countryside under cover of darkness, guarding a secret bundle. Their journey leads to a bombed-out town, where the boys discover a hidden wonder: a zoo filled with creatures in need of hope. Like Andrej and Tomas, the animals--wolf and eagle, monkey and bear, lioness and seal, kangaroo and llama-- have stories to share and a mission to reclaim their lives.

Lord of the Nutcracker Men

Lord of the Nutcracker Men
Author: Iain Lawrence
Publisher: Laurel Leaf
Total Pages: 219
Release: 2009-01-16
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0307537897

Ten-year-old Johnny eagerly plays at war with the army of nutcracker soldiers his toymaker father whittles for him. He demolishes imaginary foes. But in 1914 Germany looms as the real enemy of Europe, and all too soon Johnny’s father is swept up in the war to end all wars. He proudly enlists with his British countrymen to fight at the front in France. The war, though, is nothing like what any soldier or person at home expected. The letters that arrive from Johnny’s dad reveal the ugly realities of combat — and the soldiers he carves and encloses begin to bear its scars. Still, Johnny adds these soldiers to his armies of Huns, Tommies, and Frenchmen, engaging them in furious fights. But when these games seem to foretell his dad’s real battles, Johnny thinks he possesses godlike powers over his wooden men. He fears he controls his father’s fate, the lives of all the soldiers in no-man’s land, and the outcome of the war itself.

Platero and I

Platero and I
Author: Juan Ramón Jiménez
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2010-07-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0292788592

“An exquisite book, rich, shimmering, and truly incomparable.” —The New Yorker This lyric portrait of a boy’s companionship with his little donkey, Platero, is the masterpiece of Juan Ramón Jiménez, the Spanish poet awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize for Literature. Poetic, elegiac, it reveals the simple pleasures of life in a in a remote Andalusian village and is a classic work of literature, beloved by adults and children alike.

Ransom

Ransom
Author: David Malouf
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2010-01-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0307378934

In his first novel in more than a decade, award-winning author David Malouf reimagines the pivotal narrative of Homer’s Iliad—one of the most famous passages in all of literature. This is the story of the relationship between two grieving men at war: fierce Achilles, who has lost his beloved Patroclus in the siege of Troy; and woeful Priam, whose son Hector killed Patroclus and was in turn savaged by Achilles. A moving tale of suffering, sorrow, and redemption, Ransom is incandescent in its delicate and powerful lyricism and its unstated imperative that we imagine our lives in the glow of fellow feeling.

Surrender

Surrender
Author: Sonya Hartnett
Publisher: Candlewick
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2019-08-13
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 153620644X

SURRENDER is a mesmerizing psychological thriller from extraordinary novelist Sonya Hartnett. I am dying: it’s a beautiful word. Like the long slow sigh of a cello: dying. But the sound of it is the only beautiful thing about it. As life slips away, Gabriel looks back over his brief twenty years, which have been clouded by frustration and humiliation. A small, unforgiving town and distant, punitive parents ensure that he is never allowed to forget the horrific mistake he made as a child. He has only two friends - his dog, Surrender, and the unruly wild boy, Finnigan, a shadowy doppelganger with whom the meek Gabriel once made a boyhood pact. But when a series of arson attacks grips the town, Gabriel realizes how unpredictable and dangerous Finnigan is. As events begin to spiral violently out of control, it becomes devastatingly clear that only the most extreme measures will rid Gabriel of Finnigan for good.