Showing titles in Family Life

Ben Coffin has never felt like he fits in. A former foster kid, he keeps his head down at school to avoid bullies and spends his afternoons reading sci-fi books at the library. But that all changes when he finds a scruffy abandoned dog named Flip and befriends the librarian's daughter, Halley. For the first time, Ben starts to feel like he belongs in his own life. Then everything changes, and suddenly Ben is more alone than ever.

When Pollyanna's father dies, she is sent to live with her only surviving relative, the rich but stern Aunt Polly. Pollyanna's joy soon turns to disappointment when her spinster aunt gives her a cold greeting and tells her she is to stay in the attic. It's not the welcome Pollyanna expected, but she soon regains her spirits, playing the "glad game" her father taught her.

Can you hear the distant howling of hounds and the thunder of ghostly hooves? It's All Souls' Eve and Zamiel the Demon Huntsman has come to claim his prey! He's headed straight for Castle Karlstein, where the evil count has hatched an evil plan; he'll sacrifice his two young nieces to save himself. Can Lucy and Charlotte outwit their uncle and his oily henchmen to escape their dreadful fate?

In a remote Nigerian village, thirteen-year-old Simi is desperate to uncover a family secret. Ajao is nothing like Lagos—no cells phones, no running water or electricity. Not a single human-made sound can be heard at night, just the noise of birds and animals rustling in the dark forest outside. Her witchlike grandmother dispenses advice and herbal medicine to the village, but she's tight lipped about their family history. Something must have happened, but what?

In their eighth adventure, sisters Sabrina and Daphne Grimm must face their gravest mission yet. The Everafter War is over, and the sisters find themselves trapped in the Book of Everafter—a place where fairy tale characters can affect their own destinies. While trying to save their baby brother, Sabrina and Daphne begin changing events in the story to suit their needs.

Cashing in on his family's recent good-luck streak, ten-year-old Freddy Peach has been entering his family in a bunch of sweepstakes, but he doesn't really expect to win. And then he does—a free family trip to the Ice Hotel in Sweden! Since the Peaches are now the proud owners of their own bed-and-breakfast, they decide they can't pass up on the opportunity. It's research. They'll learn more about what it takes to operate a successful hotel from one of the most famous tourist destinations in the world.

From the beloved author of the Mr. Terupt and Perfect Score series comes this stand-alone middle-grade novel about a girl who is dealing with the tragic loss of her best friend, and the dog that helps her forge new friendships and find happiness once again.

Joy Taylor has always believed home is the house she lived in her entire life. But then her dad lost his job, and suddenly, home becomes a tiny apartment with thin walls, shared bedrooms, and a place for tense arguments between Mom and Dad. Hardest of all, Joy doesn’t have her music to escape through anymore. Then a friendly new neighbor her age lets Joy in on the complex’s best-kept secret: the Hideout, a cozy refuge that only the kids know about.

Suddenly, something big and white bumps up against the car, and I jump. I think I must be dreamin’, ’cause I just saw a horse run by. When Cole’s mom dumps him in the mean streets of Philly to live with the dad he’s never met, the last thing he expects to see is a horse - let alone a stable full of them. He may not know much about cowboys, but what he knows for sure is that cowboys ain’t black, and they don’t live in the ’hood. But here, horses are a way of life, and soon Cole’s days of skipping school and getting in trouble in Detroit have been replaced by shoveling muck and trying not to get stomped on.

Kate and her younger brother, Tom, lead dull, uninteresting lives. And if their dull, uninteresting parents are anything to go by, they don't have much to look forward to. Why can't Kate have thrilling adventures and save the world the way people do in books? Even her 11th birthday is shaping up to be mundane - that is, until her mysterious and highly irresponsible Uncle Herbert, whom she's never even met before, surprises her with the most unexpected, exhilarating, inappropriate birthday present of all time: a colossal steam locomotive called the Silver Arrow.

Fourth grade is not going at all how Benny Barrows hoped. He hasn't found a new best friend. He's still not a great bike rider - even though his brother, George, who's autistic, can do tricks. And, worst of all, he worries his dad's recent accident might be all his fault. Benny tries to take his mom's advice and focus on helping others and to take things one step at a time. But when his dad ends up in the hospital again, Benny doesn't know how he and his family will overcome all the bad luck that life seems to have thrown their way.

Matilda is the world's most famous bookworm, no thanks to her ghastly parents.Her father thinks she's a little scab. Her mother spends all afternoon playing bingo. And her headmistress, Miss Trunchbull? She's the worst of all. She's a big bully, who thinks all her pupils are rotten and locks them in the dreaded Chokey. Despite these beastly grownups trying to push her down, Matilda is an extraordinary girl with a magical mind. And she's had enough. So all the terrible adults had better watch out, because she's going to teach them a lesson they'll never forget!

In their fifth exploit, Sabrina and Daphne Grimm are on their own while investigating the theft of enchanted items from the Ever Afters. And if they don't solve the case, the villain behind the crimes will unleash chaos upon the residents of Ferryport Landing.

At only seventeen years old, Ian Kabra is head of the Cahills, the most powerful family in the world. He has presidents on speed dial, generals at his beck and call. Ian knows he's an ideal leader and the only man for the job. There's just one small problem: He's already messed up big time. A Cahill from the past calling himself the Outcast has risen to challenge Ian with an impossible test. The Outcast has re-created four of history's greatest disasters and dared Ian to stop him.

Twelve-year-old Mary Hayes can't stand her orphanage. But when an attempted escape doesn't go quite as well as she'd hoped, Mary fears she'll be stuck in the Buffalo Asylum for Young Ladies forever. The very next day, a mysterious woman named Madame Z appears at the orphanage requesting to adopt Mary. The matron's all too happy to get the girl off her hands. Soon Mary is fed a hearty meal, dressed in a clean, new nightgown, and shown to a soft bed with blankets piled high.

Alvin Ho is back and his worst fear has come true: he has to go camping. What will he do exposed in the wilderness with bears and darkness and...pit toilets? Luckily, he's got his night-vision goggles and water purifying tablets and super-duper heavy-duty flashlight to keep him safe. And he's got his dad, too.

Siblings Kate, Michael, and Emma have been in one orphanage after another for the last ten years, passed along like lost baggage. Yet these unwanted children are more remarkable than they could possibly imagine. Ripped from their parents as babies, they are being protected from a horrible evil of devastating power, an evil they know nothing about.

Brendan, Eleanor, and Cordelia Walker once had everything: Two loving parents, a beautiful house in San Francisco, and all the portable electronic devices they could want. But everything changed when Dr. Walker lost his job in the wake of a mysterious incident. Now in dire straits, the family must relocate to an old Victorian house that used to be the home of occult novelist Denver Kristoff - a house that feels simultaneously creepy and too good to be true.

In Arthur's Mystery Envelope, it looks like trouble when the principal asks Arthur to take home a large envelope marked CONFIDENTIAL. In Arthur and the Scare-Your-Pants-Off Club, Arthur and his pals can't wait for the next book in the Scare-Your-Pants-Off series, only to find out when the book arrives at the library that the series has been banned!

A taste of her own medicine. George is alone in the house with Grandma. The most horrid, grizzly old grunion of a grandma ever. She needs something stronger than her usual medicine to cure her grouchiness. A special grandma medicine, a remedy for everything. And George knows just what to put into it. Grandma's in for the surprise of her life - and so is George, when he sees the results of his mixture!