New Releases by Dorothea N. Buckingham

Noah couldn''t recall ever looking into the face of a Night Marcher, nor did he know the act was punishable by death. After all, he was only four years old when it happened. He also couldn''t believe the family legend about his grandfather making a pact with a Night Marcher to save Noah''s life. If Noah swore an oath to protect the life of the Night Marcher''s descendant, the Night Marcher would let Noah live. Years later, during a sixth-grade service project at an abandoned cemetery, Noah found himself transported to Hilo in 1834, where he must prove the innocence of both himself and the Night Marcher''s descendant, who stands accused of murder. Desperate to return to his own time, Noah tricks his guide into sending him back to the present, vowing never to return. But when Noah confides in his cousin, Blaise, he is branded a coward and accused of abandoning their grandfather. If the oath is not fulfilled, Noah will die the same day the descendant will hang, and his grandfather''s spirit will never find peace. With time running out and the boundaries between the past and present blurring, will Noah risk everything to keep his promise?

When Rell DeMello went back to Kailua High after being treated for cancer, some kids called her brave; some said she was a hero. But, Rell didn''t want to be a hero, she wanted to be normal, Rell "before cancer." Besides, she knew she wasn''t brave. When Dr. Baden told her she had cancer, she cried. And after all the surgeries, the chemotherapy and radiation, Dr. Braden didn''t say "You don''t have cancer anymore." He said, "I find no evidence of cancer." Rell cried again. "No evidence" - like weeds in a garden, creeping under the surface, until one day a pale green shoot pops through the ground and chokes all the budding flowers. Rell hated cancer. She hated the word. When kids asked her if she was cured she''d say, It''s not like that. It wasn''t the answer they wanted to hear. They wanted a storybook ending with a handsome prince and a gallant white horse - not Nate Lee and his rust-bucket truck. They wanted a perfect life movie of a blonde cheerleader who got cancer, almost died, was cured and, when she went back to school, was crowned Homecoming Queen. It was just like Rell''s life except for the part about being blonde, a cheerleader, Homecoming Queen and... cured.

Poisoned palms brings the true facts of this turn of the century murder mystery into a tale of fiction.

Includes cross-referenced and defined Japanese and English terms.