New Releases by Kathryn Lasky

The final book in Lasky''s best-selling animal series.The strange, maniacal blue owl known as the Striga has been rousted from the Great Ga''Hoole Tree. Nyra, leader of the vicious Pure Ones, is either dead or laying low in some distant land,leaving the tree finally at peace. As if fed by an invisible spring, learning and the lively arts flourish at the great tree and spread throughout the owl kingdoms.But unbeknowst to the Guardians, in a long-empty cave deep in the Northern Kingdoms two ruthless villains join forces to conjure an ancient evil, an evil that will do their bidding and wreak havoc on the world.

After the time of the legends, the tale of the Guardians returns to the present in which Soren, the hero of Books 1-6, must train a new king. Old friends, new adventures!Coryn, Soren, and the Band preside over a new Golden Age of the Great Tree under the subtle influence of the Ember. All seems well, but beneath the prosperity of peace Coryn is tortured by the suspicion that his evil mother, Nyra, is a hagsfiend and that his own blood carries the haggish taint. He wanders afar searching for the truth from hagsfiends themselves - putting the Great Tree in danger. Soren & the Band follow their new king to strange parts to guard him from the consequences of his obsession.

The latest soaring installment of Kathryn Lasky''s NYT bestselling Ga''Hoole seriesGrank raises the hatchling deep in a forest far from owls that would kill the royal chick named Hoole to end the kingly line. His mother comes to visit, in disguise, and departs again. Not even the chick must know his mother''s identity. It would give him away as Hrath''s heir. Sent by an evil warlord, a hagsfiend attempts to lure young Hoole away when he first learns to fly. Grank realizes that the same evil forces that killed Hrath are after Hoole, and know where he is. To keep him safe, Grank brings him to Beyond the Beyond, a strange land of fiery volcanoes in a barren, icy landscape.(more)

After Soren, a young owlet, is pushed from his family''s nest by his older brother, he''s plucked from the forest floor by agents from a mysterious school, the St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls. When Soren arrives at St. Aggie''s, he suspects there is more to the school than meets the eye. He and his new friend, the clever and scrappy Gylfie, find out that St. Aggie''s is actually a training camp where the school''s leader can groom young owls to help achieve her goal--to rule the entire owl kingdom. In the first book in this series, the reader follows the adventures of Soren and Gylfie as they subvert the attempted brainwashing that takes place at St. Aggie''s, learn to fly, and eventually escape from the evil school. Later they meet with two more orphaned owls, the indomitable Twilight and pensive Digger, and the four form a band as they journey to a refuge that may exist only in legend--the Great Ga''Hoole Tree.

Having been discovered, a family of poisonous but friendly brown recluse spiders must flee their cozy home in a symphony hall and go searching for a new place to live.

The minute she had opened the trunk, she knew there wasn''t anything like hope in it. Just awful musty things, but each one with a kind of terrible dark halo around it. She picked up that piece of old lace. She saw that stain -- pale, brownish in color. She knew it was blood. Somebody''s blood. There was violence in that trunk, and dark secrets, and she did not want to know them. Curious about the old homestead where she now lives, Jerry finds an ancient trunk in the basement that contains, among other things, an old piece of bloodstained lace, some letters, and a battered doll. The objects in the trunk have stories to tell -- stories about the Spanish Inquisition spanning nearly five hundred years and stories of secrets locked deep in the bloodlines of Jerry''s ancestors. Kathryn Lasky''s powerhouse novel is a dramatic historical saga that brings the reader face-to-face with some of the worst atrocities ever committed against humankind in the name of God. But above all, it is an unforgettable coming-of-age story about a girl who, in connecting with her own past and faith, is at last able to face her own demons and liberate not only herself but also future generations of her family from the long chain of suffering and silence.

The Man Who Made Time Travel

Soren¿s beloved mentor is finally back at the Great Ga¿Hoole Tree. But all is not well. There¿s a war between good and evil in the owl kingdom. Chapter Book: 24 chapters.

In London with their family, telepathic twelve-year-old twins Liberty and July receive strange emanations from an early residence of Arthur Conan Doyle and discover a literary ghost.

Brand-new editions of three thrilling adventures by the author of Guardians of Ga''hoole

The vicious Kludd is finally dead. But his mate Nyra is determined that her hatchling, Nyroc, will fulfill his father''s destiny - the vicious opression of all the owl kingdoms."

Great Ga''Hoole Tree is a mythic place where each night an order of owls rises to perform noble deeds. There Soren, Gylfie, Twilight, and Digger hope to find inspiration to fight the evil that dwells in the owl kingdom. The journey is long and harrowing. This is the second title in a mythic adventure series in which the heroes are owls.

Nyroc has exiled himself from the Pure Ones. He flies alone, feared and despised by those who know him as Kludd''s son, hunted by those whose despotism he has rejected, and haunted by ghostly creatures conjured by Nyra to lure him back to the Pure Ones. He yearns for a place he only half believes in -- the great tree -- and an uncle -- the near-mythic Soren -- who might be a true father to him. Yet he cannot approach the tree while the rumor of evil clings to him. To prove his worth, Nyroc will fly to The Beyond the Beyond seeking the legendary Relic and bring it, a talisman of his own

Feeling untalented in the team sports scheduled for his school''s Sports Spectacular, Clyde the rabbit develops his own event, a freestyle tumbling routine with a dazzling move called the "twirly burly."

Twelve-year-old Zippy, a Jewish immigrant from Russia, keeps a diary account of the first eighteen months of her family''s life on the Lower East Side of New York City in 1903-1904.

JLG County 02-16-2002 $14.95.

Written by a Newbery Honor-winning author, this is the story of a princess who longs for freedom. Jahanara is the daughter of a rich emperor in India. While she is showered with many riches, she is also confined by her strict religion and the rules of the palace.

Only nine months old when she''s crowned Queen of Scots, Mary is sent to live in France until she is old enough for marriage and the throne. While there, Mary excels at dance, music, poetry, and horsemanship.

Through photos & text, the process of maple sugar production in New England is described.

A fictional account of Harriet Hemenway and her cousin Minna Hall, and how the latest in Boston fashion led the two women to form the Audubon Society .

Two young girls enjoy playing and exploring in the nearby pond where they discover tadpoles, insects, wildflowers in the summer, and a place to ice skate in the winter.

When in the winter of 1692, accusations of witchcraft surface in her small New England village, twelve-year-old Mary Chase fights to save her mother from execution.

The two sets of Starbuck twins, in New Mexico with their father, meet a six-hundred-year-old Native American ghost and use their telepathic powers to capture the looters of ancient Anasazi artifacts.

Describes the life cycle and winter migrations of the eastern and western monarch butterflies and the two towns that protect their winter habitats. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

Birdie Flynn, a gifted Irish Catholic teenager living in East Boston, struggles with the consequences of her brother''s part in vandalizing a synagogue.