Most Popular Books by Kathryn Lasky

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 third book in the GUARDIANS OF GA''HOOLE series, a classic hero mythology, chronicles Soren''s quest for his missing mentor, Ezylryb, and battle against his evil brother, Kludd.Now that Soren has been reunited with his sister, Eglantine, he must face his next challenge: making sense of the mysterious disappearance of his mentor, Ezylryb. When Soren discovers that Ezylryb is in danger, he and his friends Gylfie, Twilight, and Digger devise a plan to save the beloved teacher.In this process, Soren must fight a ferocious foe who wears a terrifying metal beak, sharpened for battle. It''s not until the confrontation is over that Soren discovers the true identity of his opponent. The metal beaked warrior is Soren''s evil brother, Kludd.

In the fifth book in this series, the war between an evil group led by Soren''s brother, Kludd, and the owls of the Great Ga''Hoole Tree rages on.In the midst of war, Eglantine unwittingly becomes a spy for Kludd, leader of the Pure Ones (a group of evil owls). She is brainwashed by an owl sent by the Pure Ones to infiltrate the Great Ga''Hoole Tree. Her odd behavior eventually attracts attention, and Soren and his friends vow to find out what''s wrong with Eglantine. They ultimately learn what happened and help her reverse the effects of the brainwashing. Kludd continues to battle against the Guardians of Ga''Hoole for control of their tree. In the end, Kludd and his forces are defeated. But his conflict with Soren is not yet over.

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.

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.

The Grand Battle begins with the search for allies in the Northern Kindoms and ends in The Burning that will change all Owldom forever.Soren and his band are sent to the mysterious Northern Kingdoms to gather allies and learn the art of war in preparation for the coming cataclysmic battle against the sinister Pure Ones. Meanwhile, in the Southern Kingdoms, St. Aggies has fallen to the Pure Ones and they are using its resources to plan a final invasion of The Great Ga''Hoole Tree. With the future of all Owldom in the balance, the parliament of Ga''Hoole must decide whether or not to join forces with the brutal Skench and Sporn and the scattered remnants of St. Aggies who remain faithful to them. A great battle is on the

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

The eleventh title in this best-selling series brings Hoole to kingship and the legends to fulfilment signaling a return to the adventures of Coryn, Soren and the Band.In this final book of the Legends trilogy Hoole reclaims the thrown of his father and goes on to wage a war against the forces of chaos, greed and oppression led by the powerful warlord-tyrants. Grank, the first collier, uses his skills with fire and metals to forge weapons for battle. With great trepidation Hoole uses the power of the Ember in the final, decisive battle and wins. At the dawn of a new ear of peace, Hoole searches for the ideal place to establish not a kingdom but an order of free owls and finds the Great Tree. (continued)

The fantastic prequel trilogy to the bestselling series GUARDIANS OF GA''HOOLE begins!It is a time of Legends and a time of chaos. Warlords vie for power and marauding outlaws roam the land. Good King Hrath and his queen, Siv, noble Spotted Owls struggle to keep peace in their kingdom. Grank, noble Spotted Owl, friend and supporter of King Hrath, has exiled himself to Beyond the Beyond, where he has developed his firesight and learns how to work with embers, fire and how to forge metals. He is the First Collier. Deep in a volcano in the farthest reaches of Beyond the Beyond, he discovers a magical Ember but fears its awful powers will be misused and hides it again. (continued)

The adventure continues! In a land no owl knew existed, Soren, Coryn, and the Guardians find danger, knowledge, and new allies.Coryn and the Band have returned to the Great Ga''Hoole Tree and restored order. With the Ember safely hidden away, the tree shakes off its gaudy golden glow and recovers its natural majesty. Meanwhile, deep in the Palace of Mists, Bess finds an ancient map fragment that reveals that there are not 5 owl kingdoms -- as has been thought since time immemorial -- but 6. Coryn and the chaw of chaws set off to find this unknown land. In a landscape of perpetual winter, they discover a monastery of serene, learned owls, the likes of which no one has ever seen before.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

For generations, the noble polar bears have ruled the Northern Kingdoms. But now, their society is on the brink of collapse. A group of power-hungry bears has seized control, and darkness is creeping across the snow.

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.

Abruptly arrested by Hitler''s police and imprisoned as part of the "Gypsy plague," 15-year-old Lilo is chosen by the dictator''s favorite filmmaker, Leni Riefenstahl, to work as an extra, forcing Lilo to choose between working under constant danger or fleeing for her life. By the Newbury Honor-winning author of Sugaring Time.

As the daughter of the fallen Anne Boleyn, young Princess Elizabeth lives a complicated and dangerous life. She fears her father Henry VIII''s famous temper, and she knows that Princess Mary is not only her sister but also her rival. Court intrigue swirls around the young princess, and she is forced at an early age to distinguish friend from foe.

With the Northern Kingdoms run by noble polar bears north of Ga''Hoole on the brink of collapse, a group of power-hungry bears has seized control. When their mother is taken prisoner by the bears, twin inexperienced polar bear cubs begin a quest to find her and not only must learn how to survive but will end up in the midst of an epic battle.