New Releases by Willo Davis Roberts

“There’s something strange about that kid.” At least that’s what everyone says, but they don’t know the truth. Perfect for fans of Stranger Things, this classic novel continues to enthrall. Katie Welker is used to being alone. She would rather read a book than deal with other people. Other people don’t have silver eyes. Other people can’t make things happen just by thinking about them! But these special powers make Katie unusual, and it’s hard to make friends when you’re unusual. Katie knows that she’s different but she’s never done anything to hurt anyone so why is everyone afraid of her? Maybe there are other kids out there who have the same silver eyes…and the same talents…and maybe they’ll be willing to help her.

After deaths of her parents, Teddi finds some stability when she moves in with Mamie, her good-hearted nextdoor neighbor--until the arrival of a woman claiming to be the pregnant wife of Mamie's son who recently died in a plane crash.

A young girl and her neighbor are kidnapped during a burglary gone awry in this hair-raising and fast-paced thriller from three-time Edgar Award–winning author Willo Davis Roberts. Sixth-grader Kaci Drummond longs for excitement and to be noticed just as her sister Jodie is for dancing, or her brother Jeff is for playing the piano. Shortly after her family moves to a new house, Kaci returns home in the middle of the school day and stumbles upon a burglary. The robbers kidnap her, and when a nosy neighbor suspects that something is wrong and tries to help, they take her as well. Kaci quickly discovers that the elderly woman not only has some good ideas, but also helps them both keep up their courage. Can the two hostages band together to escape their captors?

From three-time Edgar Award–winning author Willo Davis Roberts comes the “instantly compelling” (Kirkus Reviews) classic mystery, originally published as Buddy Is a Stupid Name for a Girl, about a young girl who unravels her family’s deepest, darkest secrets. All Buddy ever wanted was a normal family. But with her mother dead, her father missing, and her brother on the road searching for him, Buddy has a hard time believing it will ever happen. Instead she’s living with relatives she hardly knows who resent her for reasons she can’t figure out. They think everything about her is strange, especially her name. Despite all this, Buddy clings to the hope that her father is out there, somewhere, and that her brother will find him so they can be a family again. Until then will Buddy find a way to accept her new life and figure out the mystery behind her relatives’ disapproving stares?

A bestselling classic mystery about a baby-sitter who is kidnapped along with the three kids she is watching from three-time Edgar Award–winning author Willo Davis Roberts. “A solid adventure with more than a few spine-tingling moments” (Booklist). From the moment she set eyes on the three Foster kids, Darcy knew being their baby-sitter would be no picnic. But the pay was twice her usual rate, and the job was only for a few hours a day—surely an experienced baby-sitter like her could handle it. But Darcy hadn’t counted on the mysterious things that started happening at the Fosters’ home after she took the job. She did everything a good baby-sitter was supposed to do: she didn’t let the stranger claiming to be from the gas company into the house and she called the police when the burglar alarm went off in the middle of the afternoon. But that wasn’t enough to prevent a baby-sitter’s worst nightmare from coming true. Now it’s up to Darcy to rescue the Foster kids—and herself—from three ruthless kidnappers.

From critically acclaimed author Willo Davis Roberts comes an Edgar Award–winning classic mystery about a twelve-year-old girl on the run with her family. Pack up and leave? Tonight? When Megan has just one week of school left before summer vacation? Something doesn’t seem right. Megan is used to moving. After all, she’s moved a dozen times in her twelve years. But this time, something is different. They’re leaving in the middle of the night, and Megan doesn’t even have a chance to say good-bye to her best friend. What’s worse, Megan can tell her mother is frightened. It’s almost as if they’re running away from something. But from what?

This bestselling classic mystery from Willo Davis Roberts about a boy who witnesses a murder is “taut with suspense” (Booklist, starred review). Though Rob saw Mrs. Calloway fall to her death, strangled by the leather strap of her binoculars, he wants to believe that it was an accident. He wants to pretend he didn’t see the hands that pushed her out of her window. Then a flowerpot almost falls on him. And three bullets just miss him. And someone tries to poison his food. When he tries to tell his family that he thinks there has been a murder, they are too busy with his sister’s wedding to care. Will Rob be the murderer’s next victim?

Upset that his parents do not seem to pay any attention to him or care about him, eleven-year-old David becomes even more worried when they deposit him for the summer with a grandmother he hardly knows so that they can go about their own busy lives.

Mandy's life changes forever when her ten-year-old twin sister eats a hamburger tainted with E coli and dies.

When her grandmother decides to ditch assisted living and start a boarding house, fourteen-year-old Amanda Jane Keeling, or Rebel, signs on for the work crew, where she just happens to meet a teenaged boy taller than she is and to embroil them both in a mystery.

Fourteen-year-old Nikki has trouble accepting her new stepmother Crystal, and the problem grows worse when they visit the Northern California house where Crystal lived as a child and experienced some horrible event that she is trying to keep secret.

Living next door to a darkened amusement park, brothers Rick and Kenny become involved in a mystery that starts when their mother is kidnapped.

Overview: Fourteen-year-old Cici hopes for a romantic summer at the beach but instead finds herself trying to solve a murder which had occurred there the previous year.

Overview: Lewis and Alison''s vacation should be lots of fun. Driving to Yellowstone in a motor home, seeing all the fantastic sights, getting to know their new neighbors - the trip should be a blast. It turns out to be anything but. First they discover their hosts, the Rupes, have no interest in nutrition, manners, or their own children. Even worse, two strange men seem to be following them. Could they have something to do with the one-hundred-dollar bills little Billy Rupe keeps finding in the motor home? Lewis is afraid the answer is yes - and he should be.

Sure that their father will be more understanding than their grandmother, who is in charge of them while their mother is away, Vickie and Joanie take a bus a thousand miles, only to find that their father is not in his apartment. What does the blood on the windowsill mean? As the girls try to solve the mystery, they find themselves in the middle of a plot to capture a desperate criminal.

What they thought would be a dream vacation turns into a nightmare for twelve-year-old Lewis and his twin sister Alison, when they accompany their irresponsible new neighbors on a trip to Yellowstone Park and are chased by two mysterious men.

When a falling body strikes Nick's car as he drives under an overpass, the police call the man's death a suicide, but Nick suspects murder and finds his life in danger when he tries to investigate.

Steve's investigation of a haunted house that seems to be in use involves him with criminals who think he knows too much.

En route to stay with her uncle in Texas in the late 1860s, twelve-year-old Jo experiences a stagecoach robbery and becomes involved with a reluctant young outlaw aiming to change his ways.

An innocent month in the country caring for an estate turns into a nightmare for Lisa, her brothers Sam and Mickey, her pal Jill, and Sam''s friend Beau, when a fire breaks out and strange sounds haunt their nights.

When Brooke and her younger brother begin to suspect that the elderly woman, Miss Tansy, is being kept prisoner in her own home, they decide to investigate.