Historical Trees

Consie is home for a funeral when she stumbles upon a family letter sent from Germany in 1945, which contains staggering news: Consie's great-uncle Hermann, who was transported to Auschwitz with his wife and three daughters, might have escaped. This seems improbable to Consie. Did people escape from Auschwitz? Could her great-uncle have been among them? What happened to Hermann? Did anyone know? These questions are at the root of Consie's excavation of her family's history as she seeks, 70 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, to discover what happened to Hermann.

When 15-year-old Tisha Crowder gets caught shoplifting, Attorney Nolan Duffy tries to protect her from consequences that could rattle her already troubled life. His daughter, Jillian, feels like she's the one being punished instead - by having Tisha assigned to work with her on a backlog of genealogy files. Tisha doesn't seem interested in taking the job seriously, and Jillian's patience wears thin. Besides, everyone in Canyon Mines knows the Crowder family has experienced generations of brokenness. Then a sliver of hope turns up.

"Beneath the Olive Tree, A Journey of Survival" is a compelling historical fiction novel that delves into the intricate dynamics of family, loyalty, and survival amidst the backdrop of war and political upheaval. The story follows the Vassanas family, primarily through the eyes of young Joey Vassanas, as they navigate the rapidly changing societal landscape of the Mediterranean from the 1940s through the early communist era.

In the early 1920s, the accelerating destruction of the California redwoods is more than nature-loving Marion Baker can bear. After throwing herself headlong into the work of the Save the Redwoods League, she meets the handsome Frank Duncan—only to find out he’s the son of one of the area’s worst timber barons. Though deeply disappointed, she realizes she could have an opportunity to convince him to rescue her favorite grove of trees from his father’s greedy grasp. But as she grows to love Frank, will she be able to persuade him?

In the golden age of the Phoenicians, only the western reaches of the Great Sea remain uncharted. Kaly, a restless teenager from the ancient port of Tyre, escapes the clutches of her fiendish grandmother, high priestess of the Goddess. She flees west with her father, a famed helmsman and explorer. Together, they discover the fabled Pine Tree Island, where they build a new home with a motley crew of fellow adventurers.

From Newbery Honor and Walter Award–winning author Rajani LaRocca comes a gripping middle grade fantasy perfect for fans of The Serpent’s Secret and The Last Mapmaker. Though music is outlawed in the land of Devia, Sona hears it everywhere. Sona is a Malech, a member of the ruling class that...

It's 1969, and small-town girl Faith Taylor longs for the excitement of the city. Leaving her family home in Willow Tree Bend, Faith lands a job at The Angel - Melbourne's most infamous nightclub. While Faith relishes her newfound freedom, she can't help but notice that there are some things about the club that don't add up. So when a policeman shows her a shocking photograph and reveals that a former waitress was murdered, Faith realises she must help to bring down the shadowy owner behind the club's activities.

Mirza, a secretive neighbour of the Chens in Japanese Occupied Singapore, is a known collaborator and blackmailer. So when he is murdered in his garden, clutching a branch of mimosa, the suspects include local acquaintances, Japanese officials - and his own daughters. Su Lin's Uncle Chen is among those rounded up by the Japanese as reprisal. Hideki Tagawa, a former spy expelled by Police Officer Le Froy and a power in the new regime, offers Su Lin her uncle's life in exchange for using her fluency in languages and knowledge of locals to find the real killer.

In book two of the Tree Street Kids series, Jack and his friends learn some survival skills at the church’s summer camp. They’ll need them! Determined to find Ruthie’s lost cat and protect Jack’s new puppy from Fang, the local wildlife, the kids head deep into the woods. Just when they think they’ve cornered the “enemy”, the kids realize someone has gone missing. Is Fang up to no good? Or will faith and friendship be enough to see the kids make it out alive?

A winner of the Pura Belpré Award, now in Spanish! “We need books to break open our hearts, so that we might feel more deeply, so that we might be more human in these unkind times. This is a book doing work of the spirit in a time of darkness.” —Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on...

Lovely Margaret Stewart was a proud and spirited young lady - too proud to accept the unwilling hospitality of her only living relative. But in strait-laced New Orleans early in the 19th century, there were few means for a respectable young woman to make her own way in the world - and that was why Margaret came, as governess to the forbiding Villars mansion. In her charge was a child who seem possessed by satanic evil. Invading her dreams was the darlky handsome, fierce-tempered man who employed her.

Jack and Annie are caught out in the rain in the most dangerous Magic Tree House mission yet! Jack and Annie are on a mission! When the magic tree house whisks them back to Galveston, Texas, in 1900, they find out that a big storm is coming. But even though there is rain and wind, no one...

Shenda, the beautiful daughter of Lord Linbury, finds herself all alone when he dies. She finds a letter he has written to his friend, the Duke of Wellington, asking him to look after and protect her. The Duke is in Paris having just won the Battle of Waterloo and Shenda travels nervously to Paris to meet him and he quickly realises that as she is young and innocent, he cannot have her to stay in his own house. He, therefore, takes Shenda to nurse one of his young Officers who has been badly wounded at Waterloo. Captain Ivan Worth, as he calls himself, is really the Marquis of Kenworth.

This is a tale of witches and wishes, tales and trees, stepmothers, spells and a girl who sleeps in the ashes by the fire.... But it's not the one you know.

Spring, 1096. Europe’s princes march their armies toward the Holy Land. They are accompanied by tens of thousands of pilgrims, led by a fiery preacher Peter the Hermit. Their destination is Jerusalem, the holiest of all Christian cities. Their goal is to conquer the Muslim occupation. History will call them the First Crusade. Among the pilgrims is Oderic of Rheims, a Benedictine monk from Eastern France. He's devoted to the cause, but the Crusade will test every vow he swore to the Church. His poverty will be challenged by greed, his obedience tempted by blood lust.

The year is 1831. As England emerges from the post war depression, the country is changing, and the birth pains of the Reform Act bring it to the brink of revolution. The violent times breed violent acts, both outside and inside the Morland family. Sophie's life is shattered by a hideous crime. Rosamund learns that achieving her dreams brings as much pain as pleasure. Heloise, mourning her beloved James, let’s control of Morland Place fall into chaos. And amongst them all stalks the deadly, invisible threat of cholera.

Before the #MeToo movement, there was the 1970s and three girls - Tessa, Athena, Jenny – looking for love, friendship, and meaningful futures. In desiring to break traditional roles in gender and sexuality, they face challenges from family, church and society. With new freedoms, there are also dangers. This is a story of women's empowerment that has relevance today for women and men. For listeners aged 15+

When Eloise Blackburn finds a strange gentleman perched in the leafy branches of an ash tree, she has strong suspicions he is not who he says he is. After all, the neighboring Allen family has never mentioned a cousin named Crispin from the West Indies. And what's this he's saying about a missing inheritance and a secret passageway in Allen Abbey?

Charles Ball was born into slavery in Calvert County, Maryland and served there under several owners until, at twenty-six, he was sold and taken to South Carolina as part of a fifty-person coffle. After nearly seven years of grueling and often intolerable treatment in South Carolina and Georgia, he fled Georgia and returned to Maryland. This creative rendering of Balls' 1837 autobiography closely follows the original narrative. It recounts his upbringing in Maryland, his forced march to the deep South, and his escape and journey back home.

In The Wishing Tree, Ivy Marshall, a savvy, determined woman, finds out her husband has cheated on her on the same day her sister’s perfect boyfriend proposes on national television. When Ivy’s mother asks her to return to her family’s beach home to plan her sister’s upcoming wedding...