Showing results by publisher "Candlewick on Brilliance Audio" in All Categories

It all starts with a train rushing through the night…. Well, actually, it starts when Jon Scieszka, former National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, writes a cliff-hanger episode and passes it on to the next member of a cast of celebrated writers, who continues the story and pass it on. And what happens between episodes one and 27? Think werewolves and mad scientists, a talking pig, plenty of explosions, a blue Star Wars lunchbox, two meatballs, a whole army of villains and varmints, and more!

Snatched up by an unscrupulous and abusive showman, Wild Boy, covered in hair from head to toe, becomes a sideshow freak. Isolated from other children and wickedly abused by the cruel master who bought him, Wild Boy becomes an avid observer, developing Sherlock Holmes - like deductive skills. Although he is tormented and insulted, kicked and spat at, his quick mind takes in everything he sees. When a murder occurs at the fair, Wild Boy is hastily accused. Can he use his powers of deduction to save himself?

The Bed and Biscuit animal boardinghouse has gone wild! Grampa Bender is temporarily caring for a wounded Canada goose, a cranky old muskrat, and two starving fox kits. Luckily Ernest, Grampa’s capable mini-pig, is there to encourage the other animals to be good hosts. But the visiting creatures are wild, not tame, and they all just want to go home! Despite the chaos, Ernest also takes on the training of Sir Walter the Scottie, the newest addition to Grampa’s blended animal family.

Jesse is having the worst year. First a race of homicidal (but very polite) aliens invaded Earth, killing pretty much everyone and enslaving the few people left behind, including Jesse; his best friend, Michael; his sort-of girlfriend, Lauren; and the girl of his dreams, Catlin. Then he and the other survivors discovered that they had some sort of latent telepathic abilities that made them dangerous to the aliens, so their only hope for survival was to run away. But not everyone made it out alive.

Did you know that Paul Laurence Dunbar originated such famous lines as "I know why the caged bird sings" and "We wear the mask that grins and lies"? From his childhood in poverty and his early promise as a poet through his struggles to find acceptance as a writer and his tumultuous romance with his wife, to his immense fame and his untimely death, Dunbar's story is one of triumph and tragedy.

Slingshot and Burp - two pea-shootin', slingshot-totin' cowhands on two wheels - are on the lookout for action. Bleached bones? Bring 'em on! Lost outlaws? Let's go! Hidden loot? Yee haw! Rattlesnakes! Scorpions! Ghost cats! Wait, what...? Whoa! Saddled up to battle the boredom of summer, these two double cousins, best friends, and next-door neighbors have fitted themselves out like Old West cowboys to charge boldly (and sometimes bravely) into the southwestern desert that is their backyard.

A gentle visionary coming of age in the shadow of the shipyards of Northern England, Dominic Hall is torn between extremes. On the one hand, he craves the freedom he feels when he steals away with the eccentric girl artist next door, Holly Stroud - his first and abiding love - to balance above the earth on a makeshift tightrope. With Holly, Dom dreams of a life different in every way from his shipbuilder dad's, a life fashioned of words and images and story.

A toy soldier. A butter dish. A compass. Mundane objects, perhaps, but to the remarkable authors in this collection, artifacts such as these have inspired stories that go to the heart of the human experience of World War I. Each author was invited to choose an object that had a connection to the war - a writing kit for David Almond, a helmet for Michael Morpurgo - and use it as the inspiration for an original short story.

It’s the summer of 1962, and Scott and his friends spend their days playing baseball and thinking about girls. But the threat of nuclear war looms over everything they do, and they are haunted by the idea that they could all be dead tomorrow. Even though the possibility of war is all anyone talks about, Scott’s dad is the only one in the neighborhood who actually prepares for the worst, building a bomb shelter to protect his family and stocking it with enough supplies to keep them alive for two critical weeks. The neighbors scoff, but then, in the middle of the night in late October, the unthinkable happens.

This is a true story about Frances, age 9, who saw fairies by the waterfall behind her house. Nobody but Frances saw them, but when she told her cousin Elsie and their parents, the adults teased them. Why not take a photograph? Elsie (who was fifteen) had the idea. She would paint paper fairies and take their picture with Frances, and none would be the wiser. The girls never meant to fool the world. Who could have imagined that Elsie’s photograph would fall into the hands of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the world’s most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes?

Kosh did not feel courageous. Looking at the disko, it was all he could do not to collapse into a quaking, blubbering puddle of terror. He was half certain he was going to die. But the alternative - leaving Emma in the hands of Gheen without even trying to rescue her - was unthinkable. He would not want to live if he had to live with that. In present-day Hopewell, an adult Kosh Feye discovers a sweet and painful piece of his past when he’s rescued by the Lamb Emma.

After her best friend, Annie, leaves for a fancy camp in New Hampshire, Ivy can’t imagine how she’s going to endure the long, hot Nevada summer with no one around but that pain-in-the-neck Billy Joe Butterworth next door and all those melancholy visitors to the Red Star Guest Ranch. Happily, an answer comes to Ivy in a flash of honey-colored topaz, and she cleverly hires herself out to take care of people’s farm animals or pets while they’re away. So begins a summer of discovery for tenderhearted but sensible Ivy....

On a sunny day at the beach with her mom and brother, 15-year-old Jane Arrowood went for a swim. And then everything — absolutely everything — changed. Now she’s counting down the days until she returns to school with her fake arm and kids will whisper, "That’s her. That’s Shark Girl," when she passes. But right now there are only questions. Why did this happen? Why her? What about her art? What about her life?

Abby doesn’t remember what happened the night she woke up in soot-stained clothes, lying next to a burning building with an unfamiliar boy at her side. But her connection with Sam is immediate and intense. And she has no one else: no family, no home, not even a last name. She and Sam start a new life, just the two of them, and Abby’s deliriously happy - until memories from her past begin to haunt her. And suddenly everything she’s learned to love turns sinister....

When Luke Manchett's estranged father dies suddenly, he leaves his son a dark inheritance: a collection of eight restless spirits, known as his Host, who want revenge for their long enslavement. Once they figure out that Luke has no clue how to manage them, they become increasingly belligerent, and eventually mutiny. Halloween (the night when ghosts reach the height of their power) is fast approaching, and Luke knows his Host is planning something far more trick than treat.

Poppo's mind wandered. And Poppo wandered, too. Sometimes. Not often. Not yet, anyway. Arlo's grandfather travels in time. Not literally - he just mixes up the past with the present. Eleven-year-old Arlo holds on as best he can - because his grandfather is all the family he knows. Arlo fixes himself cereal for dinner and gives money to the owner of the corner store for the sausages Poppo takes without remembering to pay. But how long before someone finds out that Arlo is taking care of his grandfather instead of the other way around?

Sadie Windas has always been the responsible one - she’s the star player on her AAU basketball team, gets good grades, dates a cute soccer player, and helps out at home. Not like her older sister, Carla, who hangs out with druggies and leaves her three-year-old daughter, Lulu, with Aunt Sadie while she parties and gets high. But when Sadie and Carla are caught up in a drug deal - wrong place, wrong time - it falls to Sadie to clean up the mess, confessing to a crime she didn’t commit to keep Carla out of jail and Lulu out of foster care. She’s supposed to get off with a slap on the wrist. Instead, she’s sentenced to six months in juvie.

Everyone’s given up. Dad keeps burning pizzas, and he doesn’t smile anymore. Sally wears only black now and has a terrible secret. Conor plays the drums all night and keeps the neighbors awake. And the dog, Sparkler, hasn’t been walked in months. And that’s not even counting how terrible things are at school. But Mimi isn’t one to give up. John Newman has crafted a novel both touching and comic - a portrait of loss, compassion, and the power that comes from sticking together.

It sucks being with Grandpa in this new town. It sucks that they left the old place without finding Rosco. Travis doesn’t want to do anything, especially try to get by in his classes, which never seems possible, anyway. He’s a Bluefish - stupid, angry, alone. Then, suddenly, there’s a girl. Velveeta. She’s up in his face and she’s not backing down. She is as loud as he is quiet, as outgoing as he is shut in. She’s pretty, in a funky, scarf-wearing sort of way, and she’s smart - way smart - smart enough to figure out that Travis has a secret.

Princess Adela has always been more than a little unconventional. She would rather work in her garden than find a husband - much to her step-mother’s dismay - and Adela’s version of happily ever after involves traveling the world and collecting rare plant specimens. So when the opportunity arises to attend a garden party thrown by Lady Hortensia, whose beauty is rumored to be rivaled only by the loveliness of her gardens, Adela cannot resist inviting herself, even if it means wearing a too-tight dress and impractical shoes.