An award-winning, thoughtful, and moving glimpse into life during the DepressionCat is the fastest kid at her school—and with Play Day is coming up soon, she will be able to show off her speed to everybody. Unfortunately, her old-fashioned father forbids her to wear pants, even while playing sports. So Cat refuses to race, and Zane, an Okie boy whose family works on a nearby farm, wins. Cat is furious that Zane is so fast, and angry that he was able to beat all the sixth-grade boys, even in his bare feet.Though Cat hates Zane at the start, soon the two become friends. They are the school's best runners, after all. But while Cat's family is doing well, Zane's family has lost everything in the Depression. All Cat can offer Zane's family is sympathy and friendship . . . until Zane's sister gets pneumonia and Cat and Zane are forced into a race for the little girl's life.This ebook features an extended biography of Zilpha Keatley Snyder.

Three-time Newbery Honor winner Zilpha Keatley Snyder combines a cast of quirky characters with an eerie old mansion to create a spellbinding tale of mystery and magic. Harleigh J. Weatherby IV feels misunderstood. At age twelve he is about as tall as a six-year-old, and no one lets him forget it. At school the bullies nicknamed him Hardly. Now he is homeschooled at the Weatherby mansion, where strict Aunt Adelaide is always on his case about something. Then Harleigh meets Allegra. When she literally flies over the walls of Weatherby and into Harleighs life, the two form an unlikely friendship. Allegra is fascinated by the enormous Weatherby mansion, and against Harleighs orders, sneaks inside. Together they discover that someone is trying to findand stealthe long-lost Weatherby treasure. Will Harleigh and Allegra be able to foil the villain and save Weatherby House?

Ivy and Martha are not ordinary friends, Ivy is changeling with supernatural powers—or is she?Martha is incredibly unpopular. She's overweight, buck-toothed, and shy. Ivy is an outcast. Her family lives on the outskirts of town amid a field of derelict orchards. But starting in second grade, the girls form a bond that allows them to take control of their own lives.It all begins when Ivy tells Martha that she is no ordinary girl: She claims she's a changeling, switched with the real Ivy at birth. With the strength of Ivy's friendship, Martha becomes more confident and sure of herself. And through their bond, Ivy gains the normalcy she needs, away from life with her tumultuous family. When the two girls play, they enter an elaborate fantasy world all their own. But when the real world threatens to split them apart, their friendship becomes more important than ever.This ebook features an extended biography of Zilpha Keatley Snyder.

Summer is just a teenager, but sometimes she feels like the parentFifteen-year-old Summer McIntyre lives with her mother, Oriole, and seven-year-old sister, Sparrow, in a trailer in Alvarro Bay City, overlooking the Pacific. Oriole is a Northern California flower child who fantasizes about being at one with nature and forgets about needing money. Even though she's only fifteen, Summer is good at being Mom.That is, until Oriole's new boyfriend upsets the precarious balance in their lives. Suddenly Summer has to protect her family as she copes with the dangers of drug-smuggling, blackmailing, and even terrorism.Set during the 1980s, The Birds of Summer is the story of a teenager with the responsibilities of adulthood thrust upon her shoulders, who learns how to adapt . . . and how to survive. Winner of the PEN Literary Award and the Parents' Choice Award.This ebook features an extended biography of Zilpha Keatley Snyder.

The world of Green-sky has been united, but as Raamo and his friends discover, the hard part has just begunRaamo, Pomma, and Teera have succeeded. They have torn down the lies told by the Ol-zhaan and united the Erdlings with the Kindar. The truth has won out. But why does winning feel so much like losing?Old habits and ideas die hard. While Raamo and his fellow child-heroes are worshipped for the Rejoyning, distrust still hangs over the Erdlings and Kindar like an ominous cloud. The societies above and below the forests' roots have discovered something new: Knowing the truth is easy, but living with the truth is hard. Resistance groups are growing, and violence threatens to poison the promise of peace. Can Raamo, Pomma, and Teera unite Green-sky before it's too late?This ebook features an extended biography of Zilpha Keatley Snyder.

Newbery Medal winner Zilpha Keatley Snyder delves into the paranormal in this story of a teenage boy who makes an extraordinary discoveryThe whole thing started six years ago when Dion James was around eight or nine. He got a shoe-shining gig on the corner of Palm and Eighth, outside the big glass-and-bronze doors of Alcott-Simpson's department store. With his unruly hair and bad limp from polio, Dion looked like a refugee. Envisioning himself one day working at Alcott-Simpson's, he cleans up his act and starts dressing better. Fourteen-year-old Dion still dreams of working at the luxury department store when he sees a girl with big black eyes and long black hair pursued by store detectives for stealing a sweater. A few days later, Dion is in the store when he hears a scream, and all hell breaks loose. Locked in after the store empties out, Dion sees a familiar figure: the sweater thief. Her name is Sara, and soon she and Dion are eyewitnesses to a bizarre series of events that...

Twelve-year-old William S. Baggett is one of eight Baggett children, and he is ready to escape his negligent family. Since his very first day of school in 1931, he has been saving up money to run away. Thats exactly what he doesalong with three of his younger siblingsafter his older brothers flush a pet guinea pig down the toilet. The four children are headed to their aunt Fionas house, but the trip doesnt go exactly as plannedespecially when a lonely rich girl decides to help them. Will they ever make it to Aunt Fionas? And if they do, will she let them stay?

The kids from The Egypt Game are back. What game will they play next? The answer is Gypsies. While April plunges in with her usual enthusiasm, the more Melanie learns, the more something seems to be holding her back. But it's Toby who adds a really new wrinkle when he announces that he himself is a bona fide Gypsy. Plus he can get them some of his grandmother's things to use as real Gypsy props for the new game. What could be more thrilling? Then Toby suddenly and mysteriously disappears, and the kids discover that living as real-life Gypsies may not be as much fun as they thought. How will they find Toby and rescue him from the very real problems that are haunting his life?From Publishers WeeklyThis sequel to The Egypt Game "continues to offer Snyder's well-nigh irresistible combination of suspense, wit and avowal of the imagination," said PW in a starred review. Ages 8-12. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. From School Library JournalGrade 5-7. Limited character development, a vague setting, and frequent references to events in Snyder's The Egypt Game (Atheneum, 1972) make this title most accessible to fans of the earlier book. Here, the friends are researching Gypsies for a new game when one of them, Toby Alvillar, finds his life complicated by family problems. Caught in a custody dispute between his father and his grandparents, the boy leaves home. Although Snyder has skillfully updated some aspects of her original story (e.g., making racial differences known through description rather than labeling), her characters seem oddly sheltered. Toby's decision to run away, for example, seems a naive overreaction, given the current realities of urban life and the capture of a child murderer in the previous book. Equally disconcerting is the willingness of the other children to conceal Toby's whereabouts. Despite these occasionally unbelievable plot twists, Snyder succeeds in making readers care about Toby's situation. The game itself, however, does not go well, for the children's discovery of the age-old persecution of Gypsies sours their enthusiasm. Snyder injects a contemporary (and hopeful) note by having her characters translate their discomfort into a resolve to help some present-day "gypsies": the homeless people whom Toby encountered as a runaway. With all the action, information, and emotion packed into the novel, it is little wonder that Snyder relies upon her readers to be already familiar with characters and setting, and it is for them that this companion book will have the most appeal.?Lisa Dennis, The Carnegie Library of PittsburghCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Abby doesn't want to be different, but she doesn't have a choice—she has magic, and it's not in her imaginationAbigail O'Malley resents having the psychic powers that set her apart from other kids. Even though her kindergarten teacher assured her that her visions were just her imagination (which Abby heard as magic nation), Abby knows they're very real. She just wants to be normal, like her best friend, Paige Borden, and grow up to be a lawyer or maybe an Olympic gold-medalist skier. If her powers are so special, why can't she find a way to bring her parents back together?But Abby's ability to read minds and find missing objects comes in handy when she helps solve cases at her mom's private detective agency. The trouble starts when Abby accidentally reveals her special gift to Paige. Now that Paige knows her secret, she keeps trying to get Abby to use her magic to figure out everyday mysteries. But whenPaige's little brother Sky goes missing, Abby has to put her powers to...

Tymmon was thrown out of his kingdom, and has to make his way in the world, but unexpected help from a singing gargoyle will certainly make that easierIn one night, Tymmon's life is turned upside down. His father, the beloved court jester of Austernerve, is kidnapped in a night raid. Tymmon escapes his father's fate but must find shelter in the dark, deep, and dangerous Sombrous Forest.There, he meets another kind of outcast: Troff, a fearsome-looking dog-like gargoyle with an unexpectedly gorgeous singing voice. Together, the two form a great duo: Tymmon plays the flute while Troff sings. They take their act around the kingdom, until a chance encounter with a mysterious old man gives the two an opportunity to save Tymmon's father, and change Tymmon's life forever.This ebook features an extended biography of Zilpha Keatley Snyder.

When the four Stanley children meet Amanda, their new stepsister, they're amazed to learn that she studies witchcraft. They're stunned to see her dressed in a strange costume, carrying a pet crow and surrounded by a pile of books about the supernatural. It's not long before Amanda promises to give witchcraft lessons to David, Jamie, and the twins. But that's when strange things start happening in their old house. David suspects Amanda of causing mischief, until they learn that the house really was haunted long ago.Legend has it that a ghost cut the head off of a wooden cupid on the stairway. Has the ghost returned to strike again?

From three-time Newbery Medal winner Zilpha Keatley Snyder comes the story of three desperate kids who just want to run awayDani O'Donnell hates the dusty desert town of Rattler Springs and the ramshackle cabin where she lives with her widowed mother. On the eve of her thirteenth birthday, Dani hatches a plan to run away and return home to Sea Grove, California, with its palm trees and ocean breezes.But her scheme gets complicated when Stormy Arigotti, a dyslexic nine-year-old, decides he wants in. As if that weren't enough, a big-city family just set up shop on the rundown ranch Dani's mother inherited from her husband—and the daughter, Pixie Smithson, wants to join the runaway group. Pixie's the strangestgirl Dani has ever met, but now they have to think about practical things, like raising money for three bus tickets.For Dani, Stormy, and Pixie, running away might not turn out to be the great adventure they envisioned.This ebook features an extended biography of Zilpha...

For as long as he can remember, people have warned Rudy not to play in the mines . . .Fourteen-year-old Rudy Drummond lives with his mother and half sisters, Margot and Moira—the M and M's—in Pyramid Hill, California's legendary gold rush town. But Rudy's got a secret: He's terrified of dark, closed-in places. So when his best friend, Barney, and Tyler, the new kid in town, decide to explore the abandoned Pritchard's Hole mine, Rudy has to come up with an excuse for why he can't go without arousing their suspicions.He tries everything, from babysitting Margot and Moira to giving a girl named Heather horseback riding lessons. But Rudy can't stop the other boys from venturing into the forbidden mine shaft—an expedition that brings back memories of being buried alive.  During this summer vacation, Rudy will struggle to overcome his fears, fall in love, and become a hero as he makes life-changing discoveries about himself, his family, and his friends. A Junior...