Key Selling Points Fifteen-year-old Malcolm Gravenhurst is about to become a Guardian to defend his city against aliens when he learns some disturbing truths about his family. Guardians of Porthaven offers an excellent exploration of allyship and representation featuring themes of male mental health, LGBTQ+ relationships, in-equality and equity in action. This book is perfect for fans of the Percy Jackson series or the X-Men comics. The author has long been a superhero-comics fan and wanted to explore the less glamorous consequences of having that kind of power. The story is also a subtle and timely commentary on socioeconomic disparity and the responsibilities of the wealthy and privileged. Free Discussion Guide available for download at orcabook.com.
A well-crafted debut novel that offers serious food for thought for young readers, without being too scary Effie knew she wasn't the same after her accident but didn't realize how different she had become until her family vacation. When Effie begins to hear whispers and have visions things get really strange! Effie finds a love letter to her mother that isn't from her father! A strange mystery girl seems to follow her wherever she goes but vanishes before Effie can confront her. Even the rides in the amusement park begin to speak to her! Effie wonders; is she going crazy? Are all the things that are happening trying to tell her something? The perfect mystery story for those who love Crystal Beach and it's popular amusement park that was closed down in 1989.
In this illustrated middle-grade novel and second book in the Tank & Fizz series, a goblin detective and a technology-tinkering troll must dodge battle bots and spellbooks to prevent the return of an ancient demon.
The thrilling new mystery by Wattpad's Deanna Cameron, for fans of One of Us is Lying and A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. Bronwyn Larson's life has literally been torn apart. An EF4 tornado ripped through their trailer park and her mom is found dead, miles away after the storm. Suddenly, her estranged senator father is a part of her life, who's been absent since Bronwyn was born as a product of her parents' secretive affair. After living alone with her mother in a trailer for seventeen years, Bronwyn now has a stepmother and four new siblings, including an older brother and sister who seem skeptical, if not actually disproving, of Bronwyn living with them. While staying with them in their vacation lake house, Bronwyn is hit with the bombshell that her mother's death is being treated as suspicious, with injuries inconsistent of being killed during the tornado. Bronwyn doesn't know who trust or who to believe about her mother's death. Torn between her life as the daughter of an addict and of a well-respected senator, Bronwyn is forced to navigate through this new unfamiliar life alone, with this gut feeling she has. Could her mother's killer be more familiar than she'd ever imagine?
The city of Terra Nova was founded on a lie: that the spirits who cross over from the spirit world are evil and must be captured for the safety of humanity. But Molly Stout and her family have learned that the spirits are thinking, feeling beings, enslaved to enrich the wealthy, especially the spirit-harvesting company Haviland Industries and its founder, Charles Arkwright. With the help of her family and the aetheric spirits Ariel and Legerdemain, Molly has been fighting to free the spirits. But Terra Nova runs on spiritual machinery, and for each factory they shut down, another takes its place. As Haviland Industries and the authorities of Terra Nova tighten their nets around Molly, she begins to question whether she is really making any difference or if her rebellion puts people and spirits at risk. Terra Nova is the sequel to Dominion.
When the “grownup virus” hits, kids who live in the same apartment building must cope with strange new rules and extended time at home with parents and siblings. And they survive brilliantly, each in their own way. Twin boys throw themselves into an independent research assignment on prehistoric people and embrace their own devolution. A budding track star is encouraged to run laps on his balcony by a neighbor who has a secret crush on him. A classroom troublemaker reaches out to a teacher when his own father begins to exhibit signs of mental illness. A young entrepreneur saves himself and his hairdresser mother from financial collapse by renting out the family dog. And a girl finds a way to communicate with her hearing-impaired neighbor so that they can spy on the rest of the building. The stories follow the course of the pandemic, from the early measures through lockdown, as the kids in the building observe the stresses on the adults around them and use their own quirky kid ingenuity to come up with ways to make their lives better. Funny, poignant and wise, this book will long outlive even the pandemic. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.3 Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character's thoughts, words, or actions). CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.6 Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated, including the difference between first- and third-person narrations. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.3 Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact). CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.5 Explain how a series of chapters, scenes, or stanzas fits together to provide the overall structure of a particular story, drama, or poem. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6 Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3 Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.5 Analyze how a particular sentence, chapter, scene, or stanza fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the theme, setting, or plot. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.6 Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.
