Voyage of the Sparrowhawk
Voyage of the Sparrowhawk

Author: Natasha Farrant

Publisher: WW Norton

Published: 2021-10-12

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 1324019735

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Winner of the 2020 Costa Children's Book Award A Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Book of 2021 A Times and Sunday Times Best Book of the Year In the aftermath of World War One, everyone in the small town of Barton is rebuilding their lives. Ben needs to find his brother, Sam—who was wounded in action and is now missing—if he wants to avoid being sent to the orphanage. Lotti’s horrible aunt and uncle want to send her away from her beloved home to boarding school, just when she has successfully managed to get expelled from her last one. When a chance encounter brings the two children together, each recognizes the other as a kindred spirit. But just as they’ve found their feet, disaster strikes, and Ben and Lotti must run away. They hatch a plan to cross the English Channel on Ben’s narrowboat, the Sparrowhawk, and track down Sam in France. But there’s something in France that Lotti is looking for, too. . . . Funny, heartwarming, and wise, Voyage of the Sparrowhawk is full of high stakes, twists and connections, and—most of all—adventure.

The Children of Castle Rock
The Children of Castle Rock

Author: Natasha Farrant

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Published: 2018-02-27

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 057132357X

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St Trinians and Lauren St John collide in this hilarious and thrilling bestselling adventure from Natasha Farrant! When Alice Mistlethwaite is shipped off to boarding school in Scotland it's nothing like she imagines. Run by the mysterious Major, there are no punishments and the students are more likely to be taught about body painting or extreme survival than maths or English! Then Alice's dad goes missing and she must run away to find him. Can she persuade her new friends to help? So begins an epic quest across wild Scottish highlands and islands, where friendships will be made and broken, lies will be untangled and the children will face danger and excitement at every turn . . . Both hilarious and heartfelt, this is the classic adventure story brought bang up to date, and told in Natasha's inimitable voice. 'Thrilling adventure.' The Times 'This wise and touching novel has originality and a fresh voice.' Sunday Times 'A gripping adventure . . . I stayed up all night reading it!' Emma Carroll, author of Letters from the Lighthouse

Jack Frake
Jack Frake

Author: Edward Cline

Publisher: MacAdam/Cage Publishing

Published: 2002-07

Total Pages: 380

ISBN-13: 9781931561211

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The first book in the Sparrowhawk series of historical novels, introducing readers to life in eighteenth-century England, where rumblings of discontent amongst the citizens with government and Crown begin. Jack Frake is no exception to this endemic restlessness. From an early age, Jack Frake develops an independent mind and spirit, traits that are not openly welcomed by all for someone of his lowly class. Fate and circumstance lead him to join a band of smugglers and he faithfully furthers their cause. Jack eventually departs for the American colonies aboard the Sparrowhawk, destined for Virginia. He sets out to rescue his friend from the constable's jail, but instead of saving his friend, he finds his own life in danger.

The Secret Starling
The Secret Starling

Author: Judith Eagle

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Published: 2021-06-08

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1536218413

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A tattered ballet slipper found under the floorboards of Braithwaite Manor may be the key to Clara’s sinister family secrets in this delightful, lightly Gothic mystery for fans of Maryrose Wood and Claire Legrand. Clara Starling lives a life of dull rules, deadly routine, and flavorless meals under her cold uncle's strict regime—until the day Uncle disappears, leaving Clara alone in his old mansion. When streetwise orphan Peter and his rescue cat arrive unexpectedly, the children seize the chance to live by their own rules. But when the pair’s wild romps through the halls of Braithwaite Manor reveal a single, worn ballet slipper, they are hurled into a mystery that will lead to London’s glittering Royal Opera House and the unraveling of twisted Starling family secrets of poison, passion, and murder. Diabolical villains, plucky orphans, and glamorous ballet stars populate this absorbing adventure with a classic feel.

The Girl Who Talked to Trees
The Girl Who Talked to Trees

Author: Natasha Farrant

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-11-11

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 1800242255

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Magical interlinked stories about what one girl learns from talking to trees throughout Time and from around the world in a sumptuous gift book presentation. From the team who brought you Eight Princesses and a Magic Mirror, Costa Book Award winning Natasha Farrant and Lydia Corry. Olive's best friend is a four-hundred-year-old oak tree, and it is in danger. As she tumbles into its magic world, she makes it a promise. From deep roots to high branches, a Persian garden to an underwater forest, from tulip trees to wild apple to vengeful box, she listens to the trees telling stories for all time. And she keeps her promise. With a conservation message and facts about tree science alongside the magic and wonder of seven beautifully imagined original stories, this full-colour gift book enchants and reminds us of the importance of trees in our lives. 'Terrific and inspirational' Irish Times

Imperial Vancouver Island
Imperial Vancouver Island

Author: J. F. Bosher

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

Published: 2010-04

Total Pages: 839

ISBN-13: 1450059627

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"During the century 1850-1950 Vancouver Island attracted Imperial officers and other Imperials from India, the British Isles, and elsewhere in the Empire. Victoria was the main British port on the north-west Pacific Coast for forty years before the city of Vancouver was founded in 1886 to be the coastal terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway. These two coastal cities were historically and geographically different. The Island joined Canada in 1871 and thirty-five years later the Royal Navy withdrew from Esquimalt, but Island communities did not lose their Imperial character until the 1950s."--P. [4] of cover.

The Witch's Daughter
The Witch's Daughter

Author: Nina Bawden

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Published: 2011-12-15

Total Pages: 156

ISBN-13: 0571287085

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On the Scottish island of Skua, friendship develops between the lonely and mysterious Perdita and a blind girl, Janey. Both possess a kind of second sight - Janey's is the ability to hear, feel and remember more than others, and Perdita's is the ominous legacy of her being a witch's daughter. When Janey's brother, Tom, starts investigating a cluster of mysterious events and suspicious characters, all three become entwined in an adventure of hidden jewels, desperate criminals and dangerous detection. Written in 1963, The Witch's Daughter showcases Nina Bawden's innate regard for the integrity of her young characters. As she has said: 'I like writing for children. It seems to me that most people underestimate their understanding and the strength of their feelings and in my books for them I try to put this right.' Hugely admired on publication by both reviewers and readers, it was described as 'thrilling' by the Times Literary Supplement.

The Leopard and the Cliff
The Leopard and the Cliff

Author: Wallace Breem

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Published: 2011-11-03

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0571281028

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The classic military adventure: a gripping tale of honour, duty, and sacrifice during the Afghan war of 1919 in British India. 'A writer who never disappoints one. He has an extraordinary power of treating military disaster in depth and yet with pace, whether on the frontiers of Rome or British India, and of analysing the tensions of command. Gripping as an action story, deeply moving on the individual level, it involves one as an eye-witness from beginning to end.' Mary Renault This classic military adventure is a gripping insight into life on an exposed outpost of the Afghan frontier. Major Charles Sandeman is an unlikely hero: an intellectual soldier, repeatedly passed over for promotion in the British Indian Army. When war suddenly erupts between India and Afghanistan in 1919, Sandeman is caught, as the locals say, 'between the leopard and the cliff'. Facing an uprising of hostile border tribes and mutinies, he must rise to the challenge and lead the retreat of his soldiers in a bleak trek through unforgiving terrain. Brimming with action, suspense, and psychological power, The Leopard and the Cliff is a masterful military adventure which has never felt more prophetic, offering insights into colonialism and tribal divides that haunt the world today. 'Gripping ... Brings out movingly and with skill points of vital importance to an understanding of British India and the Frontier ... Highly dramatic.' Philip Mason

Glyphs and Gallows
Glyphs and Gallows

Author: Peter Wilton Johnson

Publisher: Heritage House Publishing Co

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9781895811940

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In 1995, Peter Johnson went looking for a rare set of petroglyphs located on the outer coast of Vancouver Island near an abandoned whaling village. Encouraged by archival research that yielded court records, 90-year-old correspondence and a tantalizing 1926 newspaper article, Peter sought to tie these glyphs to the 1869 wreck of the trading barque John Bright and the bizarre colonial trial that followed. He found more questions than answers. Why, for example, were two Nuu-chah-nulth men so readily hung from a gallows erected in front of their village at Hesquiat? And how did this event relate to the rock carvings that Peter knew existed in a cove many miles south, along the life-saving West Coast Trail by the Graveyard of the Pacific? This story explores the significance of particular petroglyphs, colonial injustice and the European trading mentality on the west coast at the time of contact. Peter interweaves a personal journal with historical narrative in order to produce a lively account of the relationship between our coastal history and a little-known Aboriginal art form.