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Jennifer Jean, the Cross-Eyed Queen

Jennifer Jean likes her big green crossed eyes and does not want them changed, but when she goes to kindergarten in September she is a little bit glad that they were straightened.

Keeping a Christmas Secret

“Don’t tell, don’t tell”, everyone keeps saying to Michael. And boy is it annoying. Of course he’s not going to tell his dad what they got him for Christmas! Michael can keep a secret. When Michael does tell his father (though he’s sure he was tricked into doing it), Christmas is almost ruined. But Michael comes up with his own special secret. And not only is Christmas saved, but Michael proves he can keep a secret after all!

Meet Murdock

Building superintendent Murdock, sea captain-like and unfriendly with children, saves the day when the building floods and the children are swept away.

Old Sadie and the Christmas Bear

Something was in the air, and Amos, the bear, was curious. “If it’s not spring and not smoke then it’s nothing to get excited about”, said Esmerelda, and she went back to sleep. But Amos could not sleep. He got up and crept to the door of the cave. The air smelled of pine needles and a muskrat off in the brush. And of something more.

Amos set off across the snowy meadow to find out what that something was, and in the village he discovered Christmas. He also discovered near-sighted Old Sadie and her friendly house and hearth. There he became a welcome Christmas guest, and ultimately, he left behind a welcome Christmas gift, and he hurried back to tell Esmerelda what he had found.

A New Year’s Surprise

Pari lives in northern Iran, where the New Year is celebrated by wearing new clothes. But there is not enough money to buy new cloth, and she tries to hide her disappointment, joining in the holiday preparations. Her mood changes to happiness and delight by an unexpected development. Beautifully illustrated by Jack Endewelt.

The New Schoolmaster

Master Kostra is the new teacher at Arun’s school in Mallikpore. He has come from a fine school in Bombay and is not used to the small village school, where the pupils sit in the street and use slates and chalk. He finds the children rude and noisy–and they think he doesn’t like them. When Arun invites him home for a visit, all the misunderstanding is cleared up in a surprising turn of events.

Ducks Disappearing

One…two…three…Willie is having fun counting the eleven ducklings parading behind mama duck outside the motel restaurant. But soon he realizes that some of the ducklings seem to be disappearing, and the grown-ups he tells don’t take him very seriously. It’s up to a resourceful young boy to show that good counting and caring are called for to get to the bottom of things.

Ice

Can the truth thaw Chrissa’s frozen heart?

It’s been three years since Chrissa’s father walked out of her life. Too angry even to speak to her mother, Chrissa is obsessed with finding the answers to her questions: Why did her father leave? Why does she never hear from him? And is it somehow her fault, for not being the daughter he wanted her to be?

Now, unable to deal with Chrissa’s silence, her mother has sent her away from their New York City home to spend a year in the country with her grandmother. Perhaps in Gram’s house, in the rural community which her father grew up, Chrissa will discover the secret of his disappearance.

Instead, Chrissa finds more secrets and suspicions. And, surprisingly, she finds strength she never knew she had. Strength she will need when she must confront the most devastating secret of all.

Jade Green

Orphaned fifteen-year-old Judith Sparrow brings two secrets to her uncle’s house in South Carolina: one, that her grief-stricken mother died in a madhouse, the other that she has disobeyed the only condition to living in her uncle’s home — nothing green is allowed in the house.

Judith can’t bear to part with the photograph of her mother in its lovely green silk frame. Surely this one small defiance will not jeopardize the happiness she finds in South Carolina — with a family at last, and new friends, especially Zeke Carey, the miller’s son.

But Uncle Geoffrey’s house holds a secret of its own. And Judith’s small picture frame, hidden away at the bottom of her trunk, unleashes a powerful force that seems determined to bring that secret into the open. Or is Judith simply following her mother down the path toward madness?

Blizzard’s Wake

In March of 1941, when a severe blizzard suddenly hits Bismarck, North Dakota, a girl trying to save her stranded father and brother inadvertently helps the man who killed her mother four years before.

Kate Sterling has lost four years of her life to grief and anger. Zeke Dexter has lost four years of his life as well in jail for the accident that killed Kate’s mother.

Just out of prison, Zeke wants to put the past behind him, but a freak blizzard makes him a prisoner once again he of Kate, and Kate of him. Kate fears she will never be able to overcome the anger that has consumed her since her mother’s death. But is Zeke the only one Kate needs to forgive?