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GHOST GIRL

A BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAIN STORY

Eleven-year-old April Sloane lives an isolated life on Doubletop Mountain in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, so she doesn’t believe it when her friend Dewey Jessup claims to have met President Hoover at his new summer place down the mountain. But when the president starts a mountain school and hires Miss Vest as the new teacher, April’s world begins to expand. Miss Vest introduces her to such wonders as indoor plumbing, hot chocolate, marshmallows, reading, and the Sears, Roebuck catalogue. April gets to know Mrs. Hoover and even visits her at the White House. Though the outside world has its wonders, so does April’s mountain life, and with the help of Miss Vest, Aunt Birdy, and Mama, April finds her place in that world. Ray’s loving attention to setting, character, and detail makes this debut special, a quiet and subtle evocation of a time and a place based on real events and a real teacher. (author’s note) (Fiction. 10-14)

Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2003

ISBN: 0-618-33377-0

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Clarion Books

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2003

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THE SCHOOL FOR THIEVES

From the School for Thieves series , Vol. 1

A thrilling first installment in an adventurous new series.

An orphaned street urchin is recruited into an elite school for thieves.

In an alternate world where France is the dominant world power, 13-year-old Tom Morgan has had to scrimp, starve, and steal on the streets of London to survive. Born into a workhouse, he doesn’t know anything about his father, while his mother may have been from North Africa. One thing he does know is the sort of cruelty that awaits the poor who are sent to the workhouse, and he’s determined not to go back. But when their camp is raided and his friends are captured by workhouse agents, the only thing Tom can think of is how to get them out. Enter the Corsair, a cunning and mysterious man with a proposition: He wants to recruit Tom into Beaufort’s School for Deceptive Arts. From nabbing treasures to forging identity papers, Beaufort’s promises to teach Tom everything he needs to know to become a Shadow Thief and a member of the Shadow League, the secret global organization that helps keep the world’s political power in balance. But Beaufort’s has its own rules and secrets, and if Tom is to survive long enough to help his friends, he’ll need to figure them out quickly. Clever and gripping, this fast-paced boarding school story will appeal to fans of the Mysterious Benedict Society and Spy School series.

A thrilling first installment in an adventurous new series. (Adventure. 10-14)

Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025

ISBN: 9781665982283

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Aladdin

Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025

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ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS

An outstanding new edition of this popular modern classic (Newbery Award, 1961), with an introduction by Zena Sutherland and...

Coming soon!!

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1990

ISBN: 0-395-53680-4

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2000

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