Andrea Collins meets Lans Mulder when she is fourteen years old. She is staying on her grandparents' farm when Lans' family arrive from the Netherlands. Andrea and Lans find that they enjoy being together, riding horses across her grandparents' vast land. Lans even loves it...

Superheroes come in many sizes and shapes. For Rick Niece, his hero came confined in a wheelchair. "Side-Yard Superhero" is the coming-of-age tale of the friendship that emerged between a nine year old, small town paper boy and the most special of the 72 customers...

Life was good for Jamie Matthews at age five. His family closely held his mom, his dad, his twin sisters Rose and Jasmine, and of course him. That wass until September 9th, when a series of terrorist bombs were set off and Rose happened to...

"Alphabeti-cool" by Rebecca Bielawski has taken alphabet books to a new level, by incorporating both the upper and lower case letters on each page. Seeing it on these pages makes me wonder why EVERY alphabet book doesn't do this? Kids have to learn more than...

Maggie Stevens has been a faithful wife to her husband, Carter, for twenty years. But she finds he has cheated on her for five years and now has the audacity to divorce her, leaving Maggie for an older, wealthier woman. Poor Maggie! Carter has taken...

“Straw,” a book of poems written by Carol Moscrip, deals with a wide array of subjects and yet each poem is well-imagined and well-written. There are thirty-one poems that make up this collection and they are divided into three sections. The poems address serious issues...

This is another book in 'Karen Pirnot's Ordinary Kids' series which is aimed at pre-teen kids. The main characters in these stories face hurdles. Crighton, an energetic, friendly, popular kid who lives for sports, is diagnosed with leukaemia. Suddenly his life becomes completely different. He...

"The Summer Before the Storm" by Gabriele Wills is initially a romantic story about seemingly kinder and gentler times. Set in the Muskoka wilderness of Canada, the Wyndham family give us a glimpse into the lavish, privileged life of the rich. There are both "old...

Make it Short, Make it Simple by Luis Rousset is the story of Alan Leary, a detective from New York who goes to Macae, Rio de Janeiro to investigate the sudden death of an engineer. Once he gets there, he realizes that this case is...

We first meet Tabatha in "Zyanya", a contemporary fantasy by Greta Benavides Adame. Tabatha is travelling with her mother and step-father to their new home in the jungle, and she is not at all happy about leaving her home and friends back in Texas. Zyanya...

Our story began in Australia in the year 1984. Adam Henderson was a sophomore in high school. Roxley was a bully and Adam was his target. The abuse went from verbal, to a push, to a beating where he was stripped naked and left tied...

Carefree Clement Scheutz and his girlfriend Samantha love to roam the Caribbean wherever their schooner will take them. But they are out of money and head to Culebra, an island with few tourists and easy living. Clement is offered a shipping job of taking a...

Kara Knight has been accepted at the University of North Carolina to study nursing, something she has always wanted to do. She has worked the night shift in the power plant where she lives in Williamsport, Maryland, and has just moved into her own...

The setting is smalltown Hollyhill, Kentucky, in the summer of 1964 and thirteen year old Jocie Brooke has had one of her prayers answered. The family dog, Stumpy, had been killed years before and Jocie wants another dog as her own. She finds ugly, hungry,...

In "Cliff of the Ruin", Bonnie McKernan paints a picture of New York and New Jersey in the late 19th century. Mae Kendrick, an artist and orphan in her late twenties, lives with her aunt, uncle and cousins on a farm in Stillwater, New Jersey....

“Life After 50: The Road to Longevity” by Dr. Paul M. Valliant is a comprehensive guide for each and every person who is approaching the age of fifty. Based upon the author’s experience of turning the age of fifty along with some of his friends,...

In "Friends Forever, Facing Whatever," Lori Stebert gives the reader glimpses of the various facets of friendship. She offers friendship quotes and then explains how laughter, tears, adventures, special moments, fears, life changes and lasting memories all tend to bind a friendship. The author suggests...

“Small Hangers” by Amy H. Fraher is something of an enigma; it is a children's book written for parents. Not unlike the 1986 classic “Love You Forever” by Robert Munsch, “Small Hangers” is destined to draw out a veritable flood of tears from the aching...

“Things I Wish I’d Known” by Julie-Anne is the book we’d all like to write. Who hasn’t had occasion to think “if I’d only known then what I know now . . .”? Julie-Anne took that lament one step further, and put it on paper,...

This tale begins in 1936, in Southern Cameroon, West Africa. A monkey ran through the jungle carrying her precious baby. She was fleeing from a tribe of male chimpanzee hunters. Eventually she climbed a tree, holding on tightly with one hand as she clutched the...