Kathryn Lasky

When a beautiful teen with polio enters their lives, a girl and her older brother find themselves drawn into a web of lies in this compelling novel by a best-selling author. Eleven-year-old Georgie loves science-fiction movies, but she won’t be going to the theater anytime soon. It’s a hot Indiana summer in 1952, and public places from pools to camps are closing to slow the spread of polio. Despite all the headlines, Georgie never thought she’d come as close to the fearful disease as she does when she spies a silver glint in her neighbor’s yard. There she discovers a monstrous, hissing machine, and inside is Phyllis, a girl encased in an iron lung. "I have eighty-seven cubic centimeters of air, but you have the world," Phyllis tells her. Phyllis’s ability to breathe may be limited, but her strength to manipulate is boundless. As Georgie struggles to comprehend this once-gorgeous teenager’s life in a "coffin with legs," Phyllis slowly weaves a web of lies that snare all those around her, including Georgie’s quickly smitten brother. Can Georgie untangle the truth before Phyllis’s deception achieves its inevitable end?

In her fictionalized journal, eleven-year-old Minnie Swift recounts how her family dealt with the difficult times during the Depression and how an orphan from Texas changed their lives in Indianapolis just before Christmas 1932.

Thirteen-year-old Gabriella Schramm's favorite pastime is reading. With Adolf Hitler slowly but unstoppably rising to power, Gaby turns to her books for comfort while the world around her changes dramatically: The streets become filled with soldiers, Gaby's sister's boyfriend raises his arm in a heil Hitler salute, and the Schramms? family friend Albert Einstein flees the country. When Gaby's beloved books come under attack, she fears she may have to leave behind the fiction -and the life- she has always cherished.

As the fight for women's suffrage heats up, Kathleen"Kat" Bowen gets to participate as her mother and her sister, and many others close to her organize and act to win the right to vote. January 19, 1917 The picket line has been going on for over a week! And people said they would not last a day and the weather still has not broken. What's more is news of the picket is spreading and more and more women are coming from other parts of the district and some from as far away as Maryland and Virginia. President Wilson felt so sorry for them in the cold that he invited them in for coffee but they refused. They said they would only come in to talk about a federal amendment for the women's right to vote. No coffee! This made me think of Sojourner Truth's words about men who help lift women into carriages and over mud puddles--that of course is the easy part, just like giving them coffee. Giving them the vote is the hard part.

Mary, the young Scottish queen, is sent a diary from her mother in which she records her experiences living at the court of France's King Henry II as she awaits her marriage to Henry's son, Francis.

Princess Kazunomiya, half-sister of the Emperor of Japan, relates in her diary and in poems the confusing events occurring in the Imperial Palace in 1858, including political and romantic intrigue.

As a new edition to The Royal Diaries series, this factual tale offers young readers an insight to the life and times of this famous royal prior to her days on the throne as the Queen of England.

"I look up now into the oval mirror and see barely a trace of the mud-splattered girl tearing through the woodland on her horse, or the barefoot girl wading at Schonbrunn... I have become what Mama set out for me to be. Majestic. A Dauphine and eventually a Queen." So writes the headstrong 13-year-old Maria Antonia--future Queen of France--in her diary on October 23, 1769. In this engrossing addition to the Royal Diaries series (Elizabeth I: Red Rose of the House of Tudor, Cleopatra VII: Daughter of the Nile), Kathryn Lasky invents a diary of the young Marie Antoinette in 1769--the year she is to be married off to Dauphin Louis Auguste, eldest grandson of the French king Louis XV. Arranged marriages were common in that day and age--as the Empress Theresa (of the Holy Roman Empire of the Germanic Nations) sought to consolidate power among nations by marrying off her children. Thus, the future of Austria and France falls upon Maria Antonia's young shoulders. To prepare her for this awesome responsibility, she must be trained to write, read, speak French, dress, act... even breathe. Things get even more grim as she is shipped off to the court of Versailles and introduced to her puffy, awkward future husband and confronted with the court's ridiculous customs. Marie--an opinionated and insightful young woman--mocks the court of "impeccable etiquette and manners" that makes up nasty rhymes about those they hate, but panics when her hair is mussed. Lasky has done an excellent job of creating a very human character in the young Marie Antoinette--one whom young readers will want to learn more about. Fortunately, her story is given plenty of context with an epilogue describing the history of the young Queen after 1769, a historical note offering an 18th-century context, a Habsburg-Bourbon family tree, and various portraits of the royal family. (Ages 9 to 13) --Karin Snelson

In Kathryn Lasky's first book for the My Name Is America line, the acclaimed author tells the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition through the eyes of fictional, fourteen-year-old Augustus Pelletier. Eager to strike out on his own, Gus joins Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery on their journey from Missouri to the Pacific Ocean as the youngest member of the trip.

Zipporah Feldman, a 12-year-old Jewish immigrant from Russia, uses diary entries to chronicle her family's activities as they acclimate to life on New York City's Lower East Side. Ages 9-12

The diary of a young Pilgrim girl who makes the dangerous journey on the Mayflower to America is filled with her thoughts about her new friends, her contact with Native Americans, and her love for her new land.

Life used to be great for Rose: full of friends, a loving mom, and a growing fashion blog. But when her mother dies in a car crash, Rose is sent away to live with a strange grandmother she hardly knows and forced to attend a new school where mean girls ridicule her at every turn. The one place Rose finds refuge is in her grandmother’s Tudor-style greenhouse. But one night, she sees a strange light glowing from within it. She climbs a ladder to investigate . . . and finds herself transported back four hundred years to Hatfield Palace, where she becomes servant and confidante of the banished princess Elizabeth, daughter of King Henry VIII. Rose soon discovers something else surprising—a locket with two mysterious images inside it, both of them clues to her own past. Could her grandmother’s greenhouse portal offer answers to the mysteries of her family . . . and their secrets? And how will she ever unravel them all?

Is the chance to serve as an extra for Hitler’s favorite filmmaker a chance at life — or a detour on the path to inevitable extermination? One ordinary afternoon, fifeen-year-old Lilo and her family are suddenly picked up by Hitler’s police and imprisoned as part of the "Gypsy plague." Just when it seems certain that they will be headed to a labor camp, Lilo is chosen by filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl to work as a film extra. Life on the film set is a bizarre alternate reality. The surroundings are glamorous, but Lilo and the other extras are barely fed, closely guarded, and kept in a locked barn when not on the movie set. And the beautiful, charming Riefenstahl is always present, answering the slightest provocation with malice, flaunting the power to assign prisoners to life or death. Lilo takes matters into her own hands, effecting an escape and running for her life. In this chilling but ultimately uplifting novel, Kathryn Lasky imagines the lives of the Gypsies who worked as extras for the real Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, giving readers a story of survival unlike any other.

Thirteen-year-old Rachel dreads the afternoons she has to spend with her great- grandmother, Nana Sashie-until Sashie begins to reminisce about her childhood in Russia and Rachel finds herself caught up in a whirlwind of memories. As the events and characters of Sashie's past come to life, Rachel discovers a distant country and time, a time when Jews were forced to serve in the Czar's armies or were murdered in pogroms, a time when nine-year-old Sashie devised a wonderful plan to save her family from danger. . . .

Like the captivating bestseller, GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING, this exciting new series explores the stories behind the girls featured in some of the world's most dazzling paintings. Welcome to 19th century Paris, and the world of Degas's dancers. 13-year-old Sylvie is one of the pupils at the Paris Opera Ballet, where tutus must always be starched and pointe shoes fresh. Sylvie dreams of being a prima ballerina, but her height is a she is too little. When the Franco-Prussian war begins in 1870, Paris is soon under siege and Sylvie is thrown into turmoil and tragedy. Against the fiery backdrop of war, the beauty of the ballet sustains and strengthens Sylvie. Before long, her talent and drive allows her to achieve her goal--and she graces the stage as a star.

In the 1600s, the Mughal emperors of India were among the greatest rulers of the East. Jahanara is the daughter of one of these ultra-rich and powerful figures, Shah Jahan The Magnificent. The oldest and favorite of his children, she is showered with emeralds, diamonds, and rubies, and is attended by numerous servants and learned tutors. Yet, her world is not one of pure contentment. It is rife with intrigue and turmoil as her father fights for his rights to rule - and she struggles against the confinement her Muslim religion dictates. Jahanara's diary allows readers to witness the exotic splendor and unforgettable drama of this past great dynasty.

Pushed from his family's nest by his older brother, barn owl Soren is rescued from certain death on the forest floor by agents from a mysterious school for orphaned owls, St. Aggie's. With a new friend, clever and scrappy Gylfie, he uncovers a training camp for the leader's own nefarious goal.

Faolan und seine Wolfs- und Bärenfreunde sind unterwegs in ein Land namens "Fernes Blau". Sie hoffen, dort bessere Lebensbedingungen vorzufinden als in den Hinterlanden, die durch Erdbeben und ewigen Winter unbewohnbar geworden sind. Doch es ist eine Reise ins Ungewisse, und ein gefährlicher Verfolger ist ihnen dicht auf den Fersen: Faolans Gegenspieler Heep, der auf Rache sinnt ...

Faolans Gegenspieler Heep schart mit falschen Versprechen Wölfe um sich und bildet einen neuen Clan. Dann verwüstet ein Erdbeben die Hinterlande und die Heiligen Vulkane brechen in sich zusammen. Faolan weiß, dass es nur einen Ort gibt, an dem er und seine Freunde sicher sind: das "Ferne Blau" hinter dem Meer. Doch der Weg bis zur Küste ist weit und schon bald nehmen Heeps Anhänger die Verfolgung auf ...

Die Wölfe der Vulkangarde sind beunruhigt: Eine Kältewelle ist über die Hinterlande hereingebrochen, die Karibuherden bleiben aus und es herrscht eine bittere Hungersnot. Außerdem verschwinden immer mehr Wölfe auf mysteriöse Weise. Faolan und Edme werden losgeschickt, um der Sache auf den Grund zu gehen - und machen eine unglaubliche Entdeckung: Ein selbsternannter Prophet schart Wölfe um sich. Und er scheint eine geheimnisvolle Macht über seine Anhänger auszuüben.

Jungwolf Faolan und seine Gefährtin Edme haben es geschafft: Sie sollen in die Garde aufgenommen werden, die die Heiligen Vulkane bewacht. Doch als ein Bärenjunges entführt wird geraten die Gardewölfe unter Verdacht. All ihre Unschuldsbeteuerungen bleiben vergebens: Grizz, der Bär aller Bären, rast vor Wut und ruft seine Anhänger zum Kampf gegen die Wölfe. Jetzt liegt es an Faolan und Edme, einen drohenden Krieg zu verhindern.

In einer eisigen Winternacht wird der Wolf Faolan geboren, doch sein Schicksal scheint bereits besiegelt: Er hat eine verdrehte Pranke und wird deshalb ausgesetzt. So verlangt es das Gesetz der Wölfe: Welpen, die anders sind als die anderen werden ausgesetzt. Überleben sie, werden sie wieder in den Clan der Wölfe aufgenommen. Faolan hat Glück im Unglück. Die Grizzlybärenmutter Donnerherz nimmt sich seiner an und zieht ihn auf. Als Donnerherz spurlos verschwindet, macht sich Faolan auf, um sie in den Frostlanden zu suchen. Noch ahnt er nicht, dass ihn dort ein Feind erwartet, der schlimmer ist als Kälte und Hunger. Ein Feind, der ihm nach dem Leben trachtet …

Faolan wird vom Osthangrudel aufgenommen und ist von nun an "Knochennager", wie sich der unterste Rang in der Wolfsgesellschaft nennt. Will ein Knochennager innerhalb der Rangordnung aufsteigen, muss er den Knochenwolf-Wettkampf gewinnen. Faolans Chancen stehen gut, denn er kann schneller rennen und kunstvollere Knochen nagen als alle anderen. Doch der hinterlistige Wolf Heep ist eifersüchtig auf Faolans Können und versucht, ihn mit allen Mitteln auszuschalten.

A wolf's eye view of the legends of Ga'Hoole in this stirring third installment of the Wolves of Beyond series by bestselling author Kathryn Lasky. Born with a twisted paw, Faolan was abandoned as a wolf pup and left to die. But not only did he survive and make it back to the wolf clan, he proved himself to be one of the most worthy wolves of all. But just as Faolan is about to take his place as one of the revered Wolves of the Watch, a fellow watch wolf goes missing. Faolan is sent to track her down and makes a horrifying discovery - she has been kidnapped by bears. A war is coming between the wolves and the bears, and only Faolan can stop it.

Daughters of the Sea tells the story of 3 mermaid sisters who are separated at birth by a storm and go on to lead three very different lives. Book 1 is about Hannah, who spent her early days in an orphanage and is now a scullery maid in the house of rich, powerful family. She is irresistibly drawn to the sea and through a series of accidents and encounters discovers her true identity. Hannah realizes that she must keep the truth a secret but she also knows that soon she will have to make the choice - to be a creature of the land or the sea.

A prequel to the Cinderella story from the perspective of a young fairy godmother. In a grand glass house, there was a girl named Bess whose power would, one day, change the fate of her family. . . Bess Wickham has always felt like a bit of an outcast among her family of extraordinary glassblowers, but then an immense, magical power that’s lain dormant in her bloodline begins to emerge. So, when she suspects her family’s business has taken a sinister turn, Bess must find the strength to defeat dark magic and save a certain cinder girl. But will she shatter under the weight of such evil or get her happily ever after?