Showing results by author "AVI" in All Categories

We’re going to share with you fun things we like to do as family, at home and out on the town, to help you fight the boredom and inspire you to create memorable experiences of your own

High adventure from a master storyteller about one boy's attempt to fend for himself among cruel orphan masters, corrupt magistrates, and conniving thieves. In the seaside town of Melcombe Regis, England, 1724, Oliver Cromwell Pitts wakes to find his father missing and his house flooded by a recent storm. He's alone in his ruined home, with no money and no food. Oliver's father has left behind a barely legible waterlogged note: he's gone to London, where Oliver's sister, Charity, is in trouble.

When teacher Roberta Allen walked into her middle school principal's office, she encountered sisters Valentina and Selena Diaz, who were to be removed from their mother's home once again by the Department of Families. The girls, after suffering years of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of their mother and sexual abuse by their mother's male friends, are soon to be placed in the care of newly approved foster parents, Roberta and Hal Allen.

In this spine-tingling story from Newbery Medal winner Avi, a boy must solve the mystery of the ghost haunting him. For most of Tony Gilbert’s life, he has thought of his uncle as “Weird Uncle Charlie.” That is, until Uncle Charlie moves in with Tony and his family. Uncle Charlie is still...

Everyone loves Ted. The disadvantaged children he works with consider him a hero. The children's parents think he is the answer to their prayers. His boss, Stacy, adores him. But there is evil lurking behind Ted's dark sense of humor. Ted plans to marry Stacy; the only thing in his way is her husband. Will Stacy see him for what he really is before it's too late? Or will he continue to deceive her and everyone around him?

It's 1951, and 12-year-old Pete Collison is a regular kid in Brooklyn, New York, who loves Sam Spade detective books and radio crime dramas. But when an FBI agent shows up at Pete's doorstep, accusing Pete's father of being a Communist, Pete is caught in a real-life mystery. Could there really be Commies in Pete's family?

Newbery Medal-winning author Avi has penned over 50 novels for children and young adults. His historical fiction, in particular, is often singled out for glowing praise thanks to his engaging characters and carefully researched period details. In City of Orphans, Avi transports listeners to the streets of 1893 New York City for an adventure starring young newsboy Maks Geless.

Spending the summer with his grandparents in the Pennsylvania countryside is pure joy for young Jamie. There, he fills his days with looking up at the sky, watching the clouds make dragons and knights. There, it doesn't matter that he can't read. The special school he attends is far away. But one afternoon, when Jamie sees a man parachute down through the sky, the boy's fantasy world of clouds is shattered. The man is very real - and very dangerous. How can he convince his grandparents that the man is not part of his imagination?

Eve is haunted by her dead cats, Willie is not content to turn a blind eye to suffering, and Maria carries on lengthy conversations with a silent caller. Theirs are the odd, but strangely realistic stories you will find in this collection. Avi’s stories address real concerns in a way young people can relate to. Always entertaining, they broach difficult topics like divorce, teenage runaways, adolescent cruelty, and homelessness.

The radio culture of World War II America comes alive with this mischievous tale of two best friends who - inspired by the Lone Ranger, the Green Hornet, and the Shadow - set out to right the wrongs of the world. Jeff Woodman’s delightfully funny narration is reason enough to listen to this book!

The telephone rings. You just pick it up without thinking. It could be anyone. But this time it’s a killer and the killer’s got a name - and a victim. When Andy Zadinski picked up the phone that evening, he was cool. Just keep him talking. But when he called the police, they didn’t believe him. In fact, no one believed him, not even his father. After all, the whole thing was too weird to believe. Even Andy began to have doubts, until the killer started stalking him.

Maggie Lavchek believes in magic. Magic doesn’t change things. It keeps them the same. Maybe that’s what she was hoping as the plane she had taken from her home in Seattle, Washington touched down on the airstrip in Westport, Connecticut. Maggie’s parents were divorced, and this was her yearly summer visit with her father and his wife Joanna, who had just had a baby. The four of them were going to spend part of the summer at Sawdy Pond, a lakeside cottage in Massachusetts. But from the start Maggie has a feeling things aren’t going to work out.

The 300 dogs of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, all know their places. At the top is McKinley, a malamute who’s head dog of the whole town. All of the dogs - and McKinley’s human family - rely on him to protect them and maintain order. Avi, the Newbery Medal author of Crispin: The Cross of Lead, peeks into the secret lives of dogs in this thrilling adventure tale. Robert Ramirez’s narration gives voice to a dog willing to risk any peril to do the good thing.

Newbery Award-winning, New York Times best-selling author Avi recreates the sights and sounds of wartime Brooklyn in this fast-paced story. Like every student in Miss Gossim’s 1943 fifth-grade class, Howie Crispers has one thing on his mind: World War II. When he isn’t in school, Howie stays busy watching for Nazi spies. So when he notices his principal acting suspiciously, it’s his patriotic duty to investigate. But what he discovers is far more devastating than any headline at the newsstand.

The South Orange River (S.O.R.) Middle School is famous for its winning sports teams. That is, until the seventh grade soccer squad comes along. Led by Ed Sitrow, who has never played soccer before, this amazing team of non-jocks sets new lows in team spirit and new highs in scoring - for the other team. When they lose their first game 32-0, they’re ready to call it quits. But the teachers insist that the team keep playing through the entire soccer season.

Jonathan’s older brother is away fighting with General Washington in Pennsylvania. But at 13, Jonathan is too young to fight. Still too young. Then one morning, April 3, 1778, the tavern bell sounds, calling men to arms. Eager to prove his mettle, with blood pounding in his ears, Jonathan joins the gathering men at the tavern to hear the news. With a 12-pound, six-foot-long flintlock musket loaned to him by the tavern keeper, Jonathan finds a place in with the other men, marching to battle.

Tony has saved $300, enough to buy a small sailboat. He will use it every day during his three-week stay with his grandmother on the Connecticut shore. Once Tony learns to sail, he starts exploring the waters around a group of tiny islands offshore. One day, he sees two people in diving gear on a motorboat. But instead of greeting him, they wave him away. The next time he sees them, he discovers that they will do anything to hide what they have found. He is chased, and his boat is stolen. Now, lost and alone, with night falling fast, Tony wonders if he will ever get back to his grandmother’s - and safety - again.

Erethizon Dorsatum—better known as Ereth, the self-centered, foul-tempered old porcupine—is having a birthday. And he fully expects his best friend Poppy, a deer mouse, to help him celebrate in a grand manner. But Poppy has gone off somewhere with her husband, Rye, and it appears she has forgotten all about it. "Belching Beavers," says Ereth, "I am not angry!" (Though perhaps he is—and more than just a little.)

Eleven-year-old Kevin Cartwright can hardly believe his ears when his father, a brave soldier wounded in the Revolutionary War, announces that he is leaving Philadelphia and never coming back. He is heading into the untamed wilderness of New Jersey, where he hopes to find a peaceful place to raise Kevin and his little sister. But in 1783, New Jersey is filled with secret traps and hidden dangers. Before the family has traveled far, Kevin is captured by the mysterious Captain Grey and his murderous band of pirates. These lawless men of the sea say they have killed the boy’s father and sister. Will Kevin be next?

Punch is a young orphan boy, hungry and alone. When he is offered a job with a traveling medicine show, he takes it, although he has no idea what his work will be. But after he joins the troupe and sees the owner’s beautiful daughter, Judy, he no longer cares what he has to do, as long as he is near her. Soon the shady medicine show is on the run, just one step ahead of a sheriff who is determined to put them all in jail for peddling their bottles of elixirs. To save the day, Punch will have to take on the trickiest job of all: making people laugh.