Genres : Children's

When nine-year-old Sylvia's fun-loving parents separate, she's sent to live with her strict, forbidding grandparents -- and her world falls apart. Suddenly nothing she does is right. With the dreaded Lockhorn School looming, Sylvia discovers a secret portal: a mysterious stair hidden in the wall of her grandparents' mansion. The stairs lead to Greenwood, a magical world teeming with talking animals who are stranger, funnier, and more loyal than anyone she's ever met, and who accept her just as she...

A beach pup meets big Texas farm life.Tug loves his laid back island days on Naples Island, in Long Beach, California, but his heart is always with his brother, Tank. When Tug finally gets the chance to visit Tank in Dallas, he discovers that Texas feels like a whole new planet, in the best way.Tank lives on Liberty Ridge Farm, where mornings start early and every day is full of important work, and even more fun. As Tug tags along,...

Kossman's vivid picture of life behind the Iron Curtain and her notes at the end of the book will be useful discussion starters for classes studying political changes in Eastern Europe." - Booklist "13 short pieces...pungently convey the effects of growing up under a totalitarian regime." - Publishers Weekly "Young readers will identify readily with the impetuous Nina." - Kirkus Reviews "This child's eye view of Soviet Russia is original and, not withstanding its brevity, surprisingly perceptive both of Russian...