Central Kansas Library System

"He said they want to talk to you, David." "They?" I said. "The cops?" She nodded. "What for?" I don't think I ever worked harder at getting just two words out of my mouth. I tried to sound like I had no idea what the cops would want with me." When his stepfather, Phil, is shot dead in an apparent robbery, David becomes the prime suspect. Where was David that night, and what does he know about Phil? David has figured out the truth about his stepfather,...

Nate and his mother are escaping from his emotionally abusive step-father, Gary, but the run-down and abandoned cottage in the woods that his mother takes them to does not seem like much of a refuge; but when his mother goes off to buy provisions and does not come back Nate is left alone (except for his imaginary friend Sam) and afraid--until a mysterious girl trying to solve the clues of a long-ago treasure hunt turns up.

A classic tale of an orphan growing up in the 1800's of England. Intimately rooted in the author's own biography and written as a first-person narrative, "David Copperfield" charts a young man's progress through a difficult childhood in Victorian England to ultimate success as a novelist, finding true love along the way. Jeremy Tambling's provocative Introduction reveals subtle themes relevant today in Dickens' favorite work.

One of the most beloved writers of our time presents seven short stories exploring the vital ties between fathers and sons. Luke sees the ghost of his father but can't figure out what Dad wants him to do. Paul takes a camping trip with the grandfather he's just met and discovers what lies behind the man's erratic behavior. Ryan has some surprising questions when he interviews his prospective stepfather for the job. In a compellingly honest collection...

When a disagreeable man with two boys marries a widow with three children, family adjustments are complicated by two magic chemistry sets which cause strange things to happen around the house.

When her stepfather leaves and her family loses their home to fire, twelve-year-old Chinese-American Monica, or Mo, struggles with anxiety, but the chance to hunt an elephant ghost -- and the promise of a new friend -- help convince her to live a little more dangerously.

Pampered ten-year-old Arabella thinks that by becoming a cat, she can avoid being sent to boarding school by her mother's fourth husband, but she finds her new life fraught with unknown terrors and learns that her former life was not so bad after all.