Central Kansas Library System

Although separated by continents and decades, Josef, a Jewish boy living in 1930s Nazi Germany; Isabel, a Cuban girl trying to escape the riots and unrest plaguing her country in 1994; and Mahmoud, a Syrian boy in 2015 whose homeland is torn apart by violence and destruction, embark on harrowing journeys in search of refuge, discovering shocking connections that tie their stories together.

The battlefield was soaked in blood. Screams of injured soldiers rang through the air. Eleven-year-old Nathaniel Knox knelt behind a rock, his gun clutched in his shaking hands. Nate had been heading to New York City to find his father. But now he was trapped in a terrible gunfight between American and British troops. -- But King George was like a snake with America gripped in his fangs - and he didn't want to let go. So now it was war - brutal, bloody...

There were warning signs that the molasses tank would break. The steel sides moaned and groaned. Molasses oozed from its seams. But the people of Boston's North End -- mostly poor immigrants -- were powerless to complain to the big molasses company. On a bright January day in 1919, the tank finally broke and almost three million gallons of molasses rushed the neighborhood. At 15 feet tall, 160 feet wide, and traveling at 35 miles per hour, the gooey...

In the summer of 1916, ten year-old Chet Roscow is captivated by the local news: a Great White shark has been attacking and killing people up and down the Atlantic Coast, not far from Chet's hometown of Springfield, New Jersey. Then one day, swimming with his friends, Chet sees something in the water ...

Left alone by her Indian tribe when they decide to sail to the east, Karana, a young Indian girl, lives on a beautiful but isolated island off the coast of California, where she spends eighteen years, surviving through her enormous courage and self-reliance. Year after year she waits for the ship to return but it never does. Finally she realizes she must make a fateful choice: follow her people on her own or remain alone fo rthe rest of her life....

Twelve-year-old Hazel Rothbury stows away aboard the Titanic and, with the help of a porter named Charlie and a first-class passenger named Sylvia, she sets out to explore the great ship, uncovering a haunting mystery--until the ship hits an iceberg and she must fight to save herself and her friends.

"For Vega and her family, salmon is life. And Vega is learning to be a salmon finder, preparing for the day when she will be her family's matriarch. But then she and her brother Deneb are separated from their pod when a devastating earthquake and tsunami render the seascape unrecognizable. Vega must use every skill she has to lead her brother back to their family. The young orcas face a shark attack, hunger, the deep ocean, and polluted waters on...

Left alone to guard the family's wilderness home in eighteenth-century Maine, a boy is hard-pressed to survive until local Indians teach him their skills. Until the day his father returns to their cabinnbsp in the Maine wilderness, twelve-year-old Matt must try to survive on his own. Although Matt is brave he's not prepared for an attack by swarming bees and he's astonished when he's rescued by an Indiann chief and his grandson, Attean. As the oys...

No grizzly has ever killed a human in Glacier National Park before... until tonight. Eleven-year-old Melody Vega and her family come to Glacier every year. Mel loves it here - the beautiful landscapes and wildlife make it easy to forget her real-world troubles. But this year is different. With Mom gone, every moment in the park is a reminder of the past. Then Mel comes face-to-face with a mighty grizzly.

Michael Prasad knows he shouldn't go out on the Mars surface alone. It's dangerous. His parents have forbidden it. And the anxiety he feels almost every time he puts on a spacesuit makes it nearly impossible for him to leave the safety of the colony. But when his best friend, Lilith, suggests they sneak out one night, he can't resist the chance to prove everyone--including himself--wrong. As the two ride along the Mars surface in a stolen rover, miles...