After being cast as the Ninja Master in his school's Halloween play, a boy decides it is time to catch the monster in his closet.

"Splat's bicycle bumps and jumps over the bumpy track on his way to school, until...crack! Splat takes a tumble off of his bike and finds himself nose to beak with a duck. A crash of this caliber should certainly merit some alarm from this duck, but Splat hears no sound. A duck with no quack? Splat thinks that his teacher, Mrs. Wimpydimple, will know what to do, so Splat packs the duck in his backpack along with his school supplies and heads off to...

Aboard the battleship the USS Utah with their Navy pilot fathers during WWII when the ship is attacked by the Japanese, Frank and Stanley find their friendship--and dreams--in jeopardy when Stanley is seen as the "enemy" because his mother is Japanese American.

"When a mysterious little free library (guarded by a large orange cat) appears overnight in the small town of Martinville, eleven-year-old Evan plucks two weathered books from its shelves, never suspecting that his life is about to change. Evan and his best friend Rafe quickly discover a link between one of the old books and a long-ago event that none of the grown-ups want to talk about. The two boys start asking questions whose answers will transform...

Kate and her younger brother Tom lead dull, uninteresting lives. And if their dull, uninteresting parents are anything to go by, they don't have much to look forward to. Why can't Kate have thrilling adventures and save the world the way people do in books? Even her 11th birthday is shaping up to be mundane -- that is, until her mysterious and highly irresponsible Uncle Herbert, whom she's never even met before, surprises her with the most unexpected,...