Thorndike Press large print The literacy bridge

"Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One ever chosen. That's what his roommate, Baz, says. Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he's probably right. Half the time, Simon can't make his wand work; the other half, he starts something on fire. His mentor avoids him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there's a magic-eating monster running around wearing Simon's face. Baz would have a field day with all this, if he were here. It's their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and he didn't even bother to show up"--Back cover.

Children's author Walter Dean Myers describes his childhood in Harlem in the 1940s and 1950s, discussing his loving stepmother, his problems in school, his reasons for leaving home, and his beginnings as a writer.

Thorston, an alchemist who spent his life trying to decipher the secret to immortality contained in the Book Without Words, suddenly drops dead leaving his talking raven, Odo, and his servant Sybil to reap the rewards of his work.

Feeling angry and out-of-place in her large family, twelve-year-old Xandra finds a magical key to a world of ghostly, sometimes frightening, phantoms that help her see herself and her siblings more clearly.

A downhearted ghost becomes the "invisible friend" of an eleven-year-old boy who is an outcast in his new school, and the two help each other find their place in their respective worlds.

With their father jailed for sinking a river boat, Noah Underwood and his younger sister, Abbey, must gather evidence that the owner of this floating casino is emptying his bilge tanks into the protected waters around their Florida Keys home.

Fifth-grader Nora Rowley has always hidden the fact that she is a genius from everyone because all she wants is to be normal, but when she comes up with a plan to prove that grades are not important, things begin to get out of control.

The adventures of Despereaux Tilling, a small mouse of unusual talents, the princess that he loves, the servant girl who longs to be a princess, and a devious rat determined to bring them all to ruin.

Three years after being released from Camp Green Lake, Armpit is trying hard to keep his life on track, but when his old pal X-Ray shows up with a tempting plan to make some easy money scalping concert tickets, Armpit reluctantly goes along.

When World War I descends upon a tiny Polish village, seven boys launch their own deadly battle for the right to be crowned king of the land.