kidnapping

"In the middle of the night . . . in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis's parents and load him into a black SUV . . . Luke will wake up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there's no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talents--telekinesis and telepathy--who got to this place the same way Luke did: Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris, and ten-year-old Avery Dixon. They are all in Front Half. Others, Luke learns, graduated to Back Half, 'like the roachmotel,' Kalisha says. 'You check in, but you don't check out.' In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don't, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute"--Provided by publisher.

Dink Duncan and his two friends investigate the apparent kidnapping of famous mystery author Wallis Wallace.

Twelve-year-old Addison Cook and his friends are on the hunt for a long-lost treasure. They'll need to outwit a band of thieves, survive booby traps, crocodiles, and a Russian assassin--to name a few of the obstacles standing in their way--in order to secure the three keys needed to unlock the ancient treasure.

When Addison's aunt and uncle become pawns in a dangerous gang's plan to steal Genghis Khan's most prized possession, Addison and his friends find themselves in the middle of a multi-million dollar heist and must travel across Asia to try and rescue Addison's family and stop the treasure from falling into the wrong hands.

Anastasia, nearly eleven, is snatched from her elementary school and sent to live at a former insane asylum with two great aunts she had never met after being told that her parents died in a tragic vacuum cleaner accident.

"Mabel Jones finds herself aboard the Feroshus Maggot--a ship crewed by the strangest bunch of pirates you'd (never) want to meet. She then has to find pieces of an X-shaped puzzle that in her hands could be her ticket home, but in the hands of Captain Split, they'd give him the power to assemble a pirate militia to take over London!"--Provided by publisher.

Sixteen-year-old Linus Weems, a street person since leaving his wealthy father's home, is kidnapped and taken to an underground bunker where he is soon joined by five others, ranging in age from nine to seventy, who are alternately cared for and tortured by their unseen captor.

When Kayla's transformation to werecat is captured on video, she becomes a symbol of the werebeast threat, meanwhile, a self-proclaimed weresnake kidnaps the governor of Texas and hits the airwaves with a message of war.

Seventh-grader Tristan must return to Alke and enlist the help of African gods and black folktale heroes when Nana is abducted from the Strong family farm in Alabama.