Blackwood, Gary L

In 1835, when his father is put in a Philadelphia debtor's prison, twelve-year-old chess prodigy Rufus Goodspeed is relieved to be recruited to secretly operate a chess-playing automaton named The Turk, but soon questions the fate of his predecessors and his own safety.

The winter of 1602 brings many changes for Widge, a young apprentice at London's Globe Theatre, as he becomes infatuated with Shakespeare's daughter Judith, attempts to write a play, learns more about his past, endangers himself to help a friend, acquires a new identity, and finds a new purpose in life.

In plague-ridden 1602 England, a fifteen-year-old orphan boy becomes an apprentice actor with Shakespeare's troupe and finds out more about his parents along the way.

In 1835, when his father is put in a Philadelphia debtor's prison, twelve-year-old chess prodigy Rufus Goodspeed is relieved to be recruited to secretly operate a chess-playing automaton named The Turk, but soon questions the fate of his predecessors and his own safety.

Thirteen-year-old Timothy, more interested in reading than in physical activity, reluctantly accompanies his enthusiastic father on a camping trip and, when he accidently becomes lost in the woods, discovers that he is capable of surviving on his own.

Attempts to explain seven mysterious events in history including the Lost Colony of Roanoke, the Hindenburg, Salem witch trials, the death of the dinosaurs, sinking of the battleship "Maine," and the disappearance of the sailing ship "Mary Celeste.".

Examines seven mysterious disappearances and deaths throughout history including King Tutankhamen, England's Princes in the Towers, and Amelia Earhart.

A young orphan boy is ordered by his master to infiltrate Shakespeare's acting troupe in order to steal the script of "Hamlet," but he discovers instead the meaning of friendship and loyalty.

Set in the future during a new ice age, James and Robert leave the crime-ridden, warm South for a more primitive existence in the North as the two rejoin James' parents on their farm in Missouri and prepare for the approaching winter.