Hoffman, Mary

Despite Carrie's asthma, her parents present her brother Alex with a pet mouse, but the mouse has magic powers and creates havoc by summoning up the ghosts of all the animals that have ever lived in the house.

When desperately unhappy Laura, who secretly performs self-mutilation, finds her talisman and transports to Fortezza, a parallel world that resembles the Italian Renaissance city-state of Lucca, she faces battles on the field and of the heart.

Feeling inferior to her talented twin brother, teenaged Isabel is transported to a parallel world that resembles the Italian Renaissance city-state of Ravenna, where she tries to save the city from attack by the fierce Gate people.

Silvano and Chiara, teens sent to live in a friary and a nunnery in Renaissance Italy, are drawn to one another and dream of a future together, but when murders are committed in the friary, they must discover who is behind the crimes before they can realize their love.

Simplified retellings of Greek and Roman myths, including those about Icarus, the boy whose father made him wings, and King Midas, who had the golden touch.

When Henry has the "in" crowd from school over to his house, he worries that his baby brother will ruin the afternoon.

While sick in bed with cancer, Lucien begins making journeys to a place in a parallel world that resembles Venice, Italy, and he becomes caught up in the political intrigues surrounding the Duchessa who rules the city.

Grace and her friends have all sorts of adventures during their summer vacation--going to the circus, taking an imaginary safari, making friends with an elderly neighbor, pretending to be astronauts, and calling the paramedics when her grandmother has an accident.