Dickinson, Peter

A twentieth-century nation is trapped in a new dark age, and the road to freedom lies through a black and ancient magic.

After a terrible accident, a young girl wakes up to discover that she has been given the body of a chimpanzee.

Eleven-year-old Gavin, devastated when his beloved grandfather suffers a massive stroke, recalls that Grandad had been speaking about the selkies--magical seal people--at the moment of his attack, and sets out to see if the selkies can help him reach his comatose grandfather.

As a member of the Kin, a band of people living in prehistoric times, young Po wants to prove his bravery but finds that doing so requires overcoming great obstacles.

A thirteen-year-old boy escapes from slaughter by the Boxers in China and joins forces with an English botanist and her escort, traveling with them to Tibet where the power of Buddhist monks transforms the lives of all of them.

When a military coup occurs in the constantly war-torn African country of Nagala, teenage Paul is forced to flee into the open countryside to avoid enemy soldiers who seek his life.

In an ancient African society, Suth and five other children may be all that's left of their Kin, and must find a way to survive in the desert as they set out on a dangerous journey in search of new Good Places.

Although grudgingly aware that ten-year-old Pinkie has extraordinary powers to heal, sixteen-year-old Barry becomes increasingly convinced that she is an unwilling participant at the healing sessions run by her enterprising stepfather.

Each of these stories touches on the idea of a twin, ghostly double of a live person, or a secret self.

Discusses the dragons of mythology and folklore and proposes the theory that these creatures really did exist.