Morpurgo, Michael

A young journalist goes to Venice, Italy, to interview a famous violinist, who tells the story of his parents' incarceration by the Nazis, and explains why they can no longer listen to the music of Mozart.

A boy observes and becomes fond of a swan as she finds a mate, has cygnets, and defends herself and her young from a fox.

Ten-year-old Jessie, helped by her American cousin and the ghost of a notorious female pirate, finds the strength to prevail over both a crippling disease and the greedy developers intent on destroying her Irish island home.

When her grandfather suddenly appears after having been absent from the family for fifty years, twelve-year-old Cessie helps him escape to Dunkirk to recover his past.

A twelve-year-old boy comes across Arthur Pendragon, who has just awakened from his long sleep beneath the earth, and hears from him some of the exciting stories of his past.

Lizzie and Karl's mother, Mutti, working at a local zoo in Dresden, Germany, during World War II while their father is away fighting in France, brings home Marlene, a baby elephant that is slated to be destroyed as the Allied bombing grows closer, and when they are forced to flee, Mutti feels they must take Marlene with them, adding even more danger to their journey.

As a young man listens to his grandfather's stories, he learns to respect his elders and live his life to the fullest.

Trying to run away from boarding school in England, a boy encounters an old woman who tells him the story of Bertie and his beautiful white lion.

In 1907, fourteen-year-old Laura living with her family on one of the stormy Isles of Scilly records in her diary how her dream of participating in a shipwreck rescue is finally realized.

With only the mythical luck of a golden torc, the necklace of their ancestors, to protect them, Sean and Annie O'Brien leave famine-stricken Ireland to search for their father in a strange land called America.