Rusty, Katie and Sheila are sent out of town with Rusty's grandparents to keep them out of trouble. This time the trio is in historic Barkerville, a gold rush town with a secret. After witnessing what they take to be a ghost in the night, the three friends find themselves involved in a mystery from the past that seems to have a few other people interested as well. New information has come to light about a fortune in missing gold, a centuries-old curse and a missing miner. While the three budding detectives try and figure out which of the aging prospectors they keep running into is actually a ghost, they find they are in a race against time to recover the gold and return it to its rightful owners to avert a tragedy. Will they find the gold in time? Or will they suffer the fate of Three Finger Evans, the missing miner?
The summer is off to a lousy start when Levi's bike is stolen from outside the corner store. He feels even worse because he didn't lock it. But when his best friend Riley's locked bike is stolen the very next day, the boys are determined to get both of them back. When they discover there has been a string of bicycle thefts in the area, the friends hatch several plans to find the culprit. There are so many potential suspects--Steve Morrow and his gang, the tattooed guy who sits at the bus stop, the owners of the secondhand-bike store. There's also Emily Grimshaw, Levi's childhood nemesis, who keeps popping up and showing a peculiar interest in the thefts. Does she really want to help or is she involved somehow? And will Levi and Riley ever see their beloved bikes again?
Melissa is waiting for the "new life" that her mother Sharlene has promised her since a fire devastated their family. But nothing ever seems to change. Melissa has difficulty making friends at school, they never have enough money and her little brother Cody is a brat. When Sharlene announces that they will be spending the month of August at a remote cabin on a wilderness lake, Melissa is less than thrilled. But there is more to do at the lake than she expected, and she is surprised to learn that her mother knows how to paddle a canoe, fish and make bannock and s'mores. On an island in the middle of the lake, Melissa meets Alice, a strange girl who is writing a fantasy novel. Alice shares her tree fort on the island with Melissa, and while at first Melissa is attracted to Alice's strong personality and her stories of her "perfect family," she becomes increasingly uneasy around Alice. As Melissa's relationship with her mother improves and her confidence increases, she is able to hold her own with Alice and start to appreciate her own imperfect family.
Readers will enjoy exploring hidden aspects of their personality as they discover what creature they are most like in this engaging quiz book. Written in the high-low format, this book has a HIGH interest level to appeal to a more mature audience but maintains a LOW level of complexity and clear visuals to help struggling readers along. Best Quiz Ever: What Creature Are You Most Like? includes fun questions to share with friends as well as trivia throughout the book. A perfect read for the classroom, library, sleepovers, or reading resource rooms. A table of contents, glossary with simplified pronunciations, and index all enhance comprehension.
This fascinating book provides a snapshot of the different forms of communication developed by various ancient civilizations. Engaging illustrations, detailed timelines, and fascinating information bring back to life the ancient civilizations of Greece, Rome, Mesopotamia, Africa, China, and more. Read about Africa's hundreds of regional dialects, Mesoamerican folding-screen books, Egyptian hieroglyphs and how to interpret them, and Mesopotamian cuneiform writing.
The term "blog" was coined in 1997. Less than 10 years later there were over 150 million blogs. How did that happen? Who is responsible for their development? This book explores the role innovation and innovators had in the development of blogs.
Learn how to research, understand, and arrange information about your ancestors.
Infographics can pack a lot of information into a small amount of space with clever use of text and images. Readers will find out how to unpack, draw evidence from, evaluate, and integrate content presented in this visual format. They will also learn how to make purposeful, informative, and visually appealing infographics of their own.
This book teaches readers how to plan and write comic books. They will discover ways of brainstorming ideas for a comic book story, how to outline a plot using a three-act organizational structure, how to incorporate dialogue and descriptions, and how to write clear and detailed instructions for an artist to draw the accompanying illustrations. A variety of activities provide hints and tips along the way to support the process of planning, organizing, and writing the narrative of a comic book story.
This book teaches readers how to plan and write fractured fairy tales. They will discover what a fractured fairy tale is, how to prepare a plot outline, develop characters, revise and edit the story, and write a final draft of the narrative. A variety of activities provide hints and tips along the way to support the development of characters, clear event sequences, plot elements, and the overall creative writing process.
This book teaches readers how to plan and write lab reports. They will discover how to use the scientific method to perform experiments, how to collect and organize data, and how to present their findings in a clear and compelling way using temporal words and descriptive language appropriate to the task. A variety of exciting activities provide hints and tips along the way to help students introduce a topic, write using precise language, incorporate facts and details, and draw evidence from their data.
This book teaches readers how to plan and write memoirs. They will discover what makes an interesting life story, why details are important to creating an interesting story, and how to organize memories into a compelling narrative. A variety of activities provide hints and tips along the way to support the development of point of view, descriptive detail, logical organization, and the narrative as a whole.
Sometimes the clearest way to introduce a topic or provide important information is with a brochure. Creating digital brochures can also provide opportunities for students to practice writing informative texts to convey ideas and using technology to produce and publish writing. Readers of this book will discover how to plan, write, and publish their own digital brochures. They will also learn how to effectively introduce their topic, organize their ideas, format text and graphics, and edit their brochure.
Learn how to select a topic for a research project with these fun activities. Students will build foundational skills as they learn how to begin new projects effectively. With tips that are relevant across multiple academic disciplines, this book encourages students to think critically about their project before they begin, to avoid wasting time, effort, and resources. Additional text features and search tools, including a glossary and an index, help students locate information and learn new words.
"I always knew my father was a pirate and I always knew I wanted to be one, too." At age fifteen, Catherine's life is about to change. Her mother has just died and Catherine can't stand the thought of being sent to live with her aunt in Boston. She longs for a life of adventure. After she discovers her father's secret life as captain of the pirate ship Reprisal, her only thoughts are to join him on the high seas. Catherine imagines a life of sailing the blue waters of the Caribbean, the wind whipping at her back. She's heard tales of bloodshed and brutality but her father's ship would never be like that. Catherine convinces her father to let her join him, disguised as a boy. But once the Reprisal sets sail, she finds life aboard a pirate ship is not for the faint of heart. If her secret is uncovered, punishment will be swift and brutal.
After 12-year-old Anya is cut from her middle school soccer team, she decides to pursue her true passion, which is theater. With the help of her sister and new friend Austin, Anya puts together a kids' summer theater troupe (The Random Farms Kids' Theater), recruiting area kids as actors and crew members. Acting as director, Anya has to navigate the ups and downs of a showbiz life, including preparing scripts, finding a venue, and handling ticket sales, not to mention calming the actors insecurities and settling conflicts. Its a lot of responsibility for a 12-year-old. Will their first show ever get off the ground? This series is closely based on the real-life experience of Anya Wallach, who began a summer theater camp in her parents basement when she was just sixteen years old. Today, Random Farms has launched the careers of many of today's youngest stars on Broadway.
It's bad enough being the new kid, but as a freshman, Jimmy finds school less enjoyable than many of his classmates. Standing 5'5" and weighing 187 pounds, he's subjected to a daily barrage of taunts and torments. His only sources of comfort are his family, his youth group, and his favorite foods. When his English teacher assigns a journal as a writing project, Jimmy chronicles not only his struggles but also his aspirations - to lose weight and win the girl of his dreams. Inspired by a true story and told in first-person journal entries, The Fat Boy Chronicles brings to life the pain and isolation felt by many overweight teenagers as they try to find their way in a world obsessed with outward beauty.
Learn how to create an interesting online portfolio of your work.
Find out what life is like for a professional screenwriter and decide if it is the right career for you.
Thea and her dad are always on the move, from one small Cariboo town to another, trying to leave behind the pain of Thea's mom's death. They never stay long enough in one place for Thea to make friends, but when her dad gets work renovating a guest ranch on Gumboot Lake, she dares to hope that their wandering days are over. At the ranch she makes friends with Van, a local boy, and works hard to build the trust of an abused horse named Renegade. When Thea unearths the decades-old story of a four-year-old girl who disappeared from the ranch and was never seen again, she enlists Van to help her solve the mystery. When some disturbing facts come to light, she finally starts to come to terms with the losses in her own life.
Fifteen-year-old Christine is visiting her eccentric great-aunt in historic Witcombe, where a pickpocket has been victimizing tourists. Aunt Maude owns an antique store and also runs the town’s ghost walk, which gives Christine the opportunity to meet local characters and visitors, including a mysterious young man who seems to know far too much about the crimes. When the pickpocket targets Aunt Maude’s store, Christine is determined to find out who is behind the thefts. Her search takes her through the nooks and crannies of the quaint town full of stories, and she unearths more than one surprise.
Trevor has started his first job at Ashton's Fresh Marketplace, where someone has been tampering with the food. Cayenne has been sprinkled on cookies, garlic put in coffee, and plastic insects hidden in fruit displays to terrify customers. Trevor and his friends Nick and Robyn decide to find out who is out to destroy the store's reputation. Is it Mattie, the disgruntled ex-employee? Or perhaps the competition? Or is it Alex, their schoolmate who doesn't know when a joke has gone too far? Their snooping makes the kids themselves seem suspicious, and soon they realize they have to solve the mystery before Trevor gets fired for a crime he didn't commit.
Following the demise of his first band, Ace has started a duo called Two with Lisa, a girl he has a huge crush on. As Ace and Lisa get serious about their music, Denny, Ace's hapless friend, tries to help out by filming their every move so that he can create the ultimate music video. As a joke, Denny puts together a Two video capturing all of the embarrassing moments—moments that Lisa in particular doesn't want shared. Somehow, the video gets posted on YouTube. Lisa and Ace find themselves starring in the latest comedic viral video. Lisa is humiliated and refuses to talk to Ace—until their fame turns out to have positive results.
Dylan and his friends attract the attention of the police when a summer bonfire gets out of control. Dylan almost loses a job opportunity at a local inn because of his antics, but he is saved by the lies of Heather, an employee of the inn. When he is caught on camera stealing towels from a summer cottage after a skinny-dipping prank, Dylan and his friends become suspects in a number of cottage robberies. Dylan learns everything he can about the robberies, with the hope of clearing his name, and finds himself in more than one sticky situation in the process.
Fourteen-year-old Danny invents a fictitious friend in an effort to fit in at school, but his plan gets out of control, and he learns the truth wasn't so bad after all.
