12-up

High in the Samnium Mountains of southern Italy, Chloé, daughter of a Roman patrician and his Greek wife, lives as a slave. The mysterious and tragic story of Chloé's birth is told and retold to her by her fellow-slave Melissa, who served her mother and now cares for the young Chloé. But hatred for...Read more

It is perilous to be a Catholic in the Ireland of 1735, and almost more than can be borne for fifteen-year-old Padraic Fitzbrian. Nearly 100 years before, Lord Protector Cromwell of England had put down the Irish rebellion—confiscating lands, killing priests, outlawing the Mass and prohibiting...Read more

This powerful story, presented in the simple language of 10-year-old Susan Parker, really centers around the characterization of Jerry, Sue's 12-year-old brother. The Parker family, unused to any kind of pioneering life, leaves St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1860, part of a westward-bound wagon train...Read more

This treasure of a novel is set on the island of Nantucket just before the War of 1812. Much more than a tale of whaling ships and gentle Quaker eccentricities, it is a tale of friendship-the kind most truly espoused by these 'plain' folk, with all the struggle and complexity one should expect...Read more

“Grettir the Strong, Grettir the Outlaw, one of the heroes of his race, was born, men say, in the year 997, at Biarg in Iceland. A man of great heart and high spirit was he, yet unlucky, doomed to a sad end. His foes were many and his misfortunes great, but he lived like a man, and like a man he...Read more