The civilization of Japan is an ancient one, and by the time the first Western visitors arrived in 1542, the Japanese people were as highly educated as any in the world and enjoyed a sophisticated culture. From the sixteenth century on, the country's history was shaped by a tension between its people's thirst to understand foreign institutions and customs and their determination to assert and p…
Cam Jansen and her faithful companion, Eric Shelton, encounter yet another mystery as they try to raise funds for charity by selling fudge bars and rice cakes. (They never do explain the mystery of that unlikely combination.) This time Cam spots a woman behaving suspiciously in the vicinity of a supposedly vacant house. It requires only Cam's photographic memory (which she activates by saying "…
Have you ever wanted to make a million dollars? Marvelosissimo the Mathematical Magician is ready, willing, and able to explain the nuts and bolts -- as well as the mystery and wonder -- of earning money, investing it, accruing dividends and interest, and watching savings grow. Hey, you never know! An ALA Notable Book A Horn Book Fanfare Selection A School Library Journal Best Book of the Ye…
When a mysterious envelope arrives for Jake Ransom, he and his older sister, Kady, are plunged into a gripping chain of events. An artifact found by their parents—on the expedition from which they never returned—leads Jake and Kady to a strange world inhabited by a peculiar mix of long-lost civilizations, a world that may hold the key to their parents' disappearance. But even as they ent…