The Secret of Laurel Oaks

The Secret of Laurel Oaks PDF Author: Lois Ruby
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0765313669
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
While staying with her family in Louisiana's Laurel Oaks Plantation, purported to be one of the most haunted places in America, thirteen-year-old Lila is contacted by the ghost of a slave girl unjustly convicted of murder. Story inspired by the author's visit to the Myrtles Plantation in Louisiana.

The Secret of Laurel Oaks

The Secret of Laurel Oaks PDF Author: Lois Ruby
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0765313669
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
While staying with her family in Louisiana's Laurel Oaks Plantation, purported to be one of the most haunted places in America, thirteen-year-old Lila is contacted by the ghost of a slave girl unjustly convicted of murder. Story inspired by the author's visit to the Myrtles Plantation in Louisiana.

Rebel Spirits

Rebel Spirits PDF Author: Lois Ruby
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 0545540208
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
Haunted by history. Bound by mystery. Lori Chase doesn't know what to think about ghosts. She may have seen a few in the past, but those were just childish imaginings . . . right? Only now that she is living in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, spirits seem to be on everyone's mind. The town is obsessed with its bloody Civil War history, and the old inn that Lori's parent run is supposedly haunted by the souls of dead soldiers. Then Lori meets one such soldier -- the devastatingly handsome Nathaniel Pierce. Nathaniel's soul cannot rest, and he desperately needs Lori's help. Because Nathaniel was not killed in the famous battle. He was murdered. Lori begins to investigate the age-old mystery, stumbling upon shocking clues and secrets. At the same time, she can't help falling for Nathaniel, just as he is falling for her . . . .

The Secret of Laurel Oaks

The Secret of Laurel Oaks PDF Author: Lois Ruby
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1429940271
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
A haunting historical mystery based on real life events, told in the alternating points of view of a contemporary girl and a 19th century slave accused of a horrible crime. When Lila and her family visit Laurel Oaks Plantation in Louisiana, her parents and brother scoff at the claim that the house is haunted. But secretly, Lila suspects there are ghostly presences willing to communicate with her, and her alone. One spirit eager to tell her story is Daphne, a slave girl at Laurel Oaks in the 1840s, who was blamed for the poisoning deaths of two girls and their mother. Daphne's spirit senses that Lila is the very person she's been waiting for, the one who can prove her innocence so her spirit can rest at long last. Shifting back and forth from Lila's world in the present to Daphne's world in the past, the true story of what really happened that fateful night finally comes to light. Laurel Oaks is a thinly disguised version of the legendary Myrtles Plantation in Louisiana, which is on the Smithsonian's list of the ten most haunted places in America. This middle grade novel was inspired by the author's visit to the plantation and her experiences there. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Steal Away Home

Steal Away Home PDF Author: Lois Ruby
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1481425536
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
When Dana uncovers a skeleton hidden in the wall of her home, she also uncovers a dark secret that stretches back years. When twelve-year-old Dana Shannon starts to strip away wallpaper in her family’s old house, she’s unprepared for the surprise that awaits her. A hidden room—containing a human skeleton! How did such a thing get there? And why was the tiny room sealed up? With the help of a diary found in the room, Dana learns her house was once a station on the Underground Railroad. The young woman whose remains Dana discovered was Lizbet Charles, a conductor and former slave. As the scene shifts between Dana’s world and 1856, the story of the families that lived in the house unfolds. But as pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place, one haunting question remains—why did Lizbet Charles die?

Soon Be Free

Soon Be Free PDF Author: Lois Ruby
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1481425528
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
I ask you, why do weird things always happen to me? Thirteen-year-old Dana Shannon is no stranger to intrigue. Not long ago she discovered a skeleton behind a wall in her family's house -- a house in Lawrence, Kansas, that was once owned by a Quaker family, the Weavers. The diary Dana found in the sealed-off room revealed that the skeleton belonged to a runaway slave named Lizbeth Charles. Now Dana's house is a newly refurbished bed-and-breakfast, and the first guests are two shady characters who believed the house is hiding another secret. When Dana gets in their way, she becomes embroiled in a second mystery, this one involving slaves and the Weavers again, and -- somehow - Delaware Indians. As Dana tried to fit the puzzle pieces together, alternate chapters tell the story of James Baylor Weaver, a thirteen-year-old boy, in 1857. It is up to James to fulfill a promise Lizbeth made before her death. He must travel hundreds of miles to retrieve four slaves and bring them to freedom. The journey will test his strength, endurance, and courage; it will also test his character, when he has to make a terrible choice... Readers of Soon Be Free will quickly be caught up in this fast-paced mystery-adventure that links teenagers from two different centuries.

Secrets of the Oak Woodlands

Secrets of the Oak Woodlands PDF Author: Kate Marianchild
Publisher: Heyday Books
ISBN: 9781597142625
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
A Californian may vacation in Yosemite, Big Sur, or Death Valley, but many of us come home to an oak woodland. Yet, while common, oak woodlands are anything but ordinary. In a book rich in illustration and suffused with wonder, author Kate Marianchild combines extensive research and years of personal experience to explore some of the marvelous plants and animals that the oak woodlands nurture. Acorn woodpeckers unite in marriages of up to ten mates and raise their young cooperatively. Ground squirrels roll in rattlesnake skins to hide their scent from hungry snakes. Manzanita's rust-colored, paper-thin bark peels away in time for the summer solstice, exposing sinuous contours that are cool to the touch even on the hottest day. Conveying up-to-the-minute scientific findings with a storyteller's skill, Marianchild introduces us to a host of remarkable creatures in a world close by, a world that "rustles, hums, and sings with the sounds of wild things."

Eddie Whatever

Eddie Whatever PDF Author: Lois Ruby
Publisher: Carolrhoda Books ®
ISBN: 172843243X
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 203

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Book Description
"Comic, creepy, calamitous, and . . . completely satisfying."—Claudia Mills, author of The Lost Language and Zero Tolerance With his bar mitzvah on the horizon, thirteen-year-old Eddie needs to do a community service project, and he needs to start yesterday. Against his better judgment, he ends up with a volunteering gig at Silver Brook Pavilion retirement home, where the elderly residents call him “Eddie Whatever” so they won’t have to remember his last name. Eddie expects his time at Silver Brook to drag, but at least his friend (and secret crush) Tessa will be there to keep him company—if he can manage to avoid embarrassing himself in front of her. Soon, though, the seniors upend all Eddie’s assumptions. Their lives are full of excitement, with a dramatic courtship unfolding, long-hidden secrets emerging, rumors of a vengeful ghost running rampant, and a thief on the loose. When suspicion for the thefts falls on Eddie, he has to team up with the seniors—and Tessa—to clear his name and solve the mysteries of Silver Brook.

Shanghai Shadows

Shanghai Shadows PDF Author: Lois Ruby
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504013654
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
A young girl fleeing Hitler takes refuge in Shanghai, where she learns that she must fight to survive Throughout tomboy Ilse’s childhood, her mother has tried to force her to behave like a proper Austrian lady. But when Hitler annexes their country, the family flees, boarding a packed freighter and sailing around the world in search of a safe harbor. The United States refuses to take them, so they proceed to China and make a new home in steamy, mysterious Shanghai. Their lodgings are cramped, money is tight, and Ilse’s father cannot find work—but Ilse is enchanted by the city’s international flavor. In Shanghai’s shadows she finds the adventure of a lifetime. When the Japanese occupy the city, Ilse and her brother begin working in an underground resistance cell. Each day, the city grows more dangerous, and Ilse must lie, cheat, and steal in order for her family to eat. She is a long way from Austria, but she will do whatever it takes to survive.

Secret Stairs

Secret Stairs PDF Author: Charles Fleming
Publisher: Santa Monica Press
ISBN: 1595809414
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Containing walks and detailed maps from throughout the city, Secret Stairs highlights the charms and quirks of a unique feature of the Los Angeles landscape, and chronicles the geographical, architectural, and historical aspects of the city’s staircases, as well as of the neighborhoods in which the steps are located. From strolling through the classic La Loma neighborhood in Pasadena to walking the Sunset Junction Loop in Silver Lake, to taking the Beachwood Canyon hike through “Hollywoodland” to enjoying the magnificent ocean views from the Castellammare district in Pacific Palisades, Secret Stairs takes you on a tour of the staircases all across the City of Angels. The circular walks, rated for duration and difficulty, deliver tales of historic homes and their fascinating inhabitants, bits of unusual local trivia, and stories of the neighborhoods surrounding the stairs. That’s where William Faulkner was living when he wrote the screenplay for To Have and Have Not; that house was designed by Neutra; over there is a Schindler; that’s where Woody Guthrie lived, where Anais Nin died, and where Thelma Todd was murdered . . . Despite the fact that one of these staircases starred in an Oscar-winning short film—Laurel and Hardy’s The Music Box, from 1932—these civic treasures have been virtually unknown to most of the city’s residents and visitors. Now, Secret Stairs puts these hidden stairways back on the map, while introducing urban hikers to exciting new “trails” all around the city of Los Angeles.

The Girl Who Wrote in Silk

The Girl Who Wrote in Silk PDF Author: Kelli Estes
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
ISBN: 1492608343
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 398

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Book Description
A USA TODAY BESTSELLER! "A powerful debut that proves the threads that interweave our lives can withstand time and any tide, and bind our hearts forever."—Susanna Kearsley, New York Times bestselling author of Belleweather and The Vanished Days A historical novel inspired by true events, Kelli Estes's brilliant and atmospheric debut is a poignant tale of two women determined to do the right thing, highlighting the power of our own stories. The smallest items can hold centuries of secrets... While exploring her aunt's island estate, Inara Erickson is captivated by an elaborately stitched piece of fabric hidden in the house. The truth behind the silk sleeve dated back to 1886, when Mei Lien, the lone survivor of a cruel purge of the Chinese in Seattle found refuge on Orcas Island and shared her tragic experience by embroidering it. As Inara peels back layer upon layer of the centuries of secrets the sleeve holds, her life becomes interwoven with that of Mei Lein. Through the stories Mei Lein tells in silk, Inara uncovers a tragic truth that will shake her family to its core—and force her to make an impossible choice. Should she bring shame to her family and risk everything by telling the truth, or tell no one and dishonor Mei Lien's memory? A touching and tender book for fans of Marie Benedict, Susanna Kearsley, and Duncan Jepson, The Girl Who Wrote in Silk is a dual-time period novel that explores how a delicate piece of silk interweaves the past and the present, reminding us that today's actions have far reaching implications. Praise for The Girl Who Wrote in Silk: "A beautiful, elegiac novel, as finely and delicately woven as the title suggests. Kelli Estes spins a spellbinding tale that illuminates the past in all its brutality and beauty, and the humanity that binds us all together." —Susan Wiggs, New York Times bestselling author of The Beekeeper's Ball "A touching and tender story about discovering the past to bring peace to the present." —Duncan Jepson, author of All the Flowers in Shanghai "Vibrant and tragic, The Girl Who Wrote in Silk explores a horrific, little-known era in our nation's history. Estes sensitively alternates between Mei Lien, a young Chinese-American girl who lived in the late 1800s, and Inara, a modern recent college grad who sets Mei Lien's story free." —Margaret Dilloway, author of How to Be an American Housewife and Sisters of Heart and Snow