Carson Ellis

Dozens of children respond to this peculiar ad in the newspaper and are then put through a series of mind-bending tests, which readers take along with them. Only four children-two boys and two girls-succeed. Their challenge: to go on a secret mission that only the most intelligent and inventive children could complete. To accomplish it they will have to go undercover at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, where the only rule is that...

In the aftermath of a young's girl's midnight seance that awakens a long-slumbering, malevolent spirit, a band of runaway orphans teams up with an underground collective of saboteurs to rescue friends imprisoned in an industrial wasteland.

A celebration of the winter solstice and the Yuletide season. As the sun set on the shortest day of the year, early people would gather to prepare for the long night ahead. They built fires and lit candles. They played music, bringing their own light to the darkness, while wondering if the sun would ever rise again. Written for a theatrical production that has become a ritual in itself, Susan Cooper's poem "The Shortest Day" captures the magic behind...

A boy sets out to find someone to answer a question that he asks his grandmother, and eventually his quest leads him back home.