In a wise and magical follow-up to The Puppets of Spelhorst, Kate DiCamillo revisits the land of Norendy, where tales swirl within talesand every moment is a story in the making. At the Hotel Balzaar, Marta's mother rises before the sun, puts on her uniform, and instructs Marta to roam as she will but quietly, invisiblylike a little mouse. While her mother cleans rooms, Marta slips down the back staircase to the grand lobby to chat with the bellman,...

It's 1953 and the Cold War is on. Communism threatens all that the United States stands for, and America needs every patriot to do their part. So when a Russian boarder moves into the home of twelve-year-old Jake McCauley, he's on high alert. What does the mysterious Mr. Shubin do with all that photography equipment? And why did he choose to live so close to the Air Force base? Jake's mother says that Mr. Shubin knew Jake's dad, who went missing in...

Despite the fact that his brother is missing in action in the Pacific theater, Theo McCallum, a gunner on a B-24 Liberator returns to his unit in Europe to continue the war because he feels that the other men in his unit feel like family to him--and he cannot believe that his brother is actually dead.