Books with author Alan Benjamin

Pirate Flotilla One is doing well in the Badlands. A fourth squadron is about to be formed under the command of Llewellyn Terrant. Four new freighters will improve the flotilla’s logistics capabilities. In concert with the Royal Navy Badlands Squadron, they continue to enforce Measure 200, the anti-slavery law, throughout the region. The pirate settlement on Agra 5 will be used by all squadrons and, for the first time, a permanent home is envisioned for all the pirate families. However, events in the war between the Aurora Empire and the Orion Confederation will impact Raferty Hawkins and his flotilla yet again. Hawkins learns of the death of a close friend in a costly defeat for the Royal Navy at Excandor. This defeat changes the immediate future for Raferty and his flotilla. Queen Alexis, monarch of the Aurora Empire, is tired of the incompetence and the losses. She issues a Call to Service that a peer is required to obey. That peer is Raferty Hawkins. His given mission is easy… and hard. All he has to do is win a victory over Orion forces. The Royal Navy has suffered many defeats but the most recent one at Excandor is the costliest on both a personal and a professional basis for Alexis. The Queen is tired of it and tasks her favorite pirate with reversing the trend. As a peer of the realm, Hawkins will command Royal Navy ships and personnel for the first time. He must produce and execute a plan that achieves the elusive win Queen Alexis wants. The two earlier forays into this war by Flot 1 had been for revenge against the OrCons for their destruction of the pirate settlement on Ulatar. It will be different this time. Raferty Hawkins, the Duke of Black Hallow, must answer a summons, but this is not flotilla business. He will let the ships in Flot 1 decide whether to support his mission. With or without them, he must go to the Aurora Empire. With help from his trusted friends and companions, Hawkins takes on his biggest task yet. After the battles are over, he will get an even greater mission, one that will last for a long, long time.

In this acclaimed novel by the author of the award-winning, bestselling The Thing About Jellyfish, being the new kid at school isn't easy, especially when you have to follow in the footsteps of a legendary classroom prankster.When Caitlyn Breen begins her disorienting new life at Mitchell School--where the students take care of real live goats and study long-dead philosophers, and where there are only ten other students in the entire seventh grade--it seems like nobody can stop talking about some kid named Paulie Fink.Depending on whom you ask, Paulie was either a hilarious class clown, a relentless troublemaker, a hapless klutz, or an evil genius. One thing's for sure, though: The kid was totally legendary. Now he's disappeared, and Caitlyn finds herself leading a reality-show-style competition to find the school's next great Paulie Fink. With each challenge, Caitlyn struggles to understand a person she never met...but it's what she discovers about herself that most surprises her.Told in multiple voices, interviews, and documents, this funny, thought-provoking novel from the bestselling author of The Thing About Jellyfish is a memorable exploration of what makes a hero--and if anyone, or anything, is truly what it seems.

This stunning debut novel about grief and wonder was an instant New York Times bestseller and captured widespread critical acclaim, including selection as a 2015 National Book Award finalist! After her best friend dies in a drowning accident, Suzy is convinced that the true cause of the tragedy must have been a rare jellyfish sting--things don't just happen for no reason. Retreating into a silent world of imagination, she crafts a plan to prove her theory--even if it means traveling the globe, alone. Suzy's achingly heartfelt journey explores life, death, the astonishing wonder of the universe...and the potential for love and hope right next door. Oddlot Entertainment has acquired the screen rights to The Thing About Jellyfish, with Gigi Pritzker set to produce with Bruna Papandrea and Reese Witherspoon.

Mouse does not want to share his big, juicy apple but he is too small to move it on his own. Can he get his friends to help and still eat it all himself? Little Mouse and the Big Red Apple is from Level 3 of Ready Steady Read! a fantastic graded reading scheme with four reading levels from Little Tiger Press. Ready Steady Read! makes learning to read fun. Each book contains games and activities to reinforce learning and test comprehension in a way developing readers will enjoy as well as handy parent notes from Prue Goodwin, Lecturer in Literacy and Children's Books. Level 3 is suitable for more confident readers. The stories will help build their confidence, opening up the world of reading and imagination to them. About Level 3: *longer sentences with varied structure *wider vocabulary *high-interest stories of up to 300 words *smaller print for experienced readers

In this acclaimed novel by the author of the award-winning, bestselling The Thing About Jellyfish, being the new kid at school isn't easy, especially when you have to follow in the footsteps of a legendary classroom prankster.When Caitlyn Breen begins her disorienting new life at Mitchell School--where the students take care of real live goats and study long-dead philosophers, and where there are only ten other students in the entire seventh grade--it seems like nobody can stop talking about some kid named Paulie Fink.Depending on whom you ask, Paulie was either a hilarious class clown, a relentless troublemaker, a hapless klutz, or an evil genius. One thing's for sure, though: The kid was totally legendary. Now he's disappeared, and Caitlyn finds herself leading a reality-show-style competition to find the school's next great Paulie Fink. With each challenge, Caitlyn struggles to understand a person she never met...but it's what she discovers about herself that most surprises her.Told in multiple voices, interviews, and documents, this funny, thought-provoking novel from the bestselling author of The Thing About Jellyfish is a memorable exploration of what makes a hero--and if anyone, or anything, is truly what it seems.

After years spent studying alien life in the seas of Europa, Dr. Kiara Lacroix has become one of Earth’s foremost exobiology experts. Her research brings her to the attention of the Global Space Federation, which has a top-secret mission for her: an advanced alien civilization has been discovered in the depths of an icy planet five light-years from Earth, and Kiara is expected to join the crew making first contact.Kiara has her hesitations, but as usual her scientific curiosity gets the better of her. She and her crew will be using experimental technology which establishes long-distance contact via a dream-reality beamed through a wormhole: the spacetime sequence. It’s even riskier than it sounds.Of course, Kiara’s not the only one with hesitations about the GSF’s actions. And some of those people have the resources—and the access to GSF’s classified mission information—to do something about them.A Spacetime Tale is high-concept hard science fiction at its finest.Cover art by Jeff Brown