Books with author Barbara Brooks Wallace

Emily Luccock thought the worst was behind her; she had survived the horrors of Sugar Hill Hall and been reunited with her beloved Aunt and Uncle Twice. Now she is devastated to be left at Mrs. Spilking's Select Academy while her aunt and uncle sail for India. But nothing can top Emily's misery once she spies the dreary school, icy Mrs. Spilking, and, once again, a bowl of tantalizing yet forbidden peppermints! Emily tries to keep her spirits up while counting the days until she can rejoin Aunt and Uncle Twice. But she soon realizes her aunt and uncle have all but forgotten her, and, worse, Mrs. Spilking's behavior grows increasingly cruel -- and suspicious. Can Emily discover what's going on at the dreadful school before her future is destroyed forever?

Emily Luccock is looking forward to living at Sugar Hill Hall....She remembers her aunt and uncle's grand old mansion well, with its enormous, elegant parlor, marble fireplace, and white china cups filled with hot chocolate. But this time things are different. Her aunt's once bright and lively home is now dead with silence. Evil lurks in every corner, and the dark, shadowed walls watch and whisper late at night. And no one ever speaks. Everything's changed at Sugar Hill Hall, and Emily knows something awful is happening there. What's become of Uncle Twice? Why is Aunt Twice a prisoner in her own home? Emily is desperate to uncover the truth. Time is running out, and she must find a way to save the people and home she cares so much about.

Colin Trevelyan, newly orphaned heir to his parents' fortune, is kidnapped in the night from his ancestral home and taken to the grim Broggin Home for Boys, where he is underfed, overworked, and destined for a short life in a deadly glass factory. This story "immediately hooks readers, who will gobble up this satisfying fare," says School Library Journal. "Fully realized Victorian melodrama that would make Dickens proud," says The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. A Junior Literary Guild selection and winner of the Mystery Writers of America EDGAR Award.

Emily Luccock is looking forward to living at Sugar Hill Hall....She remembers her aunt and uncle's grand old mansion well, with its enormous, elegant parlor, marble fireplace, and white china cups filled with hot chocolate. But this time things are different. Her aunt's once bright and lively home is now dead with silence. Evil lurks in every corner, and the dark, shadowed walls watch and whisper late at night. And no one ever speaks. Everything's changed at Sugar Hill Hall, and Emily knows something awful is happening there. What's become of Uncle Twice? Why is Aunt Twice a prisoner in her own home? Emily is desperate to uncover the truth. Time is running out, and she must find a way to save the people and home she cares so much about.

In this prequel to Claudia, aged eleven and in the sixth grade, Barbara Brooks Wallace introduces us to a Claudia aged nine and in the fourth grade. She and her best friends are like twins, even to the same number of scabs on their knees! But her friend leaves, the letters between them fade, and Claudia desperately looks for a replacementin all the wrong places, it seems, until she realizes that the most unlikely person in the world might be what shes been looking for! Wallace has an easy way with dialogue and sure instinct for capturing kids personalities. School Library Journal

Having once been snubbed by a former best friend, Claudia knows what it feels like to be dumped. Now shes faced with having to do the same thing. Only this is someone she still cares about, the precociously memorable Duffy Booth, her much younger neighbor who was featured in the earlier Claudia stories. But she is outgrowing him, wants now to have friends her own age, and he is smothering her with his dependence on her. The surprising solution to this dilemma is not exactly the one Claudia would have chosen. But she knows she must accept the fact that Duffy is growing up. And so, for that important matter, is she! Characters, situations, and family dynamics are credible and entertaining.Booklist

Rupert Brown can tell from day one that Miss Switch is no ordinary fifth-grade teacher. Her whole look is about as comfortable as a steel knitting needle! Plus, she's in some serious trouble. It seems that Miss Switch has been condemned by a crazy contraption called a computowitch, and she must come up with some original witchcraft -- or she will be doomed to sweep Witch's Mountain for l50 years.Can great scientist Rupert Brown and his friend Amelia Daley face the computowitch and the Witches' Council -- and get their favorite teacher of all time out of this mess?

What: EyesKind: CracklingWhose: HersPerformance: See clearly from back of headHow Tested: No known way to prove scientificallyThese are the notes made by Rupert P. Brown, a going-on-eleven-year-old budding scientist, when he suspects his fifth grade teacher at Pepperdine Elementary School is a witch. Turns out Miss Switch IS a witch, and she’s in big trouble, condemned by the wicked Saturna via her idiotic Computowitch to perform some original witchcraft or be forced to sweep Witch’s Mountain for 150 years. Miss Switch seeks Rupert’s help. Can the great scientist and friend Amelia Daley knock the socks off the Computowitch and the Witch’s Council . . . and win a reprieve for Miss Switch, their favorite teacher of all time? “Witchcraft of the real no-fooling, flying broomsticks and talking cats variety!” ABC Press

The mystery has plenty of snakes and twists as well as characters that step right off the pages. -A Booklist Editor's Choice Book "With a fine hand for Gothic embroidery and a nifty surprise conclusion that ties up all the loose ends, Wallace has delivered another very satisfying read." -School Library Journal Winner of the Mystery Writers of America EDGAR AWARD

In her three popular Claudia books, Barbara Brooks Wallace has created stories that have appealed to boys and girls alike. Misunderstood by her parents, snubbed by a former best friend, on the outs at school because of unjust rumors, and finally, forbidden by her family from playing with her only remaining friend, Claudias story comes to such a satisfying conclusion kids have written that they wish this would happen to them! Funny all the way throughdialogue, situations, descriptions.Young Readers ReviewNLAPW Childrens Book AwardInternational Youth Library Best of the Best

What: Cat, name of BathshebaKind: BlackWhose: Miss Switch’sPerformance: Flies broomstick on her own, narrowly escaping the wicked witch, SaturnaHow tested: No known way to prove scientifically Or tested any other way as it turns up. This note is only what might have been, but was actually never written by Rupert B. Brown, ace Pepperdine Elementary School scientist as he did all his others, because he never saw Bathsheba flying a broomstick alone. Nor, for that matter did her owner, Miss Switch, the witch who happens to be also the most popular fifth and sixth-grade teacher ever at Pepperdine. No, this was a totally private Bathsheba enterprise. The only ones who knew about it were the two sad characters from the Oz books Bathsheba had come to help. Bathsheba’s lips are sealed as to the special broomstick-flying incantations, and only those who happen to come upon this report know that it even happened. She hopes and trusts that you will keep your lips sealed about this whole affair!

If you think nothing much is going on when Rupert P. Brown III begins sixth grade at Pepperdine Elementary School, you'd be dead wrong. Consider the following: a new teacher with the unlikely name of Miss Blossom; a new principal who has all the girls swooning; a talking bird who thinks he's a math whiz; a computer that goes berserk and produces a Web site called computowitch.com that not only displays some very ominous poetry, but whose password is the name of a witch Rupert has tangled with in the past. Yes, a witch!Faster than you can say "witchcraft and wizardry," Rupert figures he could be in big trouble. He can really use the help of Miss Switch, a real, honest-to-goodness witch herself, who also, amazingly, was once a former popular teacher of Rupert's class at Pepperdine. He has reason to believe she's back, but where?Once again, Rupert records another scary (well, sort of) and funny encounter with Miss Switch. His earlier accounts, equally scary and funny, appear in the books The Trouble with Miss Switch and Miss Switch to the Rescue.