Books with author Candlewick on Brilliance Audio

It is while I stitch together the Queen’s gown, on the night her eldest daughter is to die, that I first sense an uneasy power. On the eve of Princess Sophia’s wedding, the Scandinavian city of Skyggehavn prepares to fete the occasion with a sumptuous display of riches. Yet beneath the veneer of celebration, a shiver of darkness creeps through the palace halls. A mysterious illness plagues the royal family, threatening the lives of the throne’s heirs, and a courtier’s wolfish hunger for the king’s favors sets a devious plot in motion. Here in the palace at Skyggehavn, things are seldom as they seem - and when a single errant prick of a needle sets off a series of events that will alter the course of history, the fates of seamstress Ava Bingen and mute nursemaid Midi Sorte become irrevocably intertwined. As they navigate a tangled web of palace intrigue, power-lust, and deception, Ava and Midi must carve out their own survival any way they can.

Seventeen-year-old Matt Foster thought that if he could only get his hands on his brother’s stuff from Iraq, he’d be able to make sense of his death. He wasn’t expecting T. J.’s personal effects to raise even more questions about his life. Now, even if it means pushing his dad over the edge...even if it means losing his best friend...even if it means getting expelled from school...Matt will do whatever it takes to find out the truth about his brother’s past. With compassion, humor, and a compelling narrative voice, E. M. Kokie explores grief and self-discovery in this powerful first novel.

From the acclaimed author of the Chaos Walking trilogy and A Monster Calls comes one of the most provocative teen novels of our time. A boy named Seth drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments. But then he wakes. He is naked, thirsty, starving. But alive. How is this possible? He remembers dying, his bones breaking, his skull dashed upon the rocks. So how is he here? And where is this place? The street seems familiar, but everything is abandoned, overgrown, covered in dust. What's going on? Is it real? Or has he woken up in his own personal hell? Seth begins to search for answers, hoping desperately that there must be more to this life, or perhaps this afterlife....

What's really going on with the environment - in our own backyards and the wider world? Conflicting information is offered by websites, magazines, and documentaries that blur the line between news and opinion. Not every report is reliable; not every interest group is actually composed of concerned citizens. In this dynamic account, award-winning author Paul Fleischman arms teens with the basic tools to uncover vested interests and falsehoods by vetting sources, following the money, and checking references so that they can make informed decisions about what actions to take in the worldwide battle against climate change, overconsumption, and dwindling resources.

When an insecure teen starts impersonating someone else, her life spirals dangerously out of control in a realistic, relatable novel about finding yourself - and discovering your true friends. Leah Lobermier dreams of becoming a doctor, but it's hard to stay focused on getting good grades when boys make oinking sounds at her in school and her mother spends every night on the couch with a bottle of wine. Leah's skinny and popular "friends," Kristy and Corinne, aren't much better and can hardly be counted on for support. When the girls convince a handsome older man to buy them beer, Leah takes his phone number and calls him, pretending to be Kristy - coy and confident - and they develop a relationship, talking and texting day after day. But as the lie she created grows beyond her control, can Leah put a stop to things before she - or Kristy - is seriously hurt?

Then: Ever since Mabby died while picking beans in their garden - with the pock-a-pock of a helicopter overhead - Valkyrie knows what her job is: hide in the underground den with her brother, Bo, while Da is working, because Those People will kill them like coyotes. One Year Ago: Those People have come. It has to be them; because when Valkyrie and Bo return from a lesson of alert and ready, everything is on fire and Da is gone. But they‘ve been trained by their Da for this: It‘s time to wait. Time to prepare. Time to be invisible. Last Fall: Maybe Da‘s not coming back. Maybe. So Bo and Valkyrie must enter the outside world - a not-so-smart place where little boys wear their names on their backpacks and young men don‘t pat down strangers before offering a lift. People should be more careful. This Afternoon: Valkyrie finds herself in a twisted game of life and death where winning is all that matters. And in a final, trigger-tense moment of when and where and who, it all comes down to... Now.

He cud be just a thing that glares into your hart & prowls inside yor deepest dreems.... Turn away if you must. Billy Dean is a secret child. He has a beautiful young mother and a father who arrives at night carrying the scents of candles and incense and cigarettes. Birds fly to his window. Mice run out from his walls. His world is a carpet, a bed, pictures of the holy island, and a single locked door. His father fills his mind and his dreams with mysterious tales and memories and dreadful warnings. But then his father disappears, and Billy’s mother brings him out into the world at last. He learns the horrifying story of what was saved and what was destroyed on the day he was born, the day the bombers came to Blinkbonny. The kind butcher, Mr. McCaufrey, and the medium, Missus Malone, are waiting for him. He becomes the Angel Child, one who can heal the living, contact the dead, bring comfort to a troubled world. But there is one figure who is beyond healing, who comes looking for Billy himself - and is determined on a kind of reckoning. From master storyteller David Almond comes a gripping, brilliantly written novel about a hidden-away child who emerges into a broken world.

Brother and sister dragonology students Daniel and Beatrice Cook are looking forward to returning to their studies with Dr. Ernest Drake and Erasmus, their dragon tutor. But when they discover that the evil dragonologist Alexandra Gorynytchka is searching for the fearsome Hammer of the Dragons – an ancient weapon that can kill hundreds of dragons in a single stroke – Dr. Drake and the children pursue her all the way to the Lost Island of the Dragons, where she is amassing an army of enslaved dragons. There they learn of the Dragon Prophecy, according to which the return of the Hammer of the Dragons can be stopped only by two children “wise beyond their years in the ways of dragons.” Could the prophecy point to Daniel and Beatrice? And can they save dragonkind before it’s too late?

A rainy night. An empty highway. And no memory. From award-winning author Tim Wynne-Jones comes a riveting murder mystery that will keep listeners enthralled until the last moment. On the night Donovan Turner is thrown out of a car on a highway in the middle of nowhere, he can barely remember his own name, let alone the past 24 hours. Where is he? Where is his girlfriend, Bee? In an attempt to flag down the next passing car, he startles the driver, causing a fatal accident. With sirens in the distance and the lingering feeling that he's running from something - or someone - Donovan grabs the dead driver's briefcase and flees. Meanwhile, Bee is fighting for Dono's life every bit as much as he is. But when the police show up and hint that he is the prime suspect in a murder, Bee is determined to put together the pieces of what happened and clear his name. With echoes of Dante's Divine Comedy, this harrowing journey through hell and back is a page-turning tale of guilt, retribution, love, and redemption.

A young Jewish pianist at Auschwitz, desperate to save her family, is chosen to play at the camp commandant's house. How could she know she would fall in love with the wrong boy? "Look after each other… and get home safe. And when you do, tell everyone what you saw and what they did to us." These are Hanna's father's parting words to her and her sister when their family is separated at the gates of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Her father's words - and a black C-sharp piano key hidden away in the folds of her dress - are all that she has left to remind her of life before. Before, Hanna was going to be a famous concert pianist. She was going to wear her yellow dress to a dance. And she was going to dance with a boy. But then the Nazis came. Now it is up to Hanna to do all she can to keep her mother and sister alive, even if that means playing piano for the commandant and his guests. Staying alive isn't supposed to include falling in love with the commandant's son. But Karl Jager is beautiful, and his aloofness belies a secret. And war makes you do dangerous things.

"I would have been here sooner, but traffic on I-55 was awful." Walker shouldn’t be so surprised to find Jesus standing in the middle of his bedroom. After all, he prayed for whoever was up there to help his mom, who hasn’t stopped crying since Noah died, two months ago. But since when have prayers actually been answered? And since when has Jesus been so...irreverent? As astounding as Jesus’ sudden appearance is, it’s going to take more than divine intervention for Walker to come to terms with his brother’s death. Why would God take 17-year-old Noah when half of the residents in his mom’s nursing home are waiting to die? And why would he send Jesus to Coaltown, Illinois, to pick up the pieces? If he really wanted to help, why couldn’t he have kept Noah from dying? In a spare, weighty, and often humorous text, renowned poet Ron Koertge tackles some of life’s biggest questions - and humanizes the savior in a way that highlights the divinity in all of us.

What is it like to be a giant? Meet Corinthia Bledsoe, a seven-foot tall high-school junior who can predict the future. Over seven feet tall and with a newfound ability to sense future events, Corinthia Bledsoe is far more than just another Midwestern high-school junior; she's a force of nature. When she predicts with terrifying accuracy the outcome of a tornado that will hit her high school, leaving a cow standing midcourt in the Lugo Memorial field house, Corinthia finds herself at the epicenter of another kind of storm entirely. And as things get stranger and stranger - both in her small town and her own home - lives start to intersect in ways even Corinthia can't foresee.