Books with author Cynthia Defelice

For Ben, there's more involved in the annual Striped Bass Derby than catching the biggest fish. He's proud of the fact that no one has ever beaten his father's record which was won before Ben was born. But now Ben overhears two men plotting to win the prize money by cheating! Ben has to stop them, at all costs, but bringing the men to justice turns out to be a chase that almost costs him his life.

One day while running on the trail near his house in upstate New York, Owen McGuire meets a girl with startling green eyes and bloody cuts all over her body who seems to be utterly alone. Her name is Campion, after the wildflower that is an alien species in the area―alien meaning "from someplace else"―and Campion claims to come from someplace else entirely, a planet called Home. She plans to signal her parents to come pick her up in their spaceship. Owen agrees to help, and as he does, he feels happier than he has in a long time: His mother died a year and a half ago, and now he and his workaholic father live together like two planets on separate orbits, in a new house far from his friends. What will he do when Campion asks him to come with her into outer space, away from his lonely life on Earth?

Allie Nichols knows she's being pursued by a ghost. But her friend Karen calls her a liar and doesn't want to hear "stuff like that." It is Allie's old pal Dub who listens eagerly as Allie tells him about a voice that guides her safely down a steep cliff side, the face in her mind's eye of a girl who begs "Help me," and a terrible nightmare in which that girl falls to her death. Who is the girl? Is she the ghost? And what does the ghost want from Allie? As Allie discovers that her role is to avenge a murder, she also learns something about friendship, false and true, in this gripping ghost story and murder mystery by a popular and highly regarded author.

A Matter of Life or DeathIt's 1849, and twelve-year-old, Lucas Whitaker is all alone after his whole family dies of a disease called consumption which has swept through the community. Lucas is grief-stricken and filled with guilt. He might have saved his mother, who was the last to die, if only he had listened to news of a strange cure for this deadly disease.Unable to manage the family farm by himself, Lucas finds work as an apprentice to Doc Beecher, doctor, dentist, barber and undertaker. Doc amputates a leg as easily as he pulls a tooth, yet when it comes to consumption, he remains powerless, unwilling to try the cure he calls nonsense. Lucas can't accept Doc's disbelief, and he joins others in the dark ritual they believe is their only hope. The startling results teach Lucas a great deal about fear, desperation, and the scientific reasoning that offers hope for a true cure.The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker is a 2008 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

The sequel to Devil's BridgeAt thirteen, Ben Daggett, a Martha's Vineyard local, takes a summer job as first mate on a charter boat and plans to spend the July Fourth weekend helping to entertain tourists. On his first day out, Ben spots a strange object in the water -- a red Porsche. Then he learns that the driver is missing! Donny, a cool sixteen-year-old, admits to having submerged the car -- but nothing more. Also a native, Donny resents the rich tourists, and even steals from them. Despite Donny's transgressions, Ben would give anything to hang out with him. Unfortunately, he gives too much, and ends up involved in drug dealing and maybe murder, and with full understanding of Donny's role in at least one of these crimes. Should he tell on Donny? In Cynthia DeFelice's exciting new adventure novel, the hero faces up to his own weakness and struggles to decide what to do about his friend.

One day while running on the trail near his house in upstate New York, Owen McGuire meets a girl with startling green eyes and bloody cuts all over her body who seems to be utterly alone. Her name is Campion, after the wildflower that is an alien species in the area—alien meaning "from someplace else"—and Campion claims to come from someplace else entirely, a planet called Home. She plans to signal her parents to come pick her up in their spaceship. Owen agrees to help, and as he does, he feels happier than he has in a long time: his mother died a year and a half ago, and now he and his workaholic father live together like two planets on separate orbits, in a new house far from his friends. What will he do when Campion asks him to come with her into outer space, away from his lonely life on Earth? In this moving novel, two friendless kids search the night sky for something to believe in—but discover that they've found what they need right here on Earth.

In this boys-will-be-boys summer story about friendship and revenge, eleven-year-old Wyatt and his friend Augie aren't looking for a fight. They're having the best summer of their lives hanging out in the fort they built in the woods, fishing and hunting, cooking over a campfire, and sleeping out. But when two older boys mess with the fort―and with another kid who can't fight back―the friends are forced to launch Operation Doom, with unexpected results for all concerned, in this novel about two funny and very real young heroes.

The annual Striped Bass Derby is a favorite event for residents of Martha's Vineyard. But to no one is it as important as to twelve-year-old Ben Daggett, son of the island's record holder. If anyone is going to beat his father's record, Ben wants it to be himself. An honest catch superior to Jack Daggett's would be hard to make. Nevertheless, Ben is shocked to discover a local man conspiring to cheat with a stranger. Worse, he finds there's nothing he can do to stop them - and that by trying he's only endangering his life.

A little girl discovers her true identityDulcie Campbell knows she's a princess. The woman with old bunny slippers can't be her real mother. The man with scratchy whiskers isn't her real father. The boy who teases her isn't her real brother. And the dog who sniffs her isn't hers, either. Dulcie sets out to live the life she was born for. "Take a warm jacket!" calls the woman. "Don't forget your book!" calls the man. "I thought you said you were leaving!" shouts the boy. The dog drools. Off to the barn (the royal palace) goes Dulcie, where she perches on a bale of hay (her throne) to wait for things to right themselves. Then she opens her book of fairy tales and learns that the life of a princess isn't all that she's dreamed - and that the one she's been living may not be so bad after all.Wry, funny, and utterly charming, Cynthia DeFelice's story is pictured to perfection by R. W. Alley.

Thirteen-year-old Ben Daggett is looking forward to his summer job as first mate on a charter fishing boat on Martha's Vineyard. Then, on his first day out, he spots a strange object in the water -- a red Porsche. The driver is missing. Donny, an older teenager, knows something, but he's not telling. Donny has his own car, and Ben would give anything to hang out with him. But Donny's involved in something shady, and Ben finds out that the price of friendship may be more than he can afford to pay.

September 1840 marks five months since twelve-year-old Nathan Fowler's life-threatening encounter with Weasel, the heartless man who stalked Nathan like a wild animal through the forest. Nathan hasn't been the same since, wary of every new person he meets - including the visiting peddler Orrin Beckwith. When Beckwith shows Nate and his family a handbill advertising a show with a "white Injun," a man without a tongue, Nathan is sure the man is his friend Ezra, who lost his tongue to Weasel's knife. Determined to save Ezra from this traveling show of "human oddities," Nathan sets out with Beckwith from Ohio to Pennsylvania. On the way, Nathan encounters more people than he's ever met before, and he begins to learn a thing or two about human nature. The biggest shock, however, is Ezra himself, and it will take more than Nathan bargained for to bring him back home.