Books with author Dennis Lee

The team of code-crackers face a new code that has never been solved. Brodie, Hunter and Tusia are back at Station X, the secret code-cracking station at Bletchley Park. And they are still wrestling with the great unanswered question: what secret lies behind the ancient, coded Voynich Manuscript? Their first adventure left them with a musical box that plays a tune by the composer, Elgar. Elgar loved codes. At once they are off on a new search which takes them to the stories behind Elgar's famous music and a coded letter he wrote to a young friend, Dorabella. The 'Dorabella Cipher' has never, ever been solved. Now our team of code-breakers are on a twisting trail via medieval book burnings in Florence, a mysterious boy known as the Orphan of the Flames, and a one-time famous prisoner in London's Newgate Prison who wrote about King Arthur. Where is it all leading? And will they survive, when hot on their trail is a secret organisation that has always thwarted the search for Truth and is prepared to kill to stop them ...The second story in this highly original puzzle-solving series - a Da Vinci Code for kids. The reader races along with the Secret Breakers team to break the code ... Enter the world of the Secret Breakers at http://hldennis.com/

Team Veritas are back at Bletchley Park where a secret message hidden in a Shakespeare Portfolio pulls them into a new code-cracking adventure. Their investigations lead them to the writings of Sir Francis Bacon. Soon, they uncover the history of the Knights of Neustria, a brotherhood that goes back to the time of King Arthur charged with protecting a legendary secret. But are they any closer to their goal - to unravel the secret behind the ancient coded Voynich Manuscript? The stakes are getting higher as our young trio chase their quest from Cambridge to a terrifying struggle along the currents of the surging River Wye. Only one step behind them is the secret organisation who will stop at nothing to block them from discovering the truth ... Join the Secret Breakers team to crack the code in this highly original puzzle-solving series - The Da Vinci Code for kids.Enter the world of the Secret Breakers at http://hldennis.com/Teachers' resources and full reading guide available here: http://hldennis.com/docs/HDreadingguide.pdf'This gripping thriller ... will have you on the edge of your seats.' TBK Magazine

In The Cat and the Wizard, Dennis Lee's bouncing, toe-tapping rhymes tell the story of a disgruntled wizard and his unwanted bag of tricks. One evening, in a laundromat, the wizard meets a lonely, jet-black cat with a tall silk hat, a heart full of hospitality, and no one to share it with. Together, the unwanted wizard and the lonely black cat embark on a magical evening of candlelight and cigars, peacocks and waterfalls, juggling turnips and butterflies wings. The party lasts until dawn. Lee's delightful words are accompanied by Gillian Johnson's fanciful illustrations. The result is a wondrous, imaginative, storytelling feast, sure to delight and enchant.

The Knights of Neustria's quest is clearer to Team Veritas now - but so is their understanding of the terrible enemy they are up against. People are going missing. No one at Station X is safe anymore. But there are still important truths to uncover.Which secret organization is protecting the work of the Knights of Neustria and do they know who is buried in the unmarked Shepherd's Tomb at Shugborough Hall? Will the story of the mysterious treasure ship 'The Covadogna' help the team of secret breakers discover more about the world described in the ancient coded Voynich Manuscript? And will every member of the team survive the race against time when the sinister Black Chamber chooses to leave them all a terrifying message?Enter the world of the Secret Breakers at http://hldennis.com/Teachers' resources and full reading guide available here: http://hldennis.com/docs/HDreadingguide.pdf'This gripping thriller ... will have you on the edge of your seats.' TBK Magazine

Team Veritas have been searching for the truth. But sometimes the truth is hard to handle. No longer safe in England, the team from Station X must escape to the United States of America where they embark on an epic treasure hunt. It starts in New York City where they track down a precious ring once owned by a Knight of Neustria. From there, on to Washington DC to look for clues in the largest library in the world - and then a trek across the Blue Ridge Mountains in search for treasure hidden in a long forgotten cavern. The mystery of the coded Voynich Manuscript is getting closer ... but so is the sinister Black Chamber who is following their every step. And for one of the team, it could be their last ... Enter the world of the Secret Breakers at http://hldennis.com/Teachers' resources and full reading guide available here: http://hldennis.com/docs/HDreadingguide.pdf'This gripping thriller ... will have you on the edge of your seats.' TBK Magazine

The time for answers has arrived. After the death of a much loved friend, Team Veritas has even more to fight for. At the University of Yale, in the underground vaults of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the team finally get to see the real live Voynich Manuscript. Amongst stories of giants, betrayal and death, the language of the most mysterious manuscript in the world is finally understood. An ancient secret is broken.And now Team Veritas know their final quest: to journey to the real Avalon - the island where truth and legend meet. But they do not travel alone. There are some who seek revenge. And there are others who demand an impossible sacrifice - only then can the words of the Firebird Code be completely understood. With danger around every corner, can the Secret Breakers finally unlock the truth?The SECRET BREAKERS series concludes in this dramatic and satisfying finale.Enter the world of the Secret Breakers at http://hldennis.com/Teachers' resources and full reading guide available here: http://hldennis.com/docs/HDreadingguide.pdf'This gripping thriller ... will have you on the edge of your seats.' TBK Magazine

Acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane delivers an explosive tale of integrity and vengeance—heralding the long-awaited return of private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro Amanda McCready was four years old when she vanished from a Boston neighborhood twelve years ago. Desperate pleas for help from the child's aunt led investigators Kenzie and Gennaro to take on the case. The pair risked everything to find the young girl—only to orchestrate her return to a neglectful mother and a broken home. Now Amanda is sixteen—and gone again. A stellar student, brilliant but aloof, she seemed destined to escape her upbringing. Yet Amanda's aunt is once more knocking on Patrick Kenzie's door, fearing the worst for the little girl who has blossomed into a striking, clever young woman—a woman who hasn't been seen in weeks. Haunted by their consciences, Kenzie and Gennaro revisit the case that troubled them the most. Their search leads them into a world of identity thieves, methamphetamine dealers, a mentally unstable crime boss and his equally demented wife, a priceless, thousand-year-old cross, and a happily homicidal Russian gangster. It's a world in which motives and allegiances constantly shift and mistakes are fatal. In their desperate fight to confront the past and find Amanda McCready, Kenzie and Gennaro will be forced to question if it's possible to do the wrong thing and still be right or to do the right thing and still be wrong. As they face an evil that goes beyond broken families and broken dreams, they discover that the sins of yesterday don't always stay buried and the crimes of today could end their lives.