Books with author Ian Lawrence

A girl’s imagination transports polio-afflicted kids into a fantastic world.The spring of 1955 tests Laurie Valentine’s gifts as a storyteller. After her friend Dickie contracts polio and finds himself confined to an iron lung, Laurie visits him in the hospital. There she meets Carolyn and Chip, two other kids trapped inside the breathing machines. Laurie’s first impulse is to flee, but Dickie begs her to tell them a story. And so Laurie begins her tale of Collosso, a rampaging giant, and Jimmy, a tiny boy whose destiny is to become a slayer of giants.As Laurie embellishes her tale with gnomes, unicorns, gryphons, and other fanciful creatures, Dickie comes to believe that he is a character in her story. Little by little Carolyn, Chip, and other kids who come to listen, recognize counterparts as well. Laurie’s tale is so powerful that when she’s prevented from continuing it, Dickie, Carolyn, and Chip take turns as narrators. Each helps bring the story of Collosso and Jimmy to an end—changing the lives of those in the polio ward in startling ways.

Perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn and Roald Dahl, these stories are guaranteed to get under your skin.Diverse, dark-humored, and deliciously bite-sized: JT Lawrence doesn't disappoint with this brand new collection of unsettling short stories, including:BrightSideIs the director of this post-apocalyptic orphanage really a wizard? And where is he taking the children?Cold BreathA man knows he deserves to be haunted for what he has done; he just didn't expect it to happen this way.The Secret Under My SkinA girl has to make a terrible decision in this futuristic dystopian story where the State owns the rights to women's reproductive organs.SkyRestA man makes a horrific discovery in the crim colony silo he's imprisoned in.Not WavingA mother is drowning, but no one sees her.NachthexenIn world war two, a courageous young fiancée signed up to the Soviet all-female bombing squadron—The Night Witches—that helped turn the tide against the Nazis.***"Lawrence makes every word count, telling each story with elegance and emotional punch.” — Patsy Hennessey"Each story is masterfully constructed ... Humorous, touching, creepy, but most of all entertaining, this collection is superb." — Tracy Michelle Anderson***If you're a fan of Roald Dahl or Gillian Flynn you'll love this compelling collection with a twist in the tale.Get it now.

Magical blackouts, forest creatures in the walls, and people going missing.Ihale City isn’t safe anymore.It’s been months since the events in the tunnels and Heln can’t let his guard down. Something is out there, just waiting to spirit him away outside of the walls and into the domain of the forest god. He finally gives in.Bel and Rhyss follow.Out in the forest things are not what they expected. Heln is called on to help with the very thing that has been causing Ihalins to leave the city for a thousand years. Something dark that lurks in the heart of the old city.Will he be able to stop it? What could be at the center of it all?Will Bel and Rhyss’s friendship, driven by the danger they’re in, blossom into something more?The Abandoned City continues the story of Ihale - and the secrets hidden there.

ADRIFT AT SEA, Tom Tin and his four convict companions are only too glad when they come upon a deserted ship. The boys clamber aboard, not knowing whether they've been saved or set on a course toward doom. But after rescuing two men stranded on a melting iceberg, Tom begins to suspect that these unsavory sailors are dangerous castaways from this very vessel. The more Tom questions the men, the more they dislike him. So, when Tom overhears them plotting to get rid of him, he knows they mean it. But the other boys don't feel threatened - at least not until the sailors attempt to sell them as slaves, a decision that ends with death for some . . . and with Tom sailing the ship home to England.Soon Tom discovers that he has to cast away every ill-intentioned companion from his voyage home before he can truly be free.From the Hardcover edition.

There was once a village bred by evil. On the barren coast of Cornwall, England, lived a community who prayed for shipwrecks, a community who lured storm-tossed ships to crash upon the sharp rocks of their shore. They fed and clothed themselves with the loot salvaged from the wreckage; dead sailors' tools and trinkets became decorations for their homes. Most never questioned their murderous way of life. Then, upon that pirates' shore crashed the ship The Isle of Skye. And the youngest of its crew members, 14-year-old John Spencer, survived the wreck. But would he escape the wreckers? This is his harrowing tale.

" Steer clear of that ship, " warns the mysterious gentleman who shares a coach with John and his father. " Death she'll bring you, " says the man. " It's the way of a ship that was christened with blood." This is an ominous introduction to the schooner John is about to be entrusted with for a voyage to London. But he's too charmed by the pretty "Dragon" to heed the advice. The ship looks clever and quick, and John can hardly wait to sail her. She was a smugglers' vessel once, but now she's his Dragon, and she'll proudly carry wool for honest trade. But soon John will be forced to consider the gentleman's warning. And to wonder what he really knows about his bonny crew.

Three years have passed since Squid McCrae last saw her parents and the remote island where she grew up. She returns now at seventeen, a young woman with a daughter in tow. The visit, she knows, will be rough. Lizzie Island–paradise to some, a stifling prison to others–brings an onslaught of memories. It is the place of Squid’s idyllic childhood, where she and her brother, Alastair, blossomed into precocious adolescents. But Lizzie Island is also the place where Alastair died.Now the past collides with the present as Squid’s homecoming unleashes bittersweet recollections, revelations, and accusations. But nothing is what it appears to be. No one possesses the complete truth, and no one is without blame.From the Hardcover edition.

A girl’s imagination transports polio-afflicted kids into a fantastic world.The spring of 1955 tests Laurie Valentine’s gifts as a storyteller. After her friend Dickie contracts polio and finds himself confined to an iron lung, Laurie visits him in the hospital. There she meets Carolyn and Chip, two other kids trapped inside the breathing machines. Laurie’s first impulse is to flee, but Dickie begs her to tell them a story. And so Laurie begins her tale of Collosso, a rampaging giant, and Jimmy, a tiny boy whose destiny is to become a slayer of giants.As Laurie embellishes her tale with gnomes, unicorns, gryphons, and other fanciful creatures, Dickie comes to believe that he is a character in her story. Little by little Carolyn, Chip, and other kids who come to listen, recognize counterparts as well. Laurie’s tale is so powerful that when she’s prevented from continuing it, Dickie, Carolyn, and Chip take turns as narrators. Each helps bring the story of Collosso and Jimmy to an end—changing the lives of those in the polio ward in startling ways.