Books with author Katherine L. Howe

Unbeknown to Dawn, her grandfather has shot an old swan out of mercy. In their coastal Alaskan town, her father buys the swan pelt, preventing her Uncle Alex, a fur trader, from selling it for export. Dawn’s father surprises her part-Aleut mother with a hat she helped to make and also with an idea to catch poachers. Shooting swans has become illegal but Alaska is a territory and Prohibition occupies the Sheriff. Dawn and her mother become involved with suspicious inquiries about the swan bonnet besides its haunting effect. Because Dawn’s grandparents see the swans first, Dawn agrees to secretly watch the migration with the deputy sheriff’s son. But after she and her mother encounter women from a ship and find out about a hunting party, they ride to the inlet. There are townspeople roving the shore too but who is the vigilante and who is the poacher?

Costumes make the kids in this fantasy about identity. Wayward Sadie leads her friends to the murals of the painter Mistral. There, they are transported to a star where their Halloween costumes become real. As Fortuneteller, Sadie only has to look in her crystal ball to help the others with their dream identities. Her friend Candy has become the Homecoming Queen. Her brother is a zebra and the neighbor boy is a musician in the star band. Other children in Sadie’s grade school make up a bizarre community of star people who have also become enchanted. The hunt for a star-of-sapphire necklace takes up the latter chapters of this madcap fantasy.

Besides music, Vivvy loves green apples. She and her brother Matt go on morning apple raids until, one fall, their father drives them to a pick-your-own orchard. There, the cross old Josiah inhabits another time where pixies might appear like uprooted saplings. During the early, eventful 1960s, Vivvy takes the flute from Mr. Fortray, a band teacher who plays jazz. Another apple picking trip is confused with detours and Josiah is angry about progress. Vivvy finds that if she wants to do what she loves, she must think beyond a fear that her father and Josiah share.

A spellbinding, beautifully written novel that moves between contemporary times and one of the most fascinating and disturbing periods in American history - the Salem witch trials. Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin needs to spend her summer doing research for her doctoral dissertation. But when her mother asks her to handle the sale of Connie's grandmother's abandoned home near Salem, she can't refuse. As she is drawn deeper into the mysteries of the family house, Connie discovers an ancient key within a seventeenth-century Bible. The key contains a yellowing fragment of parchment with a name written upon it: Deliverance Dane. This discovery launches Connie on a quest-to find out who this woman was and to unearth a rare artifact of singular power: a physick book, its pages a secret repository for lost knowledge.

Wayward Sadie leads her friends to the murals of the painter Mistral. There, they are transported to a star where their Halloween costumes become real. As Fortuneteller, Sadie only has to look in her crystal ball to help the others with their dream identities. Her friend Candy has become the Homecoming Queen. Her brother is a zebra and the neighbor boy is a musician in the star band. Other children in Sadie’s grade school make up a bizarre community of star people who have also become enchanted. The hunt for a star-of-sapphire necklace takes up the latter chapters of this madcap fantasy.

A crime lost to time. A secret buried deep. One book unlocks an unimaginable truth. Salem, Massachusetts, 1681. Fear and suspicion lead a small town to unspeakable acts. Marblehead, Massachusetts, 1991. A young woman is about to discover that she is tied to Salem in ways she never imagined. "A sensational debut novel . . . carries on every page Howe's unique passion, wit, intelligence, and spirit."--Matthew Pearl, bestselling author of The Dante Club and The Poe Shadow "A terrific debut novel . . . a captivating thriller of the hidden powers of women throughout the centuries."--Boston Globe "Literary alchemy . . . powerful enough to deliver a charming summer read."--Christian Science Monitor "Howe pairs a scholarly search for a missing book with the thrill of spine-tingling witchery."--Dallas Morning News "If you need some magic in your life . . . lose yourself in The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane."--Real Simple "A devilishly delightful read."--San Francisco Chronicle"Compulsively readable . . . The novel is a page-turner, but the characters, not the plot, dominate." --Denver Post "A witch story that will leave you spellbound . . . Once in a while, a new writer offers up a hypnotic tale of the supernatural that has the publishing world quivering with excitement. In 2005 it was Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian; in 2006 it was Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale. This summer, The Physick Book is magic."--USA Today "I thought I had found another Alice Hoffman as I began Katherine Howe's debut novel . . . It has definite Hoffman vibes, but with a little Da Vinci Code, Stephen King, and academic discourse thrown in to create a charming and different mix . . . Howe is masterful."--Portland Oregonian "This isn't the same old hang-the-sorceror tale. It has a bedeviling twist."--New York Daily News

Perry has his own misadventures when the standard poodle Claude comes to his house. Because of a defect, Claude can’t be a show dog. But he fetches beyond his training, opens doors, and attempts to roam the neighborhood. The spring before the moonwalk, Perry plans a group project about UFO’s, space travel, and the Dog Star. During this, Claude makes escapes like a canine Houdini. Perry’s father has enough to worry about with the anti-war protesters in his history classes. Can Perry turn Claude’s exploring into training?