Books with author Sandy Richardson

Joel Demetrius is quite looking forward to moving in with his new step-family, but as far as his sister Cassie's concerned, they're nothing but intruders. She doesn't want anything to do with Gerald and his two sons, and to make matters worse their new home is a derelict old house, neglected for decades. Joel thinks it's interesting. Cassie thinks it's a dump.But his sister isn't the only reason the house doesn't feel like a home. As fascinated as he is by the place, Joel has to admit there's something not quite right about it. Not only does he keep seeing things out of the corner of his eye, but his sleep is plagued by nightmares. He can't seem to stop dreaming about a terrified boy who keeps repeating the same fractured prayer:IF I SHOULD DIE BEFORE I WAKE, I PRAY THE LORD MY SOUL TO TAKE . . .As events in the house become harder and harder to explain, it seems that the line between nightmare and reality is getting steadily more blurred. And when the battle between Cassie and her step-brothers draws everyone deeper into the mystery, all four kids are forced to confront the question of just who the intruders really are.

When Marjorie went to live with her frosty maiden aunt, she couldn’t imagine the adventures she would have with dragons — good and bad — and all the strange creatures that live in a mysterious land beneath the Tarn. The spunky 9-year-old redhead forges an unlikely friendship with an insecure young boy named Rufus who lives with his crusty grandfather next door. When Jorie — for that is what she prefers to be called — finds a dusty ancient book about dragons, she learns four strange words that will send the two of them into a mysterious land beneath the Tarn, riddled with enchantment and danger. Hungry for adventure, the children take the plunge, quite literally, and find themselves in the magic land of Cabrynthius. Upon meeting the good dragon, the Great Grootmonya, Jorie and Rufus are given a quest to find the three Stones of Maalog — stones of enormous power — and return them to their rightful place in Cabrynthius. Their mission is neither easy nor safe, and is peppered with perils in the form of the evil black half-dragon who rules the shadowy side of the land. They have to deal with a wicked and greedy professor, the tragic daughter of the bad dragon, caves of fire, rocky mountainous climbs, and a deadly poisonous butterfly.Jorie must rely on her wits and courage to win the day? Can she do this? Can she find all three Stones? Can she save Rufus when disaster befalls him? Can she emerge victorious? She and Rufus have some hair-raising challenges, in which they learn valuable lessons about loyalty, bravery, and friendship.

Written and hand drawn by award-winning author Sarah Richardson, Make Your Mark functions as a drawing aid, taking its readers on a creative journey. Beginning with the joys of scribbling, children learn how to create tone, line, shape, texture, and pattern, eventually arriving at the more sophisticated principles involved in drawing animals and people and mastering perspective. Sarah Richardson, a well-regarded art educator, brings a vitality and freshness to the book’s pages with her own drawings and photographs, which are as inspiring as her concise and pithy texts. Through its wide range of activities and creative challenges, this book will help young artists discover their own potential, giving them the confidence to go ahead and make their mark.

By crawling into a crack in the wall, Barney and his older sister Eve, unwittingly volunteer to save the Universe. According to Eve, Barney is like every other twelve year old boy, “Irritating by nature.” He’s impulsive, frequently gross and has the uncanny ability to wind her up with just one word. She isn’t sure what’s worse; to be told they have to save the universe before it implodes, or the knowledge that Barney will be her constant companion. How many farts can one girl endure before she loses her sense of smell?Barney loves adventure, but he never imagined he’d get to be the hero, or that his fantasy would include his uptight sister. He soon learns that if they accept their mission, they could die. If they don’t, they’ll definitely die. To top if off, he discovers they volunteered for the job. In order to save the Universe, Barney and Eve must hunt and capture a magical band of thieves, before they steal the Souls of any more worlds. On their amazing adventure Barney nearly soils his underpants on a wild ride on a giant eel, and Eve narrowly avoids death by giant flying scorpions. Both must endure a feast of eyeballs and other gelatinous delicacies, escape the clutches of an undead child, and still stay on the trail of the evil thieves.

Bryan was 10 when his brother, Adam, just . . . disappeared. That was five years ago, and now Bryan is the only one who seems to remember what happened. Until he meets two others with their own unsolved mysteries. It seems that Adam isn’t the first to disappear. Someone or something is after the kids in their neighborhood. The adults can’t hear it, and they can’t see it or feel it—but the kids can. And it all comes back to the skipping rhyme that every child in town knows by heart . . . and the Dark Man who haunts everyone’s worst nightmares—while they’re awake.

The following History is given in a series of letters, written Principally in a double yet separate correspondence between two young ladies of virtue and honor, bearing an inviolable friendship for each other, and writing not merely for amusement, but upon the most interesting subjects; in which every private family, more or less, may find itself concerned; and between two gentlemen of free lives; one of them glorying in his talents for stratagem and invention, and communicating to the other, in confidence, all the secret purposes of an intriguing head and resolute heart.But here it will be proper to observe, for the sake of such as may apprehend hurt to the morals of youth, from the more freely-written letters, that the gentlemen, though professed libertines as to the female sex, and making it one of their wicked maxims, to keep no faith with any of the individuals of it, who are thrown into their power, are not, however, either infidels or scoffers; nor yet such as think themselves freed from the observance of those other moral duties which bind man to man.