Books published by publisher Wheatmark

When Pepe and Lupita are playing one late summer afternoon, trying to catch Grandpa's Great Yawns in a glass canning jar, they have no idea that the fruits of their game will come to be the solution to a major problem for the family-especially for Mama-come All Souls Day, when the soul of Grandma Isabella comes to visit their family. Pepe and Lupita are the eldest of the six (soon to be seven) children of Maria Estela and Juan Miguel Lujan y Mendoza. Their grandfather, Esteban Mendoza, lives with this family in San Luis, Colorado, the oldest village in the state. Their ancestors came to the San Luis Valley in south-central Colorado in the late 1600s. Their descendants have stayed there ever since. The ancestors brought with them both the Catholic faith of the conquering Spaniards and the indigenous customs of their Native American heritage, among which are All Saints Day and All Souls Day (Dia de los Muertos), celebrated the first and second of November, respectively, each year.

Pok'along, a very inquisitive rabbit, meets two individuals, Ground Hog and Charlie the Chicken. Though Pok'along has never seen anything like these two individuals, the strangers become friends, and together they travel the forest searching for a path to the top of the mountain. Discovering the Valley of the Digadoos, they must confront the council of elders and cross the kingdoms belonging to Tarifess, the prince of evil, and that of his brother, Goda. Death will accompany the three in their travels, obstacles will block their progress, but their strong bond of friendship will help to see them through.

Forget what you might think about outlaws, Broccoli Bob and his friends are the good guys, nutritionally and otherwise. When trouble starts brewing in the Broccoli Patch, Bob heads for Vegeville to seek the help of the other Organic Outlaws. Along the way, you'll meet Carrot Cassidy, Psychic Celery, and a host of others in this fun-filled vegetable western. Author Karyn Drum struggled to raise her three children organically back in the day when organic vegetables were hard to find. That, along with her southwestern roots and love for all things silly, combined to create the Organic Outlaws. Now an elementary art teacher, she has found her true calling celebrating children's imaginations in many interesting and entertaining ways. She lives with her mad scientist husband and beautiful daughters in Carrboro, North Carolina.

For siblings Lori, Ray, and Charlie Holland, a family trip to the Roswell area of New Mexico includes a visit to the UFO Museum, which will lead them on an adventure of a lifetime. Upon returning to their home on a Texas farm, the Holland children are reunited with their special pets -- Star, a cat; Suzi, a dog; and Frankie, a ferret. Within a few short weeks they are invited by a family of extraterrestrials to join them on a three-day trip into outer space. Told from the unique point of view of Lori's cat, Space Critters tells the story of how these pets become travelers through time and space alongside their owners. Join their adventures as they encounter a group of dangerous jellyfish, time travel to see the history of Earth, discover how the children's grandfather is connected to the extraterrestrials and the Roswell crash, and host the extraterrestrial family for a stay in their home. In this first in a series of adventures, Space Critters blends science fiction and the paranormal into a young adult series from a debut novelist who is one to watch.

Professor Winslop's lessons on mythology are the worst. But are his stories really just myths? When Maisie and her twin brother Jasper discover a Stonehenge-like monument in the woods of New Hampshire, they find themselves caught in the middle of something much darker and more dangerous than they ever imagined. Shamans, intent on bringing about a world-wide apocalypse, are planning to break through the veil between reality and myth, and the twins are the only ones capable of finding the weapon to stop them.With only days before the Winter Solstice, will Maisie and Jasper be able to stop the rising tide of evil?Reminiscent of Escape to Witch Mountain, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Wizard of Oz,The Stone Circle will entrance and bewitch readers through to its final climax.About the AuthorAnthony Tuck lives in Northampton, Massachusetts with his wife, Michele, and his children, Maisie and Jasper, who are not actually telepathic twins, but are certainly capable of getting into a lot of real-life mischief. Tuck is a professor of archaeology and classical myth.

Amanda felt the power of her stallion beneath her as Tornado trotted into the arena. They galloped to the first rail jump and soared over. They turned to the center of the ring and took the in-and-out, striding just once between fences. I'm actually starting to have fun, she thought. The next jump stood four feet high, painted to resemble a stone wall. A little boy in the stands let go of his helium-filled balloon just as Tornado approached. It bobbed across the horse’s path and Amanda felt his body tense. It's only a balloon, Tornado. A long, purple ribbon dangled from the balloon and danced across the horse's line of vision. He snorted and took a prancing step sideways. That's just a silly string tied to the balloon, she reassured him with her thoughts.The stallion turned his focus back to the jump ahead, clearing the barrier with half a foot to spare.Set against the backdrop of Kentucky horse country in the 1950s, Amanda McKenzie raises Tornado, a white stallion with telepathic abilities. As Amanda and Tornado enter the show-jumping world, he appears to take wing over the obstacles, breaking all existing records and dazzling the nation. But when a gang of outlaws threaten to destroy them, Amanda and her boyfriend, Garth, are forced to flee on the soaring horse into the wilds of Canada where they fight for their survival.

In the summer of 1941, the Schultz family lives a modest suburban life in a small town in central New Jersey -- even as the shadow of war grows closer. Though painfully aware of the dire political climate of the time, they work hard to instill their children with wholesome American values rather than crippling existential fears. Lenny, oldest of the five children, succeeds at school, plays alley ball with his friends and siblings, and occasionally listens to the radio or his father’s conversations, which all seem to center around the events in Europe. Life is good.That is, until the neighborhood bully, Louis, comes along. A neglected child doomed to inherit the violent, racist ways of his alcoholic father, Louis increasingly antagonizes Lenny, culminating in a foolhardy dare to see which of them is brave enough to enter the Prescotts' allegedly haunted mansion. Lenny accepts Louis's challenge not out of spite or a desire to be seen as brave, but out of a need to prove to the world what he already knows to be true: that Louis, like all bullies, tyrants, and war-mongering dictators, is a coward. The only hope for liberation lies in direct confrontation, not appeasement. Can Lenny keep the evil at home at bay while the forces of evil are gathering abroad?Lenny’s Dare: A Novel of Youth in a Time of War captures the essential incongruity of pre-WWII American life -- a world where children at home grew, played, and went to school while great forces abroad gathered like clouds portending the deadliest storm the world had ever seen.About the AuthorM. H. Bittner was born in Camden, New Jersey and lived in the southern part of the state during his youth. His father moved the family of seven to the West, and then to New England where he graduated from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Michael prides himself as a lifelong student of literature and history as well as an avid reader, both of fiction and nonfiction. After many years in the computer software industry, he made the decision to author his first fiction novel. Michael currently lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Enrique Salazar and Jasmine Ejeekwa seem like normal sixth-graders.They attend a regular public school, with the usual assortment of friends and bullies. But the two friends share a secret. They are members of Magic User families, which have been entrusted for generations to help the Earth's endangered species without anybody else discovering their special role. These unusual "totem mages" embody the spirit of whatever animal they are born to represent and protect. Jasmine's totem animal is the mountain lion, and Enrique's is the common turkey vulture, which is not actually endangered -- yet.When Jasmine's father, a leader in the Magic User community, is kidnapped by an evil witchdoctor, the two budding totem mages set out to rescue him, and possibly the entire planet. Their journey begins with a dreadlocked, high-spirited, taxi-driving witch who can be instantly summoned -- at great risk -- to provide a wild ride through a magical world at war.Jasmine and Enrique will have to be brave and extremely clever if they hope to survive vicious attacks from the witchdoctor's powerful gang members and the various monsters lurking in the dark corners of this supernatural world. It doesn't help that the only two weapons they possess are Jasmine's oversized, all-seeing glasses and Enrique's magically malfunctioning flip-flops. Even worse, both are on the verge of an abrupt and mysterious preteen mental and physical change that the adult totem mages call going MAD ...About the AuthorJohn "Griff" Griffith spent his childhood along the creeks and rivers of Northern California catching and releasing turtles, tadpoles, crawdads, and frogs. He has spent his adult life working to keep those creeks and rivers healthy so future generations can enjoy the same discoveries. When he turned eleven, John began his career as a naturalist. He volunteered at the Suisun Wildlife Care Center near Fairfield, California, where he cleaned the cages of injured animals, fed baby birds, and assisted older volunteers in general care-giving to the furred, feathered, and sometimes scaled patients. Caring for wildlife that was injured and/or orphaned due to human activities opened John’s eyes to the plight of animals and their habitats and eventually inspired him to write Totem Magic: Going MAD.Today he is the host of Animal Planet’s Wild Jobs—an online show that features people who have dedicated their lives to working with animals. He is also a crew supervisor for the California Conservation Corps, a state youth program that employs young people to plant trees, create salmon habitat, and build trails in the wilderness. When he's not working, reading, or writing, John can be found snorkeling in the nearby Eel River. He still catches and releases turtles, tadpoles, crawdads, and frogs.

Benjamin Manry and the Curse of Blood Bones tells of the interwoven fates of Blood Bones, Captain Arthur F. Nelson, and our young hero-to-be, Benjamin Manry. At seventeen, Ben, his brother Harris, and their best friend Sal discover a map written in red dye. It leads them to the cursed treasure of Blood Bones, the ferocious pirate famously hunted by all of Britain in the 1700s.The three adventurers travel back in time to 1763 and join the crew of the Frendrich in the quest for Blood Bones. Little do the time travelers know, but they are an integral part of the curse on the treasure. Blood Bones had two things in mind when he created the curse: revenge and immortality. Can the boys survive and make it back to their own time?"Adventures are great because they are fun, exciting, and make for an interesting story. That is, if you survive to tell it."-- Benjamin Manry