Books published by publisher Laurell Leaf Books

Copyright 1978, Fifth Laurel-Leaf Printing 198, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, paperback. Synopsis: In this unsettling story, a group of high school students thinks their English teacher treats them too harshly--so they abduct Mr. Griffin to teach him a lesson. But the plan soon goes awry. They only meant to scare him. Mr. Griffin is the strictest teacher at Del Norte High, with a penchant for endless projects and humiliating his students. Even straight-A student Susan can't believe how mean he is to the charismatic Mark Kinney. So when her crush asks Susan to help a group of students teach a lesson of their own, she goes along. After all, it's a harmless prank, right? But things don't go according to plan. When one "accident" leads to another, people begin to die. Susan and her friends must face the awful truth: one of them is a killer. Leave the lights on when reading this classic thriller!

Vicky Austin's noisy, loving, mostly-happy family is disrupted when the family's honorary uncle dies in a plane crash. His co-pilot was also killed, leaving behind a ten-year-old daughter, Maggy, who has no one to care for her. The Austins take Maggy in, and she proves to be a spoiled, troubled only child who had very little family life. Maggy encourages Vicky's sister Suzy to misbehave, which makes everyone's life more difficult. Meet the Austins is largely episodic; each chapter covers a specific incident such as Vicky's bicycle accident or a family vacation. Throughout the book Vicky comments on the changes her family experiences during this time, and the reader sees her growing self-awareness. Although Vicky will later appear in three novels that have fantasy and/or science fiction themes, there are no such elements in Meet the Austins.

When Blas Salazar's son, Ramon, finds the "Great Pearl of Heaven" in an underwater cave of a lagoon, the old pearl dealer believes he's hit the jackpot. When the pearl merchants won't meet his price, however, he presents the peral to the Madonna of the church of La Paz, believing his family shall be forever favored in Heaven. But many beleived the only thing the pearl would bring the Salazars was a curse as the Manta Diablo--monster devilfish--would surely reclaim his treasure at any cost. Now, only young Ramon can undo the evil he has begun.

This is the bestselling story of Eric, a boy with leukemia who refused to give up living--as told by the person who was with him through it all, his mother. Eric was seventeen when he heard the doctor's verdict about the disease that wanted his life. At first he and his family could not believe it. Eric was the picture of everything a youth should be--a champion athlete, a splendid human being, vibrant with energy and loved by all who knew him. The doctors could promise little. They would do as much as was medically possible. Eric had to do as much as was humanly possible. But if the odds were not good, they were good enough for Eric. Given the choice between life and death, Eric chose to live.