Books in Laurel-Leaf Books series

Life had always been easy for fifteen-year-old Camilla Dickinson. But now her parents, whom she had always loved and trusted, are behaving like strangers to each other and vying for her allegiance. Camilla is torn between her love for them and her disapproval of their actions.Then she meets Frank, her best friend's brother, who helps her to feel that she is not alone. Can Camilla learn to accept her parents for what they are and step toward her own independence?

Vivian Vande Velde's spellbinding short stories are filled with magic and mayhem. Witness the boy who breaks his dance date because he's too cheap to spend money on her. He learns about spells the hard way in Curses, Inc. What happens when a woman brings her son back from the dead in "The Witch's Son"? Many folks go to Granny Orilla for remedies. Does a cure or a curse await in "Cypress Swamp Granny"? Beware: These haunting stories will put you under their spell.

In four haunting stories, kindred souls reach out across time, space, and magical barriers to rescue and transform each other. In the first story, "The Spring," a boy finds a world beyond the one in which he was born. In "Touch and Go," an elderly man recalls how he and a girl from an earlier time changed and enriched each other's lives. In "Checkers," a ghostly presence holds the key to survival. And Melanie, "The Lion Tamer's Daughter," bravely ventures in to her own dark and mysterious past.

For fans of Gillian Flynn, Caroline Cooney, and R.L. Stine comes two Edgar Award winning novels in Two Mysteries: The Other Side of Dark & The Name of the Game Was Murder from four-time Edgar Allen Poe Young Adult Mystery Award winner Joan Lowery Nixon. The Other Side of Dark EDGAR AWARD WINNER Stacy wakes up in a room that’s not hers, in a body she doesn’t recognize, to discover she’s been in a coma for four years. Her mother is dead—murdered—and Stacy, recovering from a gunshot wound, is the only eyewitness. But the killer is not about to let her reveal his identity…. “The compelling premise…and Nixon’s mastery of suspense are gripping.” –Publishers Weekly “Tense and dramatic…[The Other Side of Dark has a] quick pace, and the determined protagonist should attract and hold readers.” –School Library Journal The Name of the Game Was Murder EDGAR AWARD WINNER Samantha is shocked when she meets her great-uncle, the famous novelist Augustus Trevor. He’s a mean-spirited man who has just invited—blackmailed—a group of celebrities to come to his island mansion and participate in a “game.” But when Augustus is found murdered, it’s up to Samantha to join the game—and win. “Another successful page-turner.” –School Library Journal

For fans of Gillian Flynn, Caroline Cooney, and R.L. Stine comes two Edgar Award winning novels in Two Mysteries: The Other Side of Dark & The Name of the Game Was Murder from four-time Edgar Allen Poe Young Adult Mystery Award winner Joan Lowery Nixon. The Other Side of Dark EDGAR AWARD WINNER Stacy wakes up in a room that’s not hers, in a body she doesn’t recognize, to discover she’s been in a coma for four years. Her mother is dead—murdered—and Stacy, recovering from a gunshot wound, is the only eyewitness. But the killer is not about to let her reveal his identity…. “The compelling premise…and Nixon’s mastery of suspense are gripping.” –Publishers Weekly “Tense and dramatic…[The Other Side of Dark has a] quick pace, and the determined protagonist should attract and hold readers.” –School Library Journal The Name of the Game Was Murder EDGAR AWARD WINNER Samantha is shocked when she meets her great-uncle, the famous novelist Augustus Trevor. He’s a mean-spirited man who has just invited—blackmailed—a group of celebrities to come to his island mansion and participate in a “game.” But when Augustus is found murdered, it’s up to Samantha to join the game—and win. “Another successful page-turner.” –School Library Journal

Based on the well-known fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, and Hans Christian Andersen, these retellings will intrigue and disturb readers. From a futuristic "Little Red Riding Hood" in which giant clams and carnivorous beasts stalk humans, to the real reason why the giant in "Jack and the Beanstalk" needs to eat human bones, to a version of "Snow White" told from the wicked stepmother's point of view, fans of fairy and folk tales will find much to interest them.

When Jessica's parents divorce and her father leaves, Jessica decides that the best way to punish her mother is to retreat to her room, a shrine to her glamorous traveling photographer dad.Then Jessica's mother offers to let her visit her father in Mexico for the holidays, at the fabulous house of her father's uncle Lucius, a famous painter. Jessica is thrilled.Once there, she falls under the spell of Lucius's home, and his Christmas guests, Brooke and Tony, who are college age. Together the three young people race around Acapulco in an old Jeep, swim, and go dancing. It's paradise. Except for dad. Here in paradise he's not the father Jessica dreamed of at all....

The year: 1881. The place: Odessa, Texas. Seventeen-year-old Wylie Jackson lands a job as assistant cook on what will be his first cattle drive. Before he departs, Wylie's friend Alice charges him with taking her pet cattalo, Roselle, to her aunt in Enid, Oklahoma. Alice's father bred a longhorn cow with a buffalo and Roselle was the result: a gangly, gawky animal trained to count with her hooves and sit on her haunches.Only days into the drive, a disastrous stampede occurs. Fearing he was the cause, Wylie abandons the drive and sets off for Enid, riding a stolen horse with Roselle in tow. Now a wanted man, he lives in constant fear of capture. Along his journey, he encounters Tim-oo-leh the medicine man, Majul Majul the electric belt salesman, Carl Merkle, infamous thief and killer, and other friendly, dastardly, and suspicious types. Wylie's story is a Western adventure, a search for self, and a sensitive portrayal of a friendship between a young man and his cattalo. It is a saga destined to charm man and beast alike.From the Hardcover edition.