Books with title What Happened to Serenity

What if the world wasn't like what you were taught to believe? Would you want to know? Are the consequences of challenging authority worth it if they lead to the truth? Katherine lives in a "post-apocalyptic community" living in complete isolation. Her town is austere, run by utopians who have created a strict paternalistic order. Knowledge and the search for truth are not permitted. Katherine wants to find out what happened to Serenity, a little girl who has disappeared from the community, but when she breaks out, what she discovers is anything but what she expected. This haunting story about growing up and searching for truth will challenge young readers' notions about knowledge, the search for truth, and the fight for freedom.

Monica Hughes Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy winner, 2012 What if the world wasn't like what you were taught to believe? Would you want to know? Are the consequences of challenging authority worth it if they lead to the truth? Katherine lives in a "post-apocalyptic community" living in complete isolation. Her town is austere, run by utopians who have created a strict paternalistic order. Knowledge and the search for truth are not permitted. Katherine wants to find out what happened to Serenity, a little girl who has disappeared from the community, but when she breaks out, what she discovers is anything but what she expected. This haunting story about growing up and searching for truth will challenge young readers' notions about knowledge, the search for truth, and the fight for freedom.

David’s younger sister Ivy, born with multiple disabilities, needs constant attention. She may be eleven years old, but in many ways she’s still a baby. She embarrasses him in public. She takes all of their parents’ focus, to the point where David wonders if they see him as anything more than a helper for Ivy. But despite it all, he loves her. The summer days are following their usual pattern of taking care of his sister, doing chores, and trips to the cottage. The one exception is Hannah, the new girl across the street. Hannah makes David feel anything but routine. He wants to be around her all the time. And, amazingly, she seems to be into him as well. Everything changes when Ivy has an accident while being looked after by her dad. As David wrestles with what happened to Ivy, he is forced to confront his own feelings of guilt, the meaning of mercy, and what can be forgiven.

Oh no, Santa's in trouble. A big storm blew in just before Christmas and Santa is lost in the forest and can't find his way back to the sleigh, the presents, and the reindeer. He encounters a cave, a bear, and a bird. Can Wilbur the bear and Joelle the bird help Santa in time for Christmas? You’ll have to read this wonderful children’s story and find out what happens to Santa Claus.

This is an engaging, sensitively written and colorfully illustrated picture book for children 3–7 years old, who have had a baby die in their family. It tells a simple, honest story, with its wonderful pictures drawing readers in. It has been designed with the whole family in mind and provides a helpful opportunity for parents and caregivers to talk with a young child about this difficult loss and ways to cope with it. The text has been carefully designed to fit a wide range of bereavement situations, including miscarriage, stillbirth, cot death and accidental or natural death of an infant or toddler. It also features useful notes and information for adults at the back to assist them in supporting their bereaved child.

There are some events with which we have become so familiar by report that we can scarcely believe they did not happen within our own recollection. Thus it is with my advent into earthly existence. Not long before the time at which I was expected to arrive in this vale of thorns and flowers my father's only brother was seriously ill. It became necessary for my father to accompany him to Philadelphia to consult an eminent surgeon. For months it had been definitely settled that I was to be a boy, for all was grist that came to my father's mill. No shadow of a doubt of my manhood clouded the family mind. My health had been drunk at the clubs and in the homes, and especially at the neighborhood functions, the fox hunts, and the name of Thomas La Salle had already been given me. "L'homme propose et Dieu surprend," and so did I, for, most unexpectedly, I made my arrival in the middle of the night, the middle of the week, the middle of the month, almost the middle of the year, near the middle of the century, and in the middle of a hail-storm. Confident that I was a boy, the family had all hoped that I would be considerate enough to postpone my coming at least until my father's return, but with perverse discourtesy and want of filial regard, I would not wait. Of course, there was no one ready to receive me. I have borne the blame for this untimely début, but it was really the fault of the barn which, in the early part of the evening, had caught fire and been burned to the ground. The excitement had passed and the sleep of exhaustion that follows disrupting events had settled over all when again there was confusion; this time owing to my inconsiderate haste to present myself. The keys to the stable door could not be found. There was no time to hunt for them, so the hinges were pried off and Fannie Kemble, the fleetest and safest horse in the stable, was hurriedly called from her dreams. My young uncle, afterwards a gallant Confederate officer, Colonel J. J. Phillips, was routed out and, barefoot and mounted upon the horse without saddle or bridle, rode post haste for our family physician, treasuring the grievance to reproach me with in after years when I would give evidence of a too impetuous disposition. In my eagerness to fly to the ills I knew not of, I would not await the arrival of the medical man and, spurning his assistance, defying them all, made my "ingress into life, naked and bare."

What if your severely disabled sister were to suddenly die and you suspected that your father had played a role in her death? What if your best friend, a girl you've started to like as more than a friend, thinks your dad can do no wrong? Could she be right? What if she's not? That's life for fifteen-year-old David Burke after his sister, Ivy, dies in a suspicious drowning. David is forced to wrestle with moral questions and the definition of what is right, what is merciful and what can be forgiven. Readers will be pondering the questions this story raises long after they have found out what did happen to Ivy.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.