by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Mystery
Can someone come back from the dead? It all starts with a torn photograph, tucked in a Nancy Drew mystery, that 13-year-old Ali finds, as she is digging through a box of old books from her grandmother’s house. It’s a picture of her mother, her aunt and...
by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Fantasy
It begins as a normal day in the San Francisco area with Josh Newman working in the bookstore with Nick Fleming, and Josh’s twin sister, Sophie, working across the street in a coffeehouse. Then, suddenly the world explodes as some dark characters enter the...
by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Non-Fiction
It seems there are a million basic skills that boys need to learn and here is a handbook on how to do them all. The skills range from tying a tie, How to dribble a basketball, and how to fly a helicopter to how to shake off a tail, how to speak in code and how to be...
by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Picture Book
It took two special people to create this very special book: Jonathan London, who treasures our natural world and wants us to learn to live with it, and Barbara Firth, who came from England to a Vermont sheep farm and gives us the dramatic illustrations of the dark...
by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Historical Fiction
It’s 1377 in a bleak town in England, and young Crispin’s mother has just died, leaving him alone in the world with nothing but a hovel and a friendship with the town priest. Quickly though those two possessions are dispatched through some dark intrigue....
by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Historical Fiction
It’s 1812 out in the pioneer territory of Ohio, and you can almost smell the Native American who is chained upstairs in the loft, accused of murder. The two sisters who are tasked with caring for this Indian while he awaits trial, are wary and fearful of what he...
by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Historical Fiction
It’s 1854 in Westfields, Massachusetts, a town filled with two kinds of people – Yankees and Irish. Traditionally, the Irish children have gone to their own schools. Traditionally the Irish have attended church in the front room of someone’s home....
by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Historical Fiction
It’s 1912, and Mamma is on strike against the big mill owner in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The crowds march and Mamma carries a sign that says, “WE WANT BREAD AND ROSES, TOO.” Times are hard, and daughter, Rosa, is being sent away to Barre, Vermont....
by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Mystery
It’s a dark and rainy night as the car is crossing the desert on a lonely highway. The three teens inside the car are biding their time. It’s the usual case of the two guys in the front seat and Lucy, the only girl, riding along in the back. Then,...
by Mike Costanzo | Mar 24, 2009 | Realistic/Contemporary Fiction
It’s a gray day in March, and the boys are waiting for the bus to take them to school. Out in the water behind the house, they see a red kayak go by with the new neighbor lady and her young son inside. It’s a windy day – not a day to be out in a...
