Showing results by author "Bruce Coville" in All Categories

On a snowy night, Cara and her grandmother are pursued into St. Christopher's church by an unknown man. Clutching her grandmother's mysterious amulet, and following the old woman's instructions, Cara escapes their pursuer and falls into Luster, the world of the unicorns.

In the third volume of the Unicorn Chronicles, Cara Diana Hunter journeys to the Valley of the Centaurs in quest of a mysterious lost story that could hold the key to the survival of the unicorns.

As if she didn't have trouble enough after her classmates discovered she had worn her brother's underwear to school (oh, the teasing, the humiliation!), Jennifer Murdley has just stumbled into Mr. Elives' Magic Shop, where she buys a toad named Bufo. Of course the odds of buying a normal toad in that shop are zero, as Jennifer finds out when Bufo starts to talk to her. As it turns out, talking is the least of the toad's strange talents.

Luster, the world where the unicorns fled to escape the Hunters who have sworn to wipe them out, has dangers of its own - as Cara discovers when she attempts to cross that world in a desperate effort to rescue her grandmother. Each stage of Cara's journey brings new peril, wondrous new characters, and new clues to the mystery of her grandmother's past. And through it all threads the haunting melody of the "Song of the Wanderer."

In the center of Luster towers an enormous tree that is the Heart of the World. Now the tree is wounded, pierced by a tunnel that connects it to Earth. Through that tunnel strides Beloved, the ancient enemy of the unicorns, followed by an army of Hunters eager to destroy every last unicorn. At the center of this great struggle is the human girl, Cara Diana Hunter, who sets out with her friend, the gryphon Medafil, to ask a dragon to aid the unicorns.

The story begins when Susan Simmons returns to school from spring vacation. Susan has been looking forward to the big class play her teacher has been planning. But to her dismay Ms. Schwartz is gone... replaced by tall, handsome Mr. Smith, a strictly "by the book" teacher with some very strange habits. Investigating her new teacher, Susan makes a shocking discovery: "Mr. Smith" is actually an alien named Broxholm who is planning to abduct five students.

Moongobble has completed his three mighty tasks. But just when Edward begins to fear that their adventures might be over, an annoying little monster called Snelly comes bounding into their lives.

The first day of seventh grade is probably the worst day of Duncan Dougal's life. He knows that things are really bad when he finds an alien's hand in a Dumpster and then gets plugged into an alien brain fryer! Can Duncan find out which of the four new teachers in his school is an alien before his brains get fried to a pulp - or before the aliens try to fry the whole planet? 

This rib-tickling new novel was inspired by the old Norse poem The Thrymskvitha which tells what happens when Thor's hammer is stolen and he has to dress as a bride to retrieve it. Told by Thialfi the goatboy, and featuring Norse gods, foolish giants, and a pair of cranky goats, this one will have the whole family laughing out loud.

When Charlie Eggleston stumbles out of Mr. Elives' Magic Shop clutching the skull of truth, he has no idea the grisly object will force him to tell the truth and nothing but the truth. That would be trouble enough for a kid who has been a chronic liar since second grade. Stir in a pair of talking rats, the fact that the skull itself is a real chatterbox, and the appalling discovery that the truth curse is infecting his entire family, and you can see why Charlie's life is getting more complicated by the minute.

"There is a disease that can twist men’s hearts and make them mad, and the name of that disease is jealousy." So begins this engaging retelling of one of William Shakespeare’s last plays - a fascinating and unique combination of intensity and whimsy. When King Leontes unfairly accuses his wife of infidelity, he sets off a terrible chain of events. But this is not one of Shakespeare’s tragedies. It’s a romance, and one with a healthy dose of fancy and surprise.

The whole situation began when Duncan Dougal was hiding out in a dumpster (it’s a long and smelly story). Stuck in the garbage, he discovered proof that even though the kids drove off the alien named Broxholm the year before, there is still an alien-in-disguise working as one of their seventh-grade teachers! But which teacher is it? That’s the mystery Duncan must solve to protect the school - and himself.

Purple and perplexed, Pleskit Meenom needs advice on how to deal with the challenges of his new life on Earth. Normally he would ask his best friend, Tim Tompkins, but the two boys have been tricked into a feud. So instead he turns to his Grandfatherly One - or, at least, the brain of that wise old man, which is all the family has left of him. But perhaps the Grandfatherly One is not as wise as they all would like to believe, since he convinces Pleskit to take him to school in the portable Brain Transport Device. And that's when things really start to go wrong.

Pleskit Meenom, the first alien to go to school on Earth, is starting to fit in with his new class. It's not easy, given how slippery the language is. (Just how many meanings does the word "cool" have, anyway?) But the biggest problem is Jordan Lynch, the class bully who just can't resist picking on the new kid. Finally Pleskit and his new best friend, Tim Tompkins, decide to take action. But taking action when you have alien technology at your disposal can mean taking things just a little too far...and we do mean little! 

The aliens have made contact! But because they consider Earth a small, backwater planet, they send only one ambassador. The ambassador brings along his son, Pleskit, and (for political reasons) insists the boy should attend a regular school. Science-fiction loving Tim Tompkins is desperate to befriend the alien...and Pleskit is going to need a friend, because someone is trying to sabotage the mission.

Ranging from the hilarious to the horrifying, this acclaimed collection of nine short stories - five of them read by full casts - showcases the remarkable variety of Bruce Coville's work. Listeners will meet a ghost who haunts a kitchen after a tragic baking accident, visit the goblin world with an unconventional princess, and fly with Justin Jones to an enchanted island that requires a heartbreaking decision. A rich, varied, and dazzling set of listening experiences! 

Jonathan is attracted to the ornate mirror from the first moment he sees it in the antique shop where he works after school. But there is something wrong with the mirror, something evil - as Jonathan will discover after he accidentally gets a trace of his blood on its surface in this disturbing tale of terror.

It's not easy being the only kid in your class who doesn't have six arms and an extra eye in the middle of your forehead. But that's the situation Jacob faces when his dad takes him to the planet Kwarkis. The situation gets worse when Jacob makes a ghastly blunder that just may cost him the thing he loves most.

The first of Bruce Coville's acclaimed "Oddlies". This collection of stories is performed by some of Full Cast's favorite narrators (including Bruce himself). Some are funny, some are scary, some are both. The topics range from unicorns to werewolves, vampires to angels to brownies. 

A sixth grade student is convinced that an odd substitute teacher is from another planet. Will she be able to prove she's right before he completes his evil plan? Starring Lisa Bonet as Susan Simmons. Adapted for radio. A BBC co-production recorded at KCRW in Santa Monica in October 1992.