Showing results by narrator "Suzy Jackson" in All Categories

A town is overrun by road weenies - a.k.a. joggers - who never smile. A girl thinks she's too old for Halloween...until she finds a special pair of gloves. A boy takes a shortcut to an unexpected place. A mummy takes his revenge, one little piece at a time.... These 35 tales ranging from the silly and offbeat to flat-out horrifying are just right for listening alone in the dark.

From the award-winning author of Hidden Talents, two remarkable short-story collections - Kidzilla and The Witch's Monkey - together for the first time. Plus several brand-new stories. Each hilarious and harrowing. A substitute teacher finds out she has some monsters for students. A group of kids attempts a levitation trick with hair-raising results. A neighborhood is so boring the grown-ups are turning into...well...you know. And dozens more.

After her Click'd catastrophe, Allie Navarro is determined to redeem herself. So when the class gets an assignment to create a mobile game from recycled code, Allie pairs up with Courtney, her best friend from CodeGirls camp, to create the perfect app: Swap'd. Kids buy, sell, and trade stuff at school all the time. Candy. Clothes. Video games. Slime. Why not make a fiercely competitive, totally anonymous, beat-the-clock game out of it? Once Swap'd is in full-swing, Allie is certain that it's the answer to all her problems.

Once upon a time there was a princess...who made a pit stop. While the birds and beasts changed her tires, her fairy godmother told her she was in last place! With just one lap left! She might as well give up! Give up? Not this princess! Instead, she hit the gas! Join Her Royal Highness in the driver's seat for a mad dash to the finish in this exciting ode to auto racing.

After a matchmaking attempt for her best friend, Harper, goes wrong, Emmy is fed up. Why are boys so hard to figure out? But then something amazing happens - she wakes up with a new app on her phone: iSpeak Boy! Suddenly Emmy has the information every girl wants to know - the super-secret knowledge of how boys think...and who they like! Now Emmy is using her magical app to make matches left and right. But can she use it to help Harper, the only person who doesn't seem to buy into Emmy's "gift"?

Knit me into a cocoon. Help me eat a burrito. Pretend to be a chair at my dinner party. Wrestle a Komodo dragon. Race me in a lobster suit. Author Kelly Mahon posts absurd gig ads online and shares the conversations she had with the brave souls who wanted the job.

Idalee Lovett is content with her life in small-town Colby, North Carolina, living in her family’s huge house with rooms for rent. But she has big dreams, just like her mama. While Mama is on tour for the summer with her cover band, Lovey Lovett and the Junkyard Dogs, Idalee decides to hone her craft as a songwriter—since her truest wish is to hear her country songs on the radio one day. When the local radio station announces a songwriting contest with the winning song being recorded by an up-and-coming singer, Idalee is determined to win.

So much is forgotten in the Republic: the way the seasons used to turn like pages in a book, the technology that once made life easy for everyone, even the art of reading. For fifteen-year-old June, the forgetting goes even deeper, ever since a mysterious accident six years ago stole her mother and her memory. When a strange circus with ties to her family comes through town, she follows them without a second thought. In the outside world, June has to navigate a landscape and society pushed to the edge by the powerful forces of climate change, and to decide who she can trust.

Dolly Parton is a little girl with a great big voice. She loves singing for her corncob doll and friends at church. Music fills her heart so plumb full that young Dolly starts writing her own tunes. Unable to afford a guitar, she strings up a broken mandolin and plays for anyone she can corral—ducks, pigs, and her squallin’ brothers and sisters. But Dolly longs for a real live audience to see and hear her perform. When Dolly gets her first big break, she’s scared to perform in front of hundreds of people. Will she summon up her courage and step out onto the Grand Ole Opry stage in Nashville?

Narda Pitkethly’s brother vanishes amid several clues in September 2001, near Sun Valley, Idaho. In the search for Jay, the family undertakes extreme measures to find him. This plunges Narda into a prolonged period of searching, not only for her brother, but for inspiration and meaning in her life, which ultimately leads her back to a world that makes sense.

Camille has always preferred animals to people. The wild has nearly disappeared, but as a zookeeper at the last zoo in the world, on Alcatraz Island, she spends her days caring for playful chimpanzees, gentle tree frogs, and a restless jaguar. Outside, resistance groups and brutal cartels fight to shape the world’s future, but Camille is safe within her routines. That is, until a new zookeeper, Sailor, arrives from Paris. From their first meeting, Camille is drawn to Sailor, who seems to see something in Camille that no one has before.

How does the band Bleu Streak celebrate the holidays? By singing, of course. Go on tour with this zany group as they get into all kinds of mischief along the way. Oh … And Maverick King? Oh yeah. This devilishly handsome drummer gets a special gift for Christmas. The trouble is trying to convince Izzy Walker to allow him to have her …

School's out, and the Daredevils are excited to spend all summer tearing up the track. The coaches have something special planned: The Austin league is heading to Dallas for a week of roller derby sleepaway camp! Tomoko has been camping with her uncle every summer since she can remember. She’s got all the gear and the skills she needs for summertime in the great outdoors. But roller derby camp isn’t in the great outdoors. It’s in the middle of the city. And it means meeting a bunch of new kids, which isn’t exactly a strength for shy, introverted Tomoko.

Eliza Gordon-Fergus—best friend of Merrilee Campbell—is an expert rule-follower. She has to be; her scientist parents demand she follow dozens of them. They call it “parenting-by-proxy” since they’re rarely on the same continent. Their rules dictate her nutrition, education, sleep, workouts … and forbid her from dating. Eliza studiously obeys them all. Which is why she finds Curtis Cavendish maddening. Rules don’t seem to apply to him. He’s never punished for his class-clown antics—and worse, his mischief actually masks brilliance. Like, give-Eliza-a-run-for-valedictorian brilliance.

Now part of the official junior roller derby league, the Derby Daredevils are ready to compete in their first tournament. Kenzie starts writing new game plays. Bree works on her speed. Tomoko sharpens her blocking skills. And Jules fearlessly hip checks everyone in sight. But Shelly isn’t sure what she’s best at. In hopes of taking home the tournament’s Star Skater award, Shelly transforms doodles from her sketchbook into extra-special gear for the Daredevils. But not everything works as well as Shelly imagined, and she can’t get the team on board.

Best friends Kenzie “Kenzilla” Ellington and Shelly “Bomb Shell” Baum are counting down the days to their roller derby debut. It looks like their dream is coming true when Austin’s city league announces a junior league. But there’s a catch. To try out together, the Dynamic Duo will have to form a team of five players … in just one week! As they start convincing other girls that roller derby is the coolest thing on wheels, Kenzie has second thoughts. Why is Shelly acting like everyone’s best friend? Isn’t she supposed to be Kenzie’s best friend?

Katerina and Luka, two majestic, mated white storks, are in flight when … BANG! Katerina suddenly falls from the sky, wounded by a hunter. Nearby, a farmer and his granddaughter rush to her rescue, determined to nurse her back to health with Luka by her side. However, when Katerina feels the coming cold, she must urge her beloved Luka to migrate, despite knowing he faces a difficult journey alone—and she is left hoping for his springtime return …

One year ago, a solar flare scorched the Earth and destroyed life as we know it. With their parents gone and their supplies running low, grieving stepsiblings Millie and Rose leave home with their infant half-brother in search of Millie’s grandma, a Seminole elder—who Millie knows in her gut is still alive, even if Rose isn’t so sure. Along the way, they meet a group of other surviving kids calling themselves the Lost Boys and their lone adult leader, who reluctantly agree to help them brave the hostile wasteland to make it to Millie’s grandma safely. But the landscape isn’t the only threat.

After the sudden death of her perfect, popular older sister, Jo and her family feel empty. But days after crying at Audrey’s graveside, Jo stumbles on the impossible: Audrey, standing barefoot in the snowy backyard. But Audrey isn’t breathing. She’s decaying. And worst of all, she’s hungry, and only human blood can curb her relentless appetite.