A strange malady afflicts the children of McNair House in this British mystery featuring former Scotland Yard superintendent James Pibble, from CWA Gold Dagger winner Peter Dickinson Recently given the sack by Scotland Yard, James Pibble arrives at McNair House on a private matter, only to find that this charitable institution is not at all what it seems. The children who live here have a rare disease called cathypny, which renders them sleepy and fat. It also imbues them with special telepathic powers, which is how one boy instantly pegs Pibble as a cop. A dreamy nine-year-old named Marilyn has perceived that someone at McNair House is in mortal danger. With all the research money that's suddenly pouring in, the pressure is on to prove that these children really are empaths; a Greek tycoon is banking on it. But Pibble is beginning to suspect the worst kind of fraud: an exploitative con game using innocent young lives as bait. And one of the children may be...

Letta begins to take an interest in Varina, the tiny Balkan state where her parents grew up. But after the collapse of communism the nation calls for independence, and Letta's enthusiasm for her parent's culture leads her to discover just how fragile the nation really is.A powerful and timely novel from the award-winning author of TULKU, EVA, A.K. and A BONE FROM A DRY SEA.

Gripped by a strange fear, England closes its doors to the outside world Something has gone very wrong in England. In a tunnel beneath Wales one man opens a crack in a mysterious stone wall, and all over the island of Britain people react with horror to perfectly normal machines. Abandoning their cars on the roads and destroying their own factories, many flee the cities for the countryside, where they return to farming and an old-fashioned life. When families are split apart and grown-ups forget how they used to live, young people face unexpected challenges. Nicola Gore survives on her own for nineteen days before she's taken in by a Sikh family that still remembers how to farm and forge steel by hand. Margaret and Jonathan brave the cold and risk terrible punishment in order to save a man's life and lift the fog of fear and hate that's smothering their village. And Geoffrey and his little sister, Sally, escape to France only to be sent back to England...

From Publishers WeeklyLike his stellar novels Shadow of a Hero and Bone from a Dry Sea, Dickinson's latest offering moves from the mythic to the particular and back again, making clear the ways in which an individual's extraordinary experience could metamorphose into an entire culture's legend. Readers who are willing and able to fall into step with its majestic pace will be rewarded by a thought-provoking trek through a fairy tale world that is as breathtakingly fresh as it is archetypal. For 19 generations, the comfortably prosperous Valley has been tucked away from the outside world kept safe by powerful enchantments. When these powers begin to weaken, however, it's up to Tilja and her grandmother Meena, along with their companions, Tahl and his grandfather Alnor, to journey forth in search of a magician powerful enough to protect their home once again. In the course of this pilgrimage, Tilja who has recently and heartbreakingly learned that she possesses not a jot of the hereditary magic that would entitle her to inherit her beloved family homestead comes to understand more about the unique and valuable gift she does possess. Eerily, the novel is sprinkled with images that take on an unforeseen resonance: a rebel magician be-turbaned and lanky and collapsing towers that crush their proud builders. A challenging magical adventure for the thinking reader. Ages 12-up. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.From School Library JournalGr 7-10-The Valley is left alone by barbarian marauders from the north and by the powerful, greedy Empire to the south. Old stories explain why. Although these ancient legends are hardly believed any more, Tilja's mother still goes into the forest to sing to the cedars and Tahl's grandfather talks to the waters that flow along the northern border. Their families have been protecting the Valley in this manner for nearly 20 generations. Now that magical protection is breaking down, and Tilja, her grandmother, Tahl, and his grandfather set out on a quest to find a mysterious man who may or may not still be alive but who probably holds the secret they need to discover. As this band of travelers makes it way across hostile, unfamiliar territory, Tilja begins to learn of her ability to neutralize magic, rendering it powerless. Since the Empire's leaders have harnessed magic as a tool to control its subjects, this proves to be a most important talent. The travelers experience one dangerous, exciting adventure after another. They meet a strange man known as the Ropemaker, whose magic is mightier than any in the Empire. As the four come closer to achieving their goal, evil forces conspire to destroy them. And the suspense does not let up until the very last pages. While on one level this tale is a fantasy, it is also a wonderful coming-of-age story. Tilja is a young woman who is discovering who she is and what she is meant to do in life. Fascinating questions about time are posed, and there is much for young people to think about here. As much as anything, this book is about the power of story and the influence it can have on ordinary people's lives.Bruce Anne Shook, Mendenhall Middle School, Greensboro, NCCopyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Winner of the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year: Peter Dickinson targets England's upper classes in this murderous and strikingly original theme-park mystery Tourists are waiting in line for entry into the world of Old England, a graceful, elegant country house run as a theme park, complete with wrought-iron gates, pet lions, and maids in white caps greeting visitors with a bob and a curtsy. But this fantasy world turns very real when one of the servants takes his own life. Why did the loyal and faithful Arthur Deakin hang himself in the pantry without leaving even a note? Dispatched to find out, Scotland Yard superintendent James Pibble wonders why the local police weren't called in on a seemingly run-of-the-mill suicide. But as Pibble will soon find, life at the Herryngs estate of twin brothers Ralph and Richard Clavering is anything but ordinary. Sir Ralph, a retired general, and Sir Richard, a former admiral who now writes about animals...

'They are terrible. They are like the demons of old. They must be stopped, and you are here to bring that about, where everyone else has failed. You must find the Ropemaker.' Despite his immense powers, the Ropemaker alone could not control the chaos raging through the Empire, so he chose twenty-four magicians to aid him in his task - the Watchers. They pledged to use their magic only to protect the people but the promise that bound them has now corrupted them. They have become a single, terrible entity with a limitless desire for domination. Only the Ropemaker may be able to stop them, but he has not been seen for over two hundred years. Into this dangerous world come Saranja, Maja and Ribek. They too are seeking the Ropemaker so that he might restore the ancient magic that protects their Valley. It is the task they were born to, but now it seems they have a greater purpose with far more at stake should they fail. In "Angel Isle", Peter Dickinson takes readers on another spellbinding adventure, further into the enthralling fantasy world first encountered in his Carnegie Medal shortlisted novel, "The Ropemaker".

Winner of the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year: The murder of the leader of a pygmy tribe introduces us to James Pibble, the Scotland Yard superintendent with a knack for solving the most extraordinary of crimes Oddball cases are James Pibble's specialty. But the brutal bludgeoning of the revered elder of a New Guinea tribesman may be his strangest yet. The corpse, in striped pajamas, lies in the middle of a room completely absent of furniture. Seven women squat on the floorboards. One knits. Another sits cross-legged at his feet. They all chant incantations in a strange language. The murder weapon, a wooden balustrade ornament in the shape of an owl, could have been wielded by any of the myriad suspects Pibble meets at Flagg Terrace, the London residence where the Ku family currently lives. And the only clue seems to be an Edwardian penny. So who killed bearded, four-foot-tall Aaron Ku? Everyone seems to have an alibi, including a...

Emma is spending the summer with her Scottish cousins—who are wonderful material for her attempt to win the School Prize for most interesting holiday diary. The cousins, lofty Andy, reserved Fiona, and fierce Roddy, are experimenting with their grandfather's dilapidated old mini-submarine to see if they can find a monster in the family loch.Emma Tupper's Diary is a sometimes terrifying, sometimes broadly hilarious adventure novel in the spirit of From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and I Capture the Castle.Praise for Emma Tupper's Diary:"Fish out of water Emma must spend the summer in Scotland with cousins she’s never met. They’re somewhat older and get along fine with minimal adult supervision. Even when they plot to take an old submarine out on the nearby loch for a spin, adding a Nessy-like monster head to the top for fun, there’s no one around to urge caution. It’s the sort of...

A blind boy and his brother set out on a motorcycle in search of their ghost-hunting grandfather It all starts with the postman. Jake cannot see the mail, but he is an excellent listener, and he can tell by the sound the mail makes when it hits the floor that bad news is coming. At the top of the pile is a very thin letter rejecting Jake's brother, Martin, from every college he applied to. Even worse, there is no news from their grandfather, an eccentric ghost hunter whose supernatural investigations have carried him into the wilds of northern England. Martin cashes in his college savings to buy a secondhand motorcycle, and the boys set out to find their grandfather. It is a trip that will change their lives forever. This ebook features an illustrated personal history of Peter Dickinson including rare images from the author's collection.

In this brilliant crime novel by CWA Gold Dagger winner Peter Dickinson, a writer looks back on his past and discovers the memory of a murder that needs to be solved It's been forty years since Paul Rogers spent a night at St. Aidan's Preparatory School in Sussex and he believes he has forgotten nearly everything that happened there. When a biographer asks the now-middle-aged novelist about his youth, it triggers memories that Rogers thought he had lost forever and prompts him to begin writing about the summer of 1940, when the Nazis took Paris and his entire boarding school were evacuated to a country house in Devon. There the boys discovered a pastoral countryside whose woods held untold mysteries—one of which, Rogers realizes in hindsight, might have been a murder. To write about this long-forgotten crime, Rogers digs deep into his past, uncovering terrifying recollections that may or may not be real. Something gruesome happened that summer,...