Showing results by narrator "Mark Turetsky" in All Categories

Berlin, November 1943. With bombing raids commencing, the city is blanketed by explosions. Siblings Gerta and Max Hoffmann live a surprisingly carefree childhood amid the raids. Berlin is a city going about its business, even as it's attacked almost nightly. But one night, the air raid sirens wail, and the Hoffmanns' neighborhood is hit. A mortally wounded man comes to their door, begging to be let in. He asks for Karl Hoffmann, their father. Gerta and Max watch as Karl tries in vain to save the man's life.

The invading aliens have shown their cards, and they’re holding five aces. It’s a game for all the marbles as the bug alien invaders have poured on the gas, and their minions are working overtime to thwart Jimmy’s plans. New threats such as maniacal junk shop robots, frozen yeti, and a depressed vampire are some of what’s in store for Jimmy and his team. To make matters worse, town residents have mistaken Jimmy for an alien and have formed an impromptu and angry alien-burning mob.

The disgusting bug aliens have gone full throttle on implementing their world-dominating plans. They're replacing humans with exact replicas who are heck-bent on destroying mankind! Jimmy finds himself having to leave the comfort of his small town to track down the parts to a superweapon that will obliterate the invasion threat, once and for all.

Something strange is happening in Apple Valley...and it all begins one night when 10-year-old Jimmy sees a mysterious object crash to Earth. Investigating, he finds an alien bearing a dire warning. A sinister force is on its way to take over the planet. Already, its minions are infecting Apple Valley like a virus.

Even for an experienced traveler like Charlie, Cuba is a place unlike any he has visited before - an island full of surprises, secrets, and puzzling contradictions.

Meet DJ Funkyfoot! He’s not actually a DJ - he’s a chihuahua and a butler! Meet ShrubBaby! She’s an adorable baby shrub with a taste for thrills, fertilizer, and fame. Finding a butler gig is hard these days, so DJ Funkyfoot takes a job that’s almost like being a butler.... He becomes a nanny for ShrubBaby! A nanny might say no to this baby’s whims, but a good butler always says yes. So when adventure calls and ShrubBaby says, “Let’s go!”, DJ Funkyfoot says, “Very good, m’lady, I’ll fetch your stroller”.

A collection of sweet, tender, poetic, beautiful, heart-wrenching, sensual love stories.

In this new caper, what happens when Flytrap loses his partner in crime solving? All the clues point to his assistant, Nina the Goat, as the culprit, leading the city to arrest her and leaving Flytrap goatless. To save the city, Flytrap must unveil the true master criminal. But, can he do it alone?

Louie and Ralphie Ratso's dad, Big Lou, always says that there are two kinds of people: those who are tough and those who are soft. Louie and Ralphie are tough, tough, tough, just like Big Lou, and they're going to prove it. But every time they try to show just how tough they are, the Ratso brothers end up accidentally doing good deeds instead. What'll Big Lou do when he finds out they've been acting like softies all over the Big City?

Louie and Ralphie Ratso have a genius idea: If they clear out the lot down the street, they can use all the junk lying around to build makeshift games for a Big City FunTime Arcade! With their friends to help, they'll be able to recycle all the old abandoned stuff into whack-a-mouse, a high-striker, a fortune-telling booth, and more. Everyone says the house next to the lot is haunted, but if Louie just pretends it's not there, maybe he can ignore the goose bumps he gets every time he looks at it.

From Tom Angleberger, creator of the New York Times best-selling Origami Yoda series, comes the start to a funny and clever chapter book series about a mystery-solving Venus flytrap. Inspector Flytrap in the Da Vinci Cold introduces kids to the humorous and wacky world of Inspector Flytrap's Detective Agency, home to the world-renowned solver of Big Deal mysteries. The plant detective works tirelessly with his assistant, Nina the Goat, on his community's unsolved cases.

Meet the Hooligan brothers, Henry, Hank, and Hector, who are fun-loving, go-cart-racing, up-for-anything boys - and they are expert pranksters! The school bully, Rock, picks on the boys, tries to outprank them, and especially tries to lay blame for his pranks on them. Enter a purple, blobby, friendly outer-space alien. He has come to Earth to earn badges for his extraterrestrial space-scout sash. The brothers name him Hoolie, and quickly learn about his alien ways.

An adventuresome youth determined to travel the world, Tom Whipple leaves his mother in New York and signs up for sea duty on a ship bound for Russia. As he sails, he makes up his mind to see the czar - and to present him with a gift.

This short story, pulled from Seven American Stories and originally published in Harper's in 1930, is a classic of historical fiction.

Cadmus Henry, mounted on one of the finest mares in Virginia and perfectly turned out from head to toe, dreams of charging intrepidly into battle under the orders of General Lee himself. Unfortunately, young Cadmus can write and is therefore assigned to a desk. But when an unexpected chance to volunteer for scout duty presents itself, Cadmus jumps at it. He learns too late that rather than riding into battle and proving himself a hero, he will be floating over enemy lines in a balloon.

In this classic short story, Newbery Medal-winning author Walter D. Edmonds tells the story of Uncle Ben, who, free of his domineering wife for a spell, finds a whale in the bay while out with his friend, Henry. When they bring it back with them, they discover they can earn a little cash by turning it into a sideshow attraction.

This collection features seven tales inspired by America's colorful history, from colonial times to the early 20th century, including the Newbery Medal winner "The Matchlock Gun". In "The Matchlock Gun", young Edward must protect his family from marauding Indians when his father is called away. In "Two Logs Crossing", John Haskell spends two harsh winters fur trapping with a wise Indian to pay off his father's tremendous debt.

Clumsy, diffident Dick Mount and clever Maggie Gordon live in isolated clearings in New York's Mohawk Valley. Both just 16, they are young and inexperienced - and unprepared for the tragedies that will befall them. When Dick's brothers are killed by marauding Indians in the fall of 1777 and Maggie's father falls desperately ill, they must turn to each other to face the perils of the time.

It's 1951, and 12-year-old Pete Collison is a regular kid in Brooklyn, New York, who loves Sam Spade detective books and radio crime dramas. But when an FBI agent shows up at Pete's doorstep, accusing Pete's father of being a Communist, Pete is caught in a real-life mystery. Could there really be Commies in Pete's family?

From The King in Yellow, by Robert W. Chambers, and set in the Latin Quarter of Paris, artist Jack Trent lives with his model Sylvia. The story takes place during the Seige of Paris in 1870, ending with the Germans shelling the Latin Quarter, and Trent arriving home to see a child scrawling "Here fell the first shell".